KK Members Blog

Everyone in the hockey world was saddened to learn of the death of Pat Burns. Pat was known for being a policeman in Gatinuea, Quebec. He was a fair, but touch coach that held his players accountable.

Coach Burns record in the NHL speaks for itself. A head coach in the NHL for 14 years with the Canadians, Maple Leafs, Bruins, and Devils. Pat coached over 1000 games and won more than 500 of them between 1988 - 2004. He won the Jack Adams award with three different teams, and was Coach of the Stanley Cups champions with the New Jersey Devils in 2003. He retired in 2006 and courageously fought three different types of cancer (colon, liver and lung) before finally succombing to the disagree at age 58 on Friday.

As you look at Coach Burns record, it obvious that he is a Hockey Hall of Famer, right? Well, obvious to everyone except the Hockey Hall of Fame. Coach Burns deserves to be in the Hall based on his credentials by itself. Yet, knowing that his cancer was in final stages, the HHOF failed to vote him in this year, in the same year that Dino and two females greats were inducted.

I recently ran across a list of the top ten hockey movies of all time. Of course, any hockey fan will immediately say ‘Slapshot’. Why not? We’ve all seen the movie a hundred times and I’ll bet you can repeat many lines in the movie. Who can forget some of the lines: “You go to the box. Two minutes by yourself and ... you feel shame. You know ..... and then you get free” and “Anybody throws me against the boards, I’m gunna PXXS all over myself”. How about those Hanson Brothers, “None of that stinkin’ root beer!.”

On the list of the top ten, was a movie I had not seen called “Net Worth” , produced in the 1990’s by CBC. It basically tells the story of how the NHLPA was formed. I knew previously that Ted Lindsey was a key figure in forming the association (not union), because of poor treatment from ownership and management. What I did not realize was the rest of the story behind the scenes and the reputation of some of the original owners and the NHL Commissioner at the time, Clarence Campbell. The owners were making money hand over fist, cooking the books and paying the players a relative small sum even for that time. The head coaches manipulated and treated the players like dirt . (Yes, I know, players still get manipulated by coaches but nothing like this).

With the changing format of the All-Star Game, maybe it’s time to consider some other new interesting ideas around the NHL.

First, on the issue of flagrant diving (ala Phil Kessel). To address diving, which has no place in an honorable, men’s game, provide the league with the ability to suspend a player without pay for an indisputable, flagrant dive. This will send a strong signal to all the divers out there
that won’t take the risk of fine and suspension.

Second, the issue of awarding three points for an overtime/shootout game. Rather than the current format of awarding one point each in regulation time to both teams and an extra point for an overtime/shootout win for a total of three points, here’s a better potential solution. Award each team a half point after a regulation tie. Award a full extra point for the overtime/shootout winner. Winning team gets 1.5 points The losing team gets a half point (0.5 point). This would encourage teams to win in regulation and end the frustration of fans/teams with the awarding of three point games. Three point games are especially frustrating down the playoff stretch as team trying to catch a team in a playoff positions are disadvantaged by the awarding of three points.

A look at the top 3 teams in each Conference (leader in each division)

team +/- // # of players with 12 pts or more // # of games played// Win %
+64 ..WAS 4/17 games…. .735
+81 ..PHI 6/17….. .706
+5 ....MON 3/17…. .676

+53 ...LAK 5/15…. .800
+58 ...DET 5/15…. .767
+24 ...VAN 4/12…. .688

Forget the fact that the Leafs can’t buy a goal these days.

Why is Brian Burke deviating from what he has been stating for the past year? As early as 3 weeks ago, he went on the record to say that Kadri simply needs more time in the AHL - that rushing him to the NHL does not make sense.

So after the same Nazem Kadri is called up today, I have to ask the “Why? Why Burkie?”

Nazem Kadri and Keith Aulie have been called up. This is going to be interesting.

