by Jeremy Visser… I’ll be honest — I watched the first quarter and a bit of tonight’s Raptors game and saw them fall behind by about 20 before deciding I’d wasted enough time. To my relief, after I checked back at 88-88 midway through the fourth, Toronto went on a 16-1 run to finish the Clippers off, making the final 104-89. At least I’ll feel alright watching Sunday knowing I can do some good.
For the second straight game, the Raptors used a second half tear to pull away, outscoring Chris Kaman & co. 59-35 over the final 24 minutes to improve to 5-4 on the season. Again, having missed much of the game, I can’t really weigh in on what the difference was, though Jack Armstrong was hyping a huge defensive turnaround in what I saw late. Marco Belinelli was also a huge factor from the second quarter forward, scoring 15 points off the bench and finishing a +25 in 28 minutes.
Chris Bosh strung together another gutty performance, finishing with 21 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. Jose Calderon continued to roll, scoring 18 on 8-of-14 and adding nine assists (and no turnovers). After getting cut by a Sebastian Telfair elbow with the Raps up two with about four minutes to go, Calderon went on a tear to close things out, finishing on a layup and dropping a three for the final dagger.
Kaman did most of the damage for the Clippers, scoring 25 and making quick work of Andrea Bargnani’s “post defense” in the first half. Bargnani had his way with Kaman on the other end though, driving and scoring a few times early and finishing with a late three to help put it away. Bargnani had 19 points on 8-of-13.
The win starts Toronto’s four-game west swing on a nice note, but it’ll get way tougher moving forward — Phoenix (8-2) is next on Sunday, followed by a back-to-back with Denver (7-3) and Utah (4-5) on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’ll be more than pleased with one of three.
By Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter… For those of you that remember, a Toronto Maple Leafs/Chicago Blackhawks matchup used to be a regular occurrence, a tremendous “Norris Division” battle that brought fans to their feet. Sadly, much like the Norris Division itself, a tilt between the Leafs and Hawks have, for the most part, become a thing of the past and that’s just wrong.
Tonight’s game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Chicago Blackhawks, which is in Chi-town, will be the only meeting between these two historic franchises. In fact, Chicago and Toronto met only once in 2008 as well, a game Chicago won, 5-4 in overtime.
The Hawks, currently 10-5-2, have been one of the NHL’s hottest teams, featuring an enormous amount of young talent, including forwards Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Kris Versteeg and defensemen Duncan Keith, Brian Campbell and Cam Barker, all of which have All-Star potential.
There has been some finger pointing at Chicago’s number one goalie, Cristobel Huet, for his inconsistent play this season. Unfortunately for the Leafs, Huet seems to have found his groove and has been sharp in recent victories over the Colorado Avalanche and the Los Angeles Kings.
A win tonight would give the Blackhawks their third win in a row and sixth consecutive win at Home, where they are 8-2-1 on the season. The United Center has never been an easy place to earn two points, tonight will be no exception.
For the Leafs, tonight’s game provides yet another litmus test to see how they matchup with one of the NHL’s elite teams. Sitting at a paltry 3-8-5 on the season, the Leafs are stuck in 29th spot.
Despite some recent good play, the Leafs are coming off a 5-2 loss to the mediocre Minnesota Wild, a game in which the Leafs seemed disinterested and unwilling to hit. Swedish goaltender Jonas Gustavsson looked shaky against the Wild but, by all accounts, will get the nod as the Leafs starter tonight.
Here’s a news flash for you Maple Leafs: if you don’t want to end up on a stretcher you better be ready to take a hit and dish them out, the Hawks come to play every night and boast one of the toughest lineups in the League. If the Leafs play like they did against the Wild on Tuesday they are going to get hurt, end of story!
A concerted effort on defense from both the forwards and the defensemen will be needed if the Leafs and Gustavsson are going to have any chance of beating the Hawks. Chicago boasts the NHL’s 14th ranked offense and their defense, ranked sixth in the league, has been exceptional of late.
Unfortunately for the Leafs, the defense squad will be without defenseman Mike Komisarek, who, after struggling to find his game at the beginning of the season, was playing better of late and was becoming a valued asset for the Leafs.
Phil Kessel, who has played well in his return and Alex Ponikarovsky, will have to continue their strong offensive effort tonight. That said, if the Leafs keep getting poor efforts form the likes of Jason Blake (two goals on the season), Matt Stajan (three goals on the season) and Nikolai Kumelin (three goals on the season), then Kessel and Ponikarovsky’s offensive efforts and the Leafs defensive efforts will be all for not.
