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The Toronto Maple Leafs held on for a 5-4 win tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes, marking the first time in two weeks the team has been able to put a tick up in the win column. The win ended a 5 game losing streak and all it took for the Leafs to pull one out was for their opposition to be fighting the plague. Well, not the plague, but a flu bug that had been going through the team causing many players to be ill to the point of not being able to practice.

The Leafs netted 5 goals against goalies Michael Leighton and Cam Ward. Kaberle, Kilger, Stajan, Ponikarovsky and Ian White were the goal scorers, although Stajan’s goal should’ve been credited to the boards behind the net, as they bounced a missed point shot straight back out and off of Leighton into the net. Ian White’s goal was equally flukey with the puck appearing to ricochet off multiple skates before finding it’s way into the goal. Regardless though, the team did put up 5 goals, and that’s something to be proud of - even though three were scored against a backup goalie playing in front of a team battling malaria. (more…)

Toronto Mayor David Miller recently alluded to the possibility of the Toronto Maple Leafs playing in this years NHL playoffs. The Toronto Star reports* that Miller made the refrence after being given a Sens jersey by ex-Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who expressed his disappointment at not being able to make their yearly playoff bet, since the Leafs wouldn’t be in the playoffs this year. The Star quotes Miller as saying that “…we don’t fully agree”. Miller then gave Watson a Leafs jersey, adorned with number 08, which Miller claimed would be the first year in the upcoming Leafs dynasty.

We’d like to congratulate David Miller on sticking with the team, and we’d like to ask him if we can come and live in Fantasy Land with him, as clearly (more…)

We’d all love to see this team dismantled and sent out to scrap like the jalopy it is, but I think one thing not enough people touch on is that the problems facing this team go higher than the guys on the ice, higher than Paul Maurice, higher than John Ferguson Jr. and even higher than Richard Peddie. In fact every level of this organization is in a state of unrecoverable funk right up to the majority owners, the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan.

Sure the guys on the ice are the ones directly losing the game, and sure Maurice hasn’t shown he can improve a lesser team (something all great coaches can do), and JFJ is a bum, and Peddie is a moron. However, what are we to do when the majority owners are equally as awful as every branch of the tree stemming from them?

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is a nameless, faceless owner that the unfortunate reality is, has one goal and one goal only. They want to beef up their pension fund. They want a return on their investment. Anything on top of that is nice, but the fact of the matter is, the “owner” of this team doesn’t yearn for a championship, it yearns for a safe retirement.

The Leafs need an owner, who like a Steinbrener or a Cuban, is (more…)

Andrew Raycroft has been unofficially diagnosed* with narcolepsy, there by explaining the problems the Leafs’ tender has been facing throughout his stint with the team. Raycroft, initially thought to be just a piece of crap goalie, now has some redemption after the discovery that he is suffering from the neurological disorder causing uncontrollable sleepiness.

Imagine yourself as an NHL goalie, staring down an odd man rush, or a player winding up at the blue line for a slapper. The shot is released, the puck is coming and then without notice (more…)

All I can think of when I look at this move is “why?” Is there any point to this move what so ever? Does the team really think that a guy who was cast away from the Wild, having scored three points in 30 games, is going to have any kind of effect to help the team climb out of the huge hole they’ve fallen into? Dominc Moore? Who? Here’s who, a 27 year old centre whos’ career high season in points was 18 in 82 games with the Rangers in 05-06.

Moore will undoubtedly become one of the handfull of players that the Leafs move up and down between the big club and the Marlies, seemingly at random, just hoping to God that (more…)

After Vesa Toskala’s weak performance againt the Ducks last night, Andrew Raycroft must have been worried that he was in danger of losing his backup job! He responded admirably by letting in 4 goals on 11 shots, further confirming his status as an absolute piece of trash. I could swear I saw him breathe a sigh of relief as he settled into his spot on the bench, happy to be back where he knows he belongs. Toskala went out and, compared to Raycroft, played like an all-star, but the damage was done.

On the offensive side of it, the Leafs managed to score two goals and it only took them 50 shots to get them. Credit the team for getting 50 shots on goal, but at the same time, they made Jason LaBarbera look like Patrick Roy. I’ll make the prediction now (remember you heard it here first). If management was watching this game, by the start of next season the Leafs will announce (more…)

Today Alexander Ovechkin signed a 13 year contract extension worth $124 million US, making it the richest contract in the history of professional hockey. The money isn’t the scary thing though, it’s the length. When Alexi Yashin signed on for 10 years with the Isles, people’s jaws dropped. When the same team signed goalie Rick DiPietro to an NHL reccord 15 year deal, people thought Isles owner Charles Wang had lost his mind, but at least it was a practice contained to the Island. Then earlier this season Mike Richards signed on with Philly for 12 years. Hmmm. Now, with Ovechkin signing on for over a decade, it seems the practice is spreading. It seems other teams may be opening up to the idea of signing their stars to deals that could last their entire career. The danger is that if this trend continues to spread, players might start to look at 5 year contracts as short term, pushing for similar deals that will ensure them a comfy spot and salary for a long time to come. If this happens, it can only mean further heartache for the Leafs.

Imagine if in the summer of 2006 the Leafs had’ve signed (more…)

We got an email from a reader, Jason, suggesting an organized day for all pissed-off and disgruntled Leaf fans to get together and have at it. Jason has a retail store and has suggested burning all his stock of Leaf jerseys! How sweet would that be?

While we don’t expect you to burn up your inventory, the email brings up a very interesting topic and we thank you for the mail Jason.

What would happen if this were ever to go down? If all the Leafs fans who’ve had enough with this team were to (more…)

There are two things the Toronto Maple Leafs do that never surprise me. The first is to take seemingly high quality prospects and turn them into mediocrity or worse. The second is signing or trading for old men nearing the ends of their careers (often times ones who were previously on the team!)

Oh and losing. So three things I guess.

Let’s examine the first two though. How is it that the Leafs can take talented young players and turn them into garbage so rotten and slimey that it seeps out the corners of the bag? It’s really amazing. Matt Stajan scored 85 and 94 point in his last two years in the OHL. He initially looked very promising with the Leafs, but somehow they managed to break him down. Don’t forget his two friends on the “future hopes” list, Alex Steen and Kyle Wellwood. Another two guys who showed possibilities of stardom, but eventually sucumbed to the Leafs thirst for draining talent. How about Nik Antropov. Can you believe it! This is his big breakout year! How sad.

That’s just the current team too! Let’s not forget such names as Mike Johnson, Alyn McCauley, Jason Smith, Fredrik Modin and more who just a decade or less ago had their talent forcably taken from them by the merciless Leafs. The only saving grace is that these players all went on to be solid contributors to other teams. So while no one ever recovers completely, players can recover, if only partially, when moved to other teams.

Maybe it’s not that the Leafs destroy young talent, but that they’re just so (more…)

“Just wait until Toskala comes back!”

How many times did we all hear that? It seems like the unenlightened were certain that the Leafs current troubles would turn around when Leafs goalie Jesus Chr…I mean Vesa Toskala returned from injury. Afterall, Toskala is the greatest thing since sliced bread and is without question a high calibre starting goalie! Right? Right? So what was the result of Vesa Christ’s triumphant return to the ice?

5-0 Ducks. What a bum.

But wait! I can hear it now. “Some of those goals weren’t his fault! You can’t just blame him!” Well for the record, blame is to be shared with the entire team. However, it’s delicious to revel in the disappointment of the Leafs faithful at the utter failure of their Messianic ‘tender. The guy let in 5 goals on 24 freaking shots. THAT is the big off season solution to last year goaltending woes? This bum?

It’s amazing that after acquiring one completely unproven goaltender and watching him fail, the Leafs management decided the best way to remedy the situation was (more…)