For the first time this season, The Leafs are below the 500 mark. The talk around the city is that scoring is the problem and that criticism is not without merit (especially after being shutout 3 times in the last 6 games).

When the Leafs began the season 4-0-0, goals were aplenty. In those first 4 games, the Leafs scored 16 goals. In the 10 games since, they have scored 15. So naturally, the criticism wanders towards the area that was present before but is absent now.

But let’s be honest here. Outside of Kessel, the Leafs’ top 6 isn’t actually a top 6. It’s a collection of forwards who would slot 4 through 9 on virtually every other team in the NHL. Bozak is a prime example of this phenomenon. The City of Toronto has been all over the Leafs’ Line 1 Center to start playing like one, when that is not what he is (not yet anyways <- that’s the fan in me talking). Versteeg, Kulemin, Grabovski and MacArthur are no different.

Brad Ross
Round 2 – 43rd Overall

Ross is at it once again this season. After posting 68 points and 203 PIMs in 71 games last season, the Leafs’ first pick in the 2010 draft has 17 points and 44 PIMs in 16 games this season with the Portland Winterhawks. Not only that but he is +12 on the season thus far. He even has more points than teammate Ryan Johansen (15 points), who was taken 4th Overall this year.

Greg McKegg
Round 3 – 62nd Overall

McKegg had no business going in the 3rd Round, especially after putting up 85 points in 67 games last season. This season has been no different. McKegg leads the Erie Otters with 26 points in 19 games and sits 11th in OHL scoring.

Thing are quiet in Toronto today. 12 games in the Leafs are 5-5-2 and this city is fully aware of the fact that being at the 500-mark 82 games in will mean no playoffs once again. Some early season thoughts:

The Good

Phil Kessel

– The most dangerous player on the ice for the Leafs night-in and night-out.

Clark MacArthur

– The only form of secondary scoring the Leafs have. He also leads the Leafs in points with 10.

Luke Schenn

– The Leafs’ best D-Man so far, no contest. Kaberle’s been solid offensively but Schenn has brought it at both ends of the ice. Not only that, he leads all Leafs’ D-men in +/- (4) and hits (42).

Goaltending

– Toronto’s goaltending tandem of Giguere and Gustavsson has been a major reason why Toronto has been in so many games this season. If they gave Gustavsson as much goal-support as they have Giguere, they’d be well above 500 right now. Want proof? The Leafs rank 12th in GA/G at 2.5.

Leafs (5-5-1) vs Capitals (7-4-1)

The Leafs will play their first game ever without Captain Dion Phaneuf tonight and as luck would have it, they play Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. Playing their second game in as many nights will not help their cause either, after losing 3-2 to the Ottawa Senators yesterday. The Leafs were on their way to being shutout for a third straight game until 5 minutes into the 3rd Period when Nikolai Kulemin scored. That ended the Leafs’ franchise-record goal-less streak at 167 minutes and 39 seconds. The Leafs’ secondary scoring has to show up for them to post a W against the Caps.

Storylines

*Orr and Komi made those pink skates look more masculine than Clint Eastwood.

*The Leafs attempted 92 shots last night. Only 36 hit the net. The Leafs defense fired 17 shots from the point that were blocked. And even when they got through several of them missed the net. A lot of these missed shots came on the powerplay. The Leafs Powerplay percentage ranks 24th in the league at 11.9%. The Leafs need to hit the net if that number is to improve.

Versteeg in. He will slot in on the Leafs’2nd Line with Grabovski and MacArthur.

Christian Hanson gets the call to play on the 4th line between Orr and Brown.

Gunnarsson in. Lebda out.

Look for Orr to drop the gloves with Boogaard again.

Rangers (4-4-1) vs Leafs (5-3-1)

The Leafs need to get used to the fact that every game has critical implications for their playoff hopes.

Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Boston have 4 seeds in the East almost locked in. Then there’s Tampa Bay, New Jersey, Montreal, Buffalo and Carolina. Ottawa, NYR, NYI and Atlanta aren’t too far behind. Let’s not kid ourselves. The only team in the East that the Leafs SHOULD be ahead of in the standings come April is Florida.

