What is this? The lockout?!
No, I understand - it's just that rare Saturday that occurs once or twice during a typical season during which the Leafs don't play. From what I gather, CBC is offering a pretty exciting matchup between the Penguins and Habs, but I'm making some chili and watching Kids in the Hall with my partner.
Never mind me, though. The Leafs, right? What happened this week? Even with a rare Saturday night off, the Leafs suited up thrice throughout the week, facing off against the Flyers in Philadelphia on Monday night, followed up by playing the Habs Wednesday in Toronto, and the Islanders Thursday night on long island.
What happened?
How did they fare?
Hit the jump to find out.
insert the new leafs theme song "playoffs!!1" by clarkey marc and the nazzy grabs
(this image comes courtesty user niftymittens at pensionplanpuppets)
Leafs v Flyers Feb.25.2013
The Leafs headed into Philadelphia for JVR's first game there as a Leaf to faceