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24 Cups looks at the Leafs
posted by Mike Boone at 7h07 EST on Oct 31
• Coach Ron Wilson, has been with two other NHL teams that didn’t win in their first ten games yet they still made the playoffs.
• Thomas Kaberle has been dreadful so far this year before waking up to have a five point night against Anaheim (Niklas Hagman had a hat trick). Kaberle has 8 points so far this week and 13 in total to be the team leader in scoring. He is my player to watch tonight. There is still trade talk even though Kaberle has a no trade clause in his contract. Toronto has no other offensive Dman to take his place but rumour has it that Burke wants a 1st round pick for this summer to help offset the ones that went to Boston. Trading Kaberle would be a huge mistake.
• Luke Schenn has hit the wall in his second year and is suffering from the sophomore jinx. Fellow Dman, Mike Van Ryn, hurt his knee and is gone for the year. Jeff Finger has fallen out of favour and been replaced by Garnet Exelby so he may not play in Montreal. Habs may want to dress Laraque for this one. It could get ugly as Toronto took 8 penalties last night..
• Mike Komisarek (no points, -6) has really stumbled and fumbled his way around the defensive zone. He’s either worse than we thought or else totally snake bitten right now.
• Toronto has let the opposition score first in 10 of their 11 games and have allowed 13 PP goals in their last 8 games. They have out shot the opposition 37-31 (on average) during this week’s three games.
• Rookie sensation, Victor Stalberg has lost his magic and has just been returned to the Marlies. Jiri Tiusty, who was a phantom during training camp, found his groove in the AHL as he registered 10 points in 8 games. He replaces Stalberg.
• Jonas Gustavsson is back and was in the nets for the past three games. He had a decent showing in all three. Vesa Toskala, who has been in a slump for a year and half, is back off the injury list. Rumour has it that he will start against Montreal (The Monster had a groin injury so back to back games might be a risk). Toskala can be beaten up high and is pretty fragile these days in terms of his confidence. An early goal or two could lead to a meltdown.
• Nicholas Kulemin was a frequent scratch early in the season after having a decent rookie year in 2008-09. He has bounced back a bit this week as he scored two goals.
• Phil Kessel is practising with the team but laff management is worried about rushing him back too soon. They don’t want a repeat of Pavel Demitra in Vancouver. He may play next week.
• Mikhail Grabovski has cooled considerably and seems to be playing under the radar. He did tie up the game last night in the final minute of regulation play. Other Cliff Fletcher acquisitions such as Jeff Finger, Jamal Mayers ( both healthy scratches) and Lee Stempniak aren’t much better. To be fair, Stempniak has picked up four points this week. Same goes for Jason Blake (Mr. Hot & Cold). John Mitchell, a hard working hockey player, is also struggling to find his form from last year.
• The natives are restless which has led to some scalper tickets going for less than face value. That didn’t even happen during the Ballard years.
- Shoutout to Hab fans. We don’t want Toronto to finish in the bottom five this year, despite our hatred and loathing for their sorry excuse for a hockey team. The last thing in the world that we need is to have Boston get a lottery pick. A perfect scenario would be for Toronto to finish in around the 23rd spot.
Probable Lines - Tlusty/Stajan/Stempniak Blake/Mitchell/Kulemin Hagman/Garbovski/Ponikarovsky Orr/Wallin/Primeau
Beauchemin & White Kaberle & Komi Exelby & Schenn Toskala
Stat Pack - GF: 28th, GA: 30th, GD: -19, GAA: 4.09, PP: 3rd, PK: 30th, FO: 49.5%, CS: TBD
Injury List - Kessel (early November), Van Ryn (out for the season)
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Last night's definition of officiating should be on Dave Letterman's top 10 of bullchit idiocy. Orr gets away with a glaring high stick and the Habs are two dmen down following Gill's goal for the mob show that Cammy had to endure. In all my years of watching the sport, I've never seen the likes of that following a goal. Forget about blowing the two goal lead; these morons they call refs are determining many an outcome in these games. We were actually taking bets on how many 5 on 3's that the Leafs would be """REWARDED""". Buttman has too many Kerry Fraser's in this league. Was it biased last night? You can't convince otherwise!
Go Hab Go!
nice write up again Steve. Keep up the great work
In RESPONSE to TRIPLEX
totally agree ... i am a season tix holder, and I have seen loads and loads of lousy hockey over the 8 years I have had the tix ... and I know, I am DYING to see a rebuild. In this new NHL, it doesnt take 8 years to rebuild, it takes 2 ... if you want evidence of rebuilding done PROPERLY, look at the Flyers ... 1 lousy season, a top 5 pick, some INTELLIGENTLY PLANNED Free Agent acquisitions, and presto, cup contender, instead of the same old BS we have had here for 16 years. But, you said something of critical importance, there needs to be a plan ... there is NO PLAN here in Montreal ... its toss some money at a bunch of guys, see what sticks , dont account for your actual needs ... thats irrellevant, and if that wasnt the acse, we would have had another Top 3 DMen instead of Markov and 5 number 5 Defenseman.
I wont fault ownership, because they are tossing the $$ around, so, that isnt the question, BUT , we need a new GM here immediately. And for those of you who are going to say, lets give this a chance to play out, my response is, we have , for 16 years.
Steve, I see a fair bit of value in your description of the Komosarek situation below in response to nightmare. But, I am not sure I agree with the main concluding points. Sure Komo can settle down and be a top 4 D. That's likely about it though and that doesn't justify paying him more than he's currently making, which is what would have been needed to keep him. And I don't buy any arguments that he could have been signed for less, earlier in the season. He and his agent had big dollars dancing in their heads since the conclusion of '07-'08. There were whispers of 6 million at points. He's a compimentary player who needs to play with someone who is better both defensively and offensively to be effective.
As for his draft status, the league is littered with worst example of unfulfilled opportunity for the drafting team. In the same draft year as his, drafted ahead of him: Alexander Svitov, Stephen Weiss and Stanislav Christov. With the 5 picks below him: Pascal Leclaire, Tuomo Ruutu, Dan Blackburn, Frederick Sjostrum and Dan Hamhuis. None of these players is both still with their drafting team and considered a real building block, except maybe Hamhuis.
Aside from Kovalchuk and Spezza??? (#1, #2), who can be centre peices for a team, the only legitimate building blocks drafted that year are arguably Derek Roy, Kevin Bieska and ironically, Mike Cammaleri.
Not to nitpick, but I would argue that Hamhuis (still in NSH) is a more than respectable second-pairing guy, and if I'm not mistaken he played for Canada at the Worlds a year or two ago (I know, not always the best players play in the WC, but I'd still say he's had a pretty solid career overall thus far).
Yeah, sorry, I edited my comments on him. He can be argued to be a solid building block. His name has come up so ofetn in trade rumours, I forgot he was still in Nashville.
It'll also be a good test to see how fresh our boys are. Next back-to-back comes in the form of Washington Friday-Detroit Saturday. Talk about bad scheduling!
"All you need in hockey is good character, luck and skills" - Ovie
Both teams are tired. Habs have better goaltending. It won't be a pretty game. Nor will it be an indicator of much beyond who has the legs. Back to back games are the league's biggest scam.
Tired from back to back games in October? Please...they are professional athletes. If they are tired already, they should go and work at Burger King.
__________________
on truth - Voltaire
Kaberle is a good Dman but he is no Markov and that's prolyl why Komi looks lost.
"All you need in hockey is good character, luck and skills" - Ovie
The hit last night: One issue where I am in strong agreement with the "dinosaurs" (who actually played and coached hockey).
Cherry, Burke and all the nearly dead old white males knew how to handle this much better than the accountant led league does today. And its rules on fighting are a major part of what and whom needs to held accountable (besides the players implicated) for the uglier incidents in the game today.
I like to think that Ladd would have been penalized, berated and challenged on the way to the box, and then benched for his own protection.
Coach's call, period.