Come April, 6 to 8 points will separate seeds 7 through 11, as has been the case since the lockout. So when the Leafs take on the Rangers tonight at the Air Canada Centre, they need to remember one thing: every game they play is a 4-Point game.

Storylines

There is a part of Leaf Nation that will never be able to live down the fact that one of the 1st Round picks that they gave up in the Phil Kessel trade turned into Tyler Seguin.

This isn’t about Jared Knight. Nor is it about the 1st Rounder next year (unless of course it ends up being Adam Larsson or Sean Couturier) because thankfully, the Leafs are playing well enough to avoid that catastrophe so far.

This is about Seguin.

If Steven Stamkos were a Maple Leaf, this wouldn’t be happening.

In 9 games this season, Stamkos has a stat line of 8 goals and 18 points. The next closest player is Ryan Getzlaf with 13 points in 10 games.

Yet somehow, if we polled the intelligent portion of the hockey universe today, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin would be the runaway favourites in a conversation about the best forwards in the game right now.

Yes, the season is young. And yes, Crosby and Ovechkin are off to “slower” starts than usual. But Stamkos is out-producing them nonetheless (by a sizable margin).

To put it into perspective, Leaf Nation is buzzing about Kessel’s 7 goals in the first 8 games of the season. Some say he is a legitimate contender for the Rocket. The more mentally unstable ones have even gone as far as to suggest the possibility of Kessel winning the Hart.

Can you imagine what would happen if Kessel had Stamkos’ stat line?

Let me be clear. I am not here saying that Stamkos is better than Crosby and Ovechkin. I am simply saying that Stamkos deserves to be in the conversation.

Leafs (5-2-1) vs Bruins (4-2-0)

The Toronto Maple Leafs are actually ahead of the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference standings. The Bruins do have 2 games in hand, however, making this the proverbial 4-point game in the battle for division rank.

The Leafs put an end to their 3-game skid on Tuesday against Florida, thanks to a missed Goalie Interference call on Colton Orr and yet another Phil Kessel goal. The Leafs hope to retain that top spot in the Northeast Division with a win against the same team who traded them Kessel a little more than a year ago.

Storylines

Tyler Seguin (profanity) sucks. He is the worst (profanity) forward on the planet.

Tuuka Rask also (profanity) sucks. He is the worst (profanity) goalie on the planet.

Jared Knight sucks so (profanity) much that he couldn’t make a team that has Tyler Seguin on it.

Oh and even if we finish 29th-30th again this year, Adam Larsson and Sean Couturier are the worst (profanity) prospects in the history of the game.

I (profanity) hate the Boston Bruins.

Give us a win tonight boys.

Caputi has been called up by the Leafs to skate in place of Colby Armstrong, who left last night’s game with an injury after being slashed by Chris Higgins on his hand.

Keep an eye on Caputi to make the most of this opportunity after a strong preseason. He will slot in with Brent and Sjostrom on the Leafs’ 3rd line.

Everyone is up in arms.

The Florida Panthers. Colton Orr just trampled over their back-up goalie. The ref was standing right there. RIGHT THERE. Yet somehow he only noticed the puck go in. Not the 220 pound guy who obviously took the goalie out of the play.

The Media. Everyone is calling it 100% goalie interference. Asking why the referee didn’t blow the play, why the call didn’t go upstairs, why NHL coaches aren’t given challenges like in the NFL.

The Toronto Maple Leafs. Even Ron Wilson and Colton Orr admitted it was goalie interference when talking to the media. Wilson even went as far as to say that Orr should have gotten a penalty.

Here’s what Leaf Nation thinks: We’ll take ‘em however we can get ‘em. We know it wasn’t a goal. We know it was a penalty. We don’t care. We’ll take it.

Phil Kessel scored (again) to make it 3-1 anyway.