The Leafs own the NHL’s worst penalty kill at 71.6 percent. They have the worst goals against per game average at 3.69 and, averaging 2.56 goals per game, their offense sits at 21st overall, all of which has to have the Blackhawks drooling and the mouth and ready to go on the hunt.
So, how did it come to this? Why do the Leafs and Hawks, two of the NHL’s Original Six franchises meet just once this season and just once in 2008? Read on, as I try to make sense of the NHL’s undoing of the once mighty Norris Division.
As a result of realignment, the Norris Division was formed in 1975 and lasted until after the 1992-1993 season, when the Norris Division became a thing of the past.
Originally featuring the Montreal Canadiens, L.A. Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals, the Norris was always known as a tough Division to play in and often featured bench-clearing brawls and fights.
The Norris went through a few changes over the years, first dropping the Capitals and taking on the Hartford Whalers in their place (1979-80) and then receiving a more complete face-lift in 1981-82, adding the Minnesota North Stars, Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues, while dropping the Hartford Whalers, L.A. Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins.
Finally, in 1982-83, the NHL made yet another change to the Norris, featuring what many of us remember the Norris as being: the Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues and the Minnesota North Stars.
The Norris may not have been the most skillful Division in all of hockey, but it did feature a ton of lunch pail players, including Toronto’s Wendel Clark and Chicago’s Al Secord. Fighting was the norm in the Norris and much blood was spilled on the ice night after night, in fact, they were some of the most memorable fights in NHL history.
Unfortunately, when the 1992-1993 season ended, the NHL decided to chop up the divisions once again, only this time they took it a step further, eliminating the historic Norris, Smythe, Patrick and Adams Divisions, opting instead to go with a “less confusing” Eastern Conference—featuring the Northeast Division and the Atlantic Division, and the Western Conference—featuring the Central Division and the Pacific Division.
Once again, marketing and realignment was more important than the history of the game. The NHL cited that the majority of the U.S. fans had know idea who James E. Norris, Lester Patrick, Charles Francis Adams or the legendary Conn Smythe were and, therefore, were unable to identify with the Divisions.
So, for the “betterment” of the game, NHL fans lost a little bit of their history and, along with the name changes, lost some beloved rivalries—Chicago vs. Toronto being one of them.
It is a sad state of affairs that the Leafs and Hawks don’t meet more often, then again, given the disparity between the two teams, perhaps it is in the Leafs’ best interest to stay where they are, history be damned!
Until next time,
Peace!
by Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter… 
For Toronto Maple Leaf players, heading into Montreal to take on the Canadiens is akin to being at the depths of hell. With that in mind, it was poetic justice that last night’s tilt between the Leafs and Canadiens in Montreal fell on Halloween night.
Keeping with the Halloween theme, the Canadiens came out wearing their historic red, white and blue striped Centennial Jerseys, which wreaked of “Costume.” The only thing missing on this night was the Leafs dressing Jonas “The Monster” Gustavsson in net. Sadly, Wilson’s decision to rest the young netminder may have cost the Leafs the game.
For Leaf and Canadien fans alike, last night’s game echoed the great games of yesteryear. There were a combined 34 hits thrown, 17 penalties handed out, including the proverbial two Mike Komisarek penalties, 69 combined shots on net, a total of nine goals scored, overtime, a shootout and plenty of verbal jabs from Leaf and Canadien fans.
After playing to a scoreless tie after the first period, with the Habs’ Marc-Andre Bergeron in the penalty box, the Leafs’ Alex Ponikarovsky got things started when he put a wrist shot past Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak just 10 seconds into the power play.
The Habs responded quickly when Toronto native Glen Metropolit scored a goal from a seemingly impossible angle. Halfway between the boards and the net and positioned on the goal line, Metropolit threw the puck at the net and, with Leafs goaltender Vesa Toskala hugging the post, somehow got the puck behind the stunned goalie.
Montreal scored two unanswered goals from Guillaume Latendresse and Hal Gill, respectively, before the Leafs Lee Stempniak scored a power play goal, beating Halak threw traffic on a hard point-shot.
The Habs got their two-goal lead back when Montreal defenseman Roman Hamrlik tipped a puck past Toskala at 9:50 of the third period, putting the Habs up by a score of 4-2.
The teams traded scoring chances for much of the third, but both goalies played well down the stretch. Then, with about four minutes left in the game, Montreal fans broke out en masse with the dreaded “Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, hey-hey-hey, goodbye” song.