Cherry also says that the rules need to be toughened because the equpment today is like armour instead of plastic with felt padding. In other words, it's not the same situation at all. And yes, there should be more retribution as a deterrent, but that won't help a player whose career has been ruined, or just shortened. The league needs to change the game. Period. Some guys flips the puck over the glass and gets 2 minutes. Another guy tries to knock someone's block off and gets nothing. It's ridiculous. You see good players all the time NOT take headshots they could take if they wanted.. but they don't. The game does not have to be played this way. This 'fair hit' BS is just that - BS. When Gill flips the puck over the glass he doesn't MEAN to. But he gets penalized anyway. In other areas players are RESPONSIBLE for anticipating the consequences of the moves they make, but not when it comes to brain-damaging headshots? Wow. That's some pretty nifty stick-handling on the leagues part. Funny there isn't much applause. The league should be ashamed for how slowly they are moving on this. I'll tell you waht this will take: a major concussion dished out to Crosbly or Ovi, or another of the leagues 'darlings'. THAT would get the rules changed and nothing short of it. And thats just as sad as the rest of this whole affair.
--------------------------------------------------- `Could this team miss the playoffs? Who knows?' - Bob Gainey on the new Habs.
The Savior (Kessel) will be on the ice soon. I guess the Leafs are planning the PARADE down YOUNG STREET already.
Habs Fan 4 Ever & Ever Amen.
Go Habs Gooooooo.
With those butt ugly barber pole retros worn tonight, could the Habs be entering the Twilight Zone on Halloween?
http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2009/10/31/1108838/it-will-be-trick-or...
Bad news guys. Canadiens website is reporting the Habs are wearing their barbershop jerseys tonight. Here come the injuries...
nice review steve. last nights game was there for sure. i said to myself with about 5 minutes to go ..one mistake and that will be it...of course were on the short end again. how many games have been there for us to take last few years with a few minutes left ..so many i cannot keep count.
tonights game..don't care how we play it, don't care who starts, don't care about line changes. .we just bloody better give a full 60 minutes and BGL hopefully starts other wise our smaller guys will get manhandled.
iam in a nasty foul mood after watching last nights (take me) game.
------------------------- Habsy
Spin Doctor Steve - (this is a reply to Steve's rebuttal down below) I'm sure now that you should have been a politician, you have the art of spin down, lol. No matter how you spin it , you said it and repeated it. In this century there are more than 25 teams that are looking for centers (there not in abundance), they are scarse for crying out loud. The entry draft isn't the place to pick up an immediate starting center anyway. O'Byrne at one million was Komo's replacement.
O'Bryne (hopefully) would be the 2nd good sized Dman to go along wtih Komi. You can't get by with just one. Gainey signed Gill and Mara once he couldn't get Komisarek. Spacek is the (overdue) replacement for Streit. As for centres, you raise a good point which verifies what I've been saying. If you picked the right player (position) in 2003, you would be one of the five, not one of the 25 on the outside looking in.
Spin doctors? Need I remind you that you live in Quebec. Your two-faced politicians have been screwing over my country for decades.
Crusty - You are a politician, Dr.Spin.
steve..your last sentence...lmao.
I love this:
Mike Komisarek (no points, -6) has really stumbled and fumbled his way around the defensive zone. He’s either worse than we thought or else totally snake bitten right now.
Mike "glue guy" Komisarek! LOL I wonder if Komi is going to drink his berzerker potion tonight and run around hitting everyone (well, not everyone... just the small guys) like he did in the first game against us? You'd think he will since it's Halloween. Happy Halloween Mike. Maybe you should wear a goat's head for the puck to bounce off of into your net.
Yeah, I'm in a crappy mood. :( The loss last night hurt.
--------------------------------------------------- `Could this team miss the playoffs? Who knows?' - Bob Gainey on the new Habs.
SD - what bothered me the most was it was anybody's game with 5 minutes to go. You could just tell that the next great play or dumb mistake would decide the outcome fo the game. Two points (or at least one) was there for the taking. Then AK gets beat while Bergeron stands around and the rest is history. You can't blame Price as he had to cover the shooter (Kane?) before he passed to Sharp. Bingo, bango, bong.
These close games against good teams (Calgary, Colorado and now Chicago) demonstrate that our margin for error is almost non-existant. A good team can score enough goals that a couple of mistakes won't matter - as Chicago showed last night, whereas we simply haven't the offensive power to compensate for mistakes. Against weaker teams we can sometimes pull it out, but a good team is almost always going to make capital out of our mistakes. Where this leaves us is with the second of Mike Boone's statements before the game - a .500 team that can hold its own against weaker or equal opposition, but is going to earn very few points against stronger teams. We've taken 1 point off the Rangers (who suddenly don't look such a good team) and got a win against the quietly surprising Sabres. We didn't look great last night, but a whole lot better than we did against Vancouver and Pittsburgh, but we still couldn't earn even a point against a Hawks team missing Jonathan Toews and playing its second game in two nights.