Go Leafs Go.

Brian Burke, on the AM640 yesterday, talks two trade offers, Phaneuf and Nazem Kadri.

Listen to Brian Burke on AM640.

Panthers (3-3-0) vs. Leafs (4-2-1)

The Leafs need a win tonight. Badly. Or else the team might just find itself on a tailspin to oblivion and the City of Toronto will push the panic button.

The Leafs’ 4-0-0 start raised eyebrows across the NHL. Brian Burke haters disappeared in that span as well. Gone was the criticism of the Kessel trade which flooded talk radio all the way into September. Gone was the criticism that Brian Burke failed to bring in a top line forward in Free Agency. Or the idea that stashing Kadri in the minors for another season was not the right move.

If the Leafs lose tonight, look for those critics to come back out of the closet. Not only that, but guys like Versteeg, Armstrong, Brown, Zigomanis, McArthur will all be exposed to the pressure-cooker that is the Toronto media.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Nashville Predators have a lot in common. Both have young stud Captain defensemen who play a similar game. Both have good goaltending. Both are strong on the backend. And both have a core of forwards that isn’t deep with offensive talent.

But the Nashville Predators are better.

You can thank Barry Trotz for that (the fact that he has not yet won the Jack Adams trophy is criminal). Every year sports journalists write off the Predators, and every year around February the same sports journalists churn out a string of articles about how the Predators keep on proving their doubters wrong.

The journalists aren’t just bandwagon jumpers. In fact, they are right. On paper, the Predators had no business making the playoffs 4 out of the last 5 years; after the 2006-2007 season, the Predators should have finished out of the top 8 in the Western Conference every single season. On paper.

Dear Toronto Maple Leafs,

Please stop sucking. This city of 5.5 million people needs you.

Think of us like Gotham City. In ruins.

We have not seen a playoff game since the 2003-2004 season. There are people in this city who have never been old enough to legally see a Leaf Playoff game in a bar even though they are over 19.

Over the course of the last 6 years of post-season drought, we have bought each of your new jerseys (home, away and third), bought tickets to the games, spent thousands of dollars on bar tabs and planned the parade route each year (we’re keeping the blueprints because obviously this is the year right?).

From this weeks ‘Who’da Thunkit’

file

Dallas Stars….2/25 on the PP (8%)...
they have allowed 10 PPG in 30 times SH…and…1 SHG in 7 games.

Teams you wouldn’t take to meet your Grandma

Columbus 3/30 PP (10 %)...allowed 6 PPG and 2 SHG, 7 games
Buffalo 4/36 PP (11.1%)....given up 6 PPG and 1 SHG, 9 games
Pittsburgh…8/49 PP (16.3 %)....given up 6 PPG, and 1 SHG, 9 games.
Colorado…the victim of 4 SHG in 7 games, 9 PPGA, 7/30 PP.

Dion Phaneuf was –3 last night. He was on the ice for 4 out of the 5 goals. He made a lazy play with his stick that led to a Mike Richards goal; he got unlucky when a slap shot from the point ricocheted off his skate into the net; he got caught up ice in the offensive zone leading to a 2 on 1; and he just got blatantly beat by Briere.

As of today, Phaneuf ranks 217th in the league among Defensemen with a +/- rating of –5. The irking fact about that stat is the fact that it is NOT out-of-the-ordinary for Phaneuf. If Nick Lidstrom was –5 at this point in the season, you could still bank on the fact that he would finish the season over +30. But Phaneuf has not been more than + 10 in his career since 2007-2008 when he was +12 (interestingly enough, over his career of 411 games Phaneuf is also +12).

Ironically, Phaneuf’s counterpart on the Flyers in the game yesterday, Chris Pronger, just happens to be one of the best +/- players of all time. In 1109 career games, Pronger is +176. Pro-rate Phaneuf’s stats to the same number of games. He falls short by almost +150. But it’s not just the +/- that sets the Flyers Assistant Captain apart.