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With the rumors flying about Sundin possibly being dealt to the Detroit Red Wings, I felt it would be a good time to do an analysis of the team composition of a current serial-winner, the Red Wings, vs. a perennial loser, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The analysis will concentrate on salaries dispersed between team draft picks and non-draft picks, and shows a stark difference between the composition of these two teams.

Detroit Red Wings:

The Wings totally salary commitment for the 07/08 season is $42,280,833. Out of that entire salary commitment, here is a list of players drafted by the Detroit Red Wings and their contribution to the overall number (more…)

Some fans need to get their heads out of their asses on this Sundin issue. You hear talk about it every day. Will Mats Sundin waive his no trade clause to allow the Leafs to trade him to another team in exchange for some assets at the trade deadline? The idea is that Sundin will go to the other team, finish out the season and likely playoffs with his new club, and then return to Toronto for next year via his unrestricted free agency.

If it happens, great, the Leafs will benefit from some new talent, hopefully young and with a long future, and some other team will benefit from having a guy who really can offer it all.

Where I start to get disgusted is the attitude you hear from a lot of Leafs fans who say (more…)

The Leafs lost their second in a row Tuesday night against the St. Louis Blues, setting up what should most likely be a four game losing streak with a possibility for up to six losses in a row! Grab some popcorn and settle in, these loses should prove to be quite entertaining.

The Leafs put up an impressively awful showing allowing three goals on only 19 shots in the 3-2 loss to the Blues. Vesa Toskala looked like the career backup he is, letting in what would turn out to be the game winner on a tap in because apparently in San Jose they never taught him how to cover the puck after a save. It would have been two awful goals if not for Nik Antropov, who was able to (more…)

According to the National Post it looks like Jiri Tlusty will be playing on the top line with Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov for tonight’s game against the St. Louis Blues. The Leafs will look for the young gun to help produce some needed scoring. Tlusty, who scored a couple of goals in his first game up with the team, is known in Toronto more for his controversial internet photos than his time on the ice with the Laughs. Ice time might be just what he needs though.

Tlusty was Toronto’s first round draft pick, 13th overall, in the 2006 draft. He’s got some serious potential and getting some playing time with Mats Sundin, and to a much lesser extent Nik Antropov, could (more…)

While the skills competition on Saturday was one of the more boring I’ve seen, iced by a deke competition in which no one could actually find the mesh, the All-Star game itself was actually surprisingly entertaining. The 8-7 win for the Eastern Conference All-Stars was a perfect example of what you want to see in this type of game; fast pace, lots of scoring, great moves, great saves and all around entertaining play.

In the first period it looked like the East was the totally dominant side, as it turns out though that was only because Tim Thomas hadn’t had his chance to step into the net. When Thomas hit the ice in the third, it was like a whole new Western Conference team. They lit him up in quick order, but in the end Thomas held on for the win.

It was almost unfortunate to see Marc Savard net that game winning goal witth 21 seconds left on the clock. I was really hoping to see some 4-on-4 play and maybe even a shootout. In the end though it was hard to be disappointed with any aspect of that game…except one. Tomas Kaberle.

The night before this game, Kaberle put on a show in (more…)

Upon the hiring of Cliff Fletcher, MLSE did what they always do and held a press conference. First Peddie spoke about their plan for the future and a bit about Cliff, and then Fletcher took the mic. This is when the interesting part began. As Fletcher was reading from his notes, Peddie began to mouth the words along with him. This means one of two things. Either a) Peddie wrote Fletcher’s statement or b) Peddie had to read it and approve it. The fact he had it memorized by heart leads me to believe he either wrote it himself or dictated what would go in it.

This is a bad sign Leafs fans. One of the big things Peddie has been preaching recently is that Fletcher has autonomy and can make decisions without interfering. In fact on Bob Mcown’s show on the Fan 590 today, Peddie reasserted that Ferguson had the same autonomy. Right. How can we believe that he’s giving his new GM autonomy and the final say on team related decisions when (more…)

On Tuesday the Leafs officially announced that John Ferguson Jr. had been relieved of his duties, and that Cliff Fletcher would be signing on as interim General Manager. Fans and media have been calling for Ferguson’s head for some time now, after the Toronto Maple Leafs missed the playoffs two years in a row and are now poised to miss for a third time. The real kicker is that this year’s Leafs won’t likely miss by one place, but are on pace to finish near the bottom of the entire league!

Ferguson is replaced by Cliff Fletcher, a seasoned hockey man who spent a stint with the Leafs in the 90’s that most people would consider to be a rather successful one. While Fletcher’s Leafs never won a Stanley Cup, they did advance to the Conference Finals twice. Fletcher was also responsible for some big moves in the franchise, including bringing up prospect Felix Potvin, who became an All-Star goaltender for the team and acquiring stars such as Doug Gilmour and Mats Sundin.

While Fletcher brings great hockey knowledge and years of experience to the team, two problems still loom. First, (more…)

We’ve only received four entries to our current photoshop contest. The prize is a $40 electronic giftcard to the NHL Store website (shop.NHL.com) and will be awarded to the best photoshop entry as voted by readers.

Wether you’re a photoshop master or not, get your entry in now. You can’t win if you don’t play! Visit the photoshop page for more details. 

I continuously hear Leafs fans fed up with this team voicing the idea that if fans simply stopped attending games, that the empty building would finally spur the team to make the changes that they so desperately need. While these fans’ hearts are in the right place (boycotting games is a nice sentiment), their heads unfortunately are not.

There will never be a situation where this team will be hurt by lack of ticket sales. Here’s why… (more…)

The Leafs ended their three game winning streak tonight with a 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils. The loss marked the birth of the Leafs next losing streak which should be at least a three gamer including tonight’s loss and the upcoming home and home series against Alexander Ovechkin.

One notable story tonight was that Andrew Raycroft played in a game where there wasn’t much he could have done to prevent the loss. Normally Raycroft is one of the main contributors to the losses, stinking up the crease area in almost every game he plays. Tonight though (more…)