Even if we beat Toronto tonight (which I somehow doubt) and the Thrashers on Tuesday, even if we get a point or even a win over an injury-plagued and struggling Boston team, where does that leave us? Exactly where we are now - at best a bubble team who will possibly stumble into the playoffs. This is one of my moments for thinking it's not worth it and it would be better to tank. I know I won't go on feeling like this; I'll still be disappointed by the next loss, ready to smash the TV screen at the next horrendous turnover or terrible line-call. But realistically I know this team is going nowhere and we should be building for the future.
tanking does not work in a city like montreal period........ever heard of public hangings.
I hear the same argument repeated over and over as to the reason tanking is not an option, the fans in Montreal will not stand for it. Do you know this as fact? I think if Bob or preferably the next GM, laid out an honest LONG range plan that would give us a legitimate shot at the Cup, the fans would cheer him on.
Unfortunately, it takes a commitment from OWNERSHIP, to bite the bullet on a possible few years of lean revenue. Are the Molson's committed to winning more than profits? We know the answer in Toronto, and the end results.
triple..i should have been more specific. its my belief and only my belief after watching this franchise for the last 40 years that if you want to tank it has to come from ownership as you say. i cannot see the Molson's saying okay lets just fold for the next few years after they paid over $600m for the club. they need to recoup some playoff money and apply it against the debt they borrowed to buy the club. so for me the molsons' at least in the short turn need some type of return and thats in the playoffs. if we are a bubble team and fail to make playoffs then i think BG would be gone and a new plan would be laid out , what that plan would be who knows.
A couple of Leaf jokes from my Corvette forum.
The plight of the Leafs is not amusing after what's happened with Vesa Toskala this morning. I appreciate we are all down on the team but when a player becomes suicidal from their performance (and the media's response to it) then we should all rally together behind him. As most of you know, Toskala tried to commit suicide last night, by standing on the train tracks just south of Dupont. Thankfully, thankfully, the train went through his legs.
and:
what do Mike Komisarek and Timmins Ontario have in common? They are both minus 25 come Christmas.
Steve - Nice piece once again. These laffs as you say are playing much better of late. Your senior moment: The Komo we thought, should be the Komo you thought as you were the one that said the Habs would truly miss him and you that claimed he couldn't be replaced.
Bryan - LOL. I realize that Komisarek (or as JT refers to him, The Traitor) will be the lightning rod for the fans' venom tonight. He definitely will be public enemy #1. It's true that I thought it would be a mistake to lose a guy who was just about to enter his prime. Bob Gainey must have felt the same way seeing that he offerred him a long term contract (as usual, the money won out). In a way, it should be quite simple. Define your role, know your limitations, and keep your game simple by not trying to do too much. It must be easier said than done because Komi has been running all over the place trying to carry the team on his back. It's almost as if he feels guilty about the move and the money and is trying justify the UFA contract to Toronto. Even though he's now overpaid, I still think he can eventually settle down and be a top four Dman. Gill for two years may prove to be a liability (he tends to move with the tides). Mara has been a decent pick-up (and should have been signed for two years). However, neither one has the potential to be a solid building block the way Komi could have been. Alas, right now, he appears to be another Hab high end draft pick who may turn out to be a disappointment.
As for all your Tanguay backhanders, let me try and set the record straight one more time. My point was (and is) quite simple. How does a team give up 1st and 2nd round picks, and then just let the guy walk after one season? It's not so much about Tanguay (his stock has slipped badly), as it is the mishandling of assets. Shouldn't someone in the Hab organization have known better? Is our NHL scouting that inept? Indirectly, it's the same problem with AK46. My complaint with the 2003 draft isn't that we took AK (although he still looks pretty useless out there), but rather that we didn't see the obvious need to take a centre. I've said this before but it still rings true. Six years later we are still weak at centre with nobody to go up against the other team's big boys. Even after spending 7.3M to try and rectify the problem.
Your comments are spot on - objective , impartial and rational.
mjames