Apparently that song translates to “Comeback” in English, as the Leafs put together three-and-a-half minutes of beautiful music on the ice and, with goals from Alex Ponikarovsky and Tomas Kaberle, tied the game to force overtime. That shut ‘em up!
Overtime solved nothing, so the teams were forced to go to the shootout to decide the game.
Toskala, who has a horrendous record in shootouts, gave up goals to the Habs’ Mike Cammalleri and Scott Gomez who seemingly had the book on the goalie, both scoring in the upper corner on the deflated goalie.
The Leafs answered with Lee Stempniak; yes, Lee Stempniak and defenseman Tomas Kaberle. Stempniak inexcusably shot from inside the blue line, a shot which Halak had no problem stopping. Kaberle met the same result on his attempt, but with four points in the game (one goal, three assists), you can’t fault Leafs head coach Ron Wilson for giving Kaberle a shot.
So, after fighting back on two consecutive nights, the Leafs end up with a lousy two points to show for their efforts against the Buffalo Sabres and Canadiens. Clearly, a victory against the hated Habs would have gone a long way in instilling some much-needed confidence to the hard-luck Leafs. But on this night, it was not to be.
Other game notes include Leaf defenseman Mike Komisarek getting booed every time he touched the puck. Komisarek, who was signed as a free agent this summer after spending parts of six seasons with the Canadiens, ended up a minus-2 on the night, which brings him to an alarming minus-9 on the season.
Alexei Ponikarovsky scored two goals on the night and now sits second overall on the team with five goals on the season, one goal behind teammate Nik Hagman.
Leafs defenseman Ian White had another solid game. His flawless pass to Ponikarovsky led to a beautiful goal and put his team in the position to tie the game and force overtime.
White has had a solid season to date. In fact, outside of Kaberle, White has been the Leafs’ best defenseman this season and I suspect he will be rewarded with an increase in ice time very soon.
With the win, the Canadiens leap-frogged the Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and the surprising New York Islanders and, with 14 points earned, secured the seventh overall spot in the Eastern Conference standings, one point ahead of the aforementioned teams all knotted up at 13 points a piece.
With a record of 1-7-4 on the season, the Leafs sit 30th overall. On the positive side, there is nowhere to go but up for the Leafs and there is good news coming in the form of Phil Kessel.
Next up for the Leafs? A home tilt against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night, a game which should see Kessel make his season debut for the Blue and White.
Kessel’s addition to the lineup couldn’t come at a better time as it has become very clear that the Leafs need more offense, something Kessel should be able to deliver.
Until next time,
Peace!
by Bryan Thiel… Most times we’d start with something profound. Perhaps a quote, or a line weighed down by cliches, alliteration, or metaphors.
How about this:
It’s about [expletive ] time.
For the past three and a half weeks, its been all about “the sky is falling” and “woe is us” in Leafs’ Nation. And with good reason: We didn’t expect the team to be breaking any wins records or setting the mark for scoring proficiency, but we didn’t expect that to happen either.
0-7-1? No one deserves that. Not even Mike Keenan.
No wins. One point. Eight games. Even someone stuck in grade five math can tell you that’s a terrible ratio.
That same fifth grader could probably tell you that you aren’t going to win many games without a healthy goalie when you score two or fewer goals in six straight.
He (or she) may even be able to beat the Leafs at dodgeball—but seeing as schools have yet to keep formal statistics on that sport, there’s no actual proof.
What’s even worse—if it gets worse than losing to that ten-year old at dodgeball—was that they had owned a lead for all of six minutes this season.
You spend an hour of your life per day waiting in line. It takes at least 10 minutes to make Kraft Dinner (or Hamburger Helper for the Americans in class today). Bill Simmons’ articles are even measured in “lengths of time spent in washroom”—you better believe those are longer than six minutes.
Essentially, six minutes is not a long time. And for a professional sports organization to play eight games and only own a lead for that long—unacceptable.
But here’s the good news: It’s all changed now.
Granted, there’s no guarantee that the Leafs will win again this week. Hell, they may not even win their next game, but that all important “first win” is on the board.
Immediately a ton of pressure is lifted.
Suddenly the question doesn’t become “when are you going to win?” but “when are you going to win NEXT?”. See? That NEXT in there signifies that they’ve won before. Don’t you feel better now?
Now try this on for size: 1-7-1. Not great, but getting better.
On top of that, a team that didn’t have life, that needed (in the words of Brian Burke) “a puck to go in off of someone’s ass” got exactly that.
For once, they weren’t the ones leading the parade to the penalty box. They were getting athletic, cross-crease play out of their goalie (In fact, they even got saves—25 of them!) and they weren’t giving in and slouching during the action.
A week ago, if a puck was dumped out of the offensive zone on a 5-on-3, there’s no guarantee that the Leafs would drive the zone again. Last night? They not only got the puck back in, but they scored.
The forwards played with jam. They went to the net looking for rebounds and looking to cause havoc, while those with the puck concentrated on one thing: getting it to the net.
The defense did it’s job. While it wasn’t spectacular (and there were probably more than a few fans holding their breath when Corey Perry made it 6-3), they got the job done.
And that’s all anyone was asking. Just get one. We only need one.
Watching that the other night…it was refreshing. Maybe it was all of the pent-up frustrations of the past few weeks, maybe it was stress, or maybe just that it’s so hard to enjoy something amidst turmoil, but last night took me back to what hockey used to be like.
I started out worried and nervous about what would happen. A puck would roll off the end of someone’s stick and it was the end of the world. But then, the players started to play like they were actually having fun. They’d score a goal and they’d smile. It was as if it was a game all over again.
And that’s how I treated it.
I moaned at the lows, but I yelled and screamed—and even jumped up and down—at the ups. Probably not the best choice in an Eastern Time Zone during a West Coast game, but hey—we get one warning on noise violations.
For a night, hockey was fun to watch, which is all I needed.
The Leafs have no quick fix. It’s not just going to be Phil Kessel and it’s not just Jonas Gustavsson. Long-term it has to be a team-effort.
But for one night, all of the problems went away. It was a win. It was high-scoring and fun. And if they’re only going to win once a month but I’ll feel like this after? I can accept that.
In other words: don’t get ahead of ourselves Leafs’ fans. Baby steps.
Baby steps.
by Bryan Thiel… 
Whenever a team stumbles out of the gate, the popular thing to do is to pick on them.
Granted, there have been a lot of people poking fun at the Leafs, including their own fans , but it’s hard not to do when you’re looking at the last-place team in the NHL.
Besides, after years of giving it out, we here in Leafs Nation had to be prepared for a taste of it eventually. I mean, you can only buy playoff berths for so long and the salary cap saw an effective end to that strategy.
Then again, I think two books talking about the same things may be overdoing it a tad, but to each his own.
So right now, as the Leafs sit with just one point in the basement of the NHL standings, everyone has a theory about what’s going wrong and what can fix it.
For a lot of people, that theory starts with Phil Kessel.
The Leafs’ prized off-season acquisition has begun skating and practicing with the team in hopes of returning at full-strength from off-season shoulder surgery. The Blue and White can’t stop wringing their hands at the prospect of his return.
One of eight teams without a four-goal scorer and one of just three without a five-point player, the Leafs need that offensive strength—whether Kessel’s going to be a 25-goal scorer or a 40-goal scorer.
But for everyone saying that Kessel’s going to be the savior of this 0-6-1 team, it’s not likely to happen in one simple return.
Because of the Leafs’ slow start, the fashionable thing is to continually re-open the Kessel trade. Due to the fact that they’re last, the “Haul for Hall” is full-on, with the Leafs entirely out of the running (although their play will determine the seedings) as Boston owns their entrant.
Talking about it more won’t change the trade or the season results so far. It also won’t make him the be-all, end-all solution.
Phil Kessel won’t solve the injury problems in the crease, nor will he help anyone back there play with more consistency. Good luck getting him to help out the defense. And the likelihood that he’s going to bump up the penalty kill?
It’s not very high. After all, it took the Leafs until Saturday night, seven games into the season, to get above the 50-percent mark.
What Kessel will solve is the 29th-ranked 2.00 goals-per-game average. While the shots-on-goal mark isn’t anemic (31.3 per game), he’ll help to increase that (which will help that 29th-ranked stat) and the 16th-ranked power play. (At 20 percent, it’s not terrible, but he’ll help it).
He may also help out the small fact that the Leafs have yet to score first in a game. Though they’ll have probably scored first in a game by the time Kessel gets back in the lineup, with him in it may happen more than once or twice in…an eternity.
Brian Burke didn’t acquire Phil Kessel to be the final piece of the puzzle—he is simply a piece. A piece that won’t solve every problem, but he’ll help dig the team out of a few of their early holes.
He’ll do his job, but don’t distort hope. Kessel or no Kessel, the Leafs need more than one more piece.
by Mark Gregory… Jonas Gustavsson got the start last night against Ottawa, and looked solid in his first NHL start.
Hockey is a game of millimeters and that continued to be the case tonight as a reviewed goal—disputed over a questionable high stick by Donovan batted the puck past Gustavsson—put the Senators ahead to stay.
Alfredsson scored on a penalty shot which turned out to be the winner. Both were scored in the second period after a scoreless first.
After the Leafs’ defensive acquisitions in the offseason, a 2-1 score is probably typical of the low-scoring game Burke and Wilson envisioned the Leafs to play.
The Leafs came out flat in the first two periods, but after Stajan’s power play goal, his third goal in three games, the Leafs had several opportunities which made the game interesting—the best of which was Komisarek’s shot that hit both goal posts.
Mitchell and Stempniak were among Toronto’s best forwards again, but for the most part, Toronto generated very little offense until late in the game. Ottawa out-hit Toronto and played just well enough to win this contest that seemed to lack the intense rivalry atmosphere that has characterized Leafs-Senators games in the past.
Victor Stalberg wasn’t on the bench in the second period as he took a hard hit by A. Volchenkov at the Ottawa blue line. That forced Wilson to juggle the forward line combinations for the remainder of the contest.
Kaberle had a strong game but for the third game in a row, Beauchemin looked like he was fighting the puck.
If the Leafs can find any consolation in this loss, it was the stellar play of Gustavsson who shut the Senators out in the third and kept the game close.
Leafs next game is Saturday against the Penguins.
Mark Gregory
by Jeremy Visser… In case an overtime win against Hamilton last Friday wasn’t enough to boost the Argos’ spirits, they’ll regain another edge tonight with the return of special teams standout Dominique Dorsey. Dorsey, the 2008 CFL Special Teams Player of the Year, makes his season debut Saturday when the Argos (3-7) face the Lions (4-6) at B.C. Place.
The Argos added the return specialist to their roster earlier this week when he was a last-second cut by the NFL’s Washington Redskins. The five-foot-seven running back was originally told he’d stick as a member of the team’s practice squad, only to have the decision changed on Sunday. Now he’s back in Double Blue and ready to contribute — whether it’s just on special teams or also in the backfield will be determined by head coach Bart Andrus come game-time.
“I’m looking to do anything for this team at any given time,” Dorsey said Thursday. “I’m looking forward to having my hands on the ball in some type of way. If it’s in the near feature, then all the better.”
While Dorsey’s offensive role will likely develop as he adapts to Andrus’ playbook, the Argos coach can continue to count on running back Jamal Robertson, who rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns in the win over Hamilton. Robertson is fifth in the league with 654 rushing yards and tied for second with six touchdowns. He has also emerged as quarterback Cody Pickett’s top target, catching a team-high 46 passes.
Robertson rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns last week against Hamilton
“He’s a great player,” Pickett said after practice Thursday. “Anytime you get the ball in his hands good things are going to happen.
“Even in our passing game — he’s a huge part of that. If they’re soft and leave him alone in the backfield, you give him the ball and big things can happen.”
Pickett overcame a personal obstacle himself last week, earning his first career win in his sixth start. He completed 20-of-31 passing attempts for 254 yards, and currently sits third in the CFL with a completion rate of 65.3%. In four starts and a relief appearance, Pickett has thrown just one interception.
The Lions, meanwhile, received some bad news regarding their starting quarterback yesterday — Jarious Jackson, who led a B.C. fourth quarter comeback against the Argos at Rogers Centre last month, will be sidelined at least three weeks with a rotator cuff injury. Buck Pierce, who started B.C.’s 36-28 win over the Argos but left with a concussion, returns to start Saturday.
The loss to B.C. was the second in a string of three straight home games the Argos lost after holding a fourth quarter lead. Against Hamilton, Toronto held a 19-12 lead before allowing Tiger-Cat quarterback Kevin Glenn to scramble 18 yards to tie the game with 25 seconds remaining. Though Andrus was pleased with the team’s defensive stand in overtime against Hamilton, he’d prefer the defense to finish things off in regulation.
“The stop in overtime was big,” Andrus said. “I would’ve prefered to see it in the fourth quarter, but we’ve learned from that.
“I think our defense is playing with confidence now,” he added. “We’re tackling well, defending the pass well. We’ve taken steps to improve, and hopefully we can make it a different outcome than when they came to our building.”
The Argos and Lions kickoff at 10 pm Eastern — seven local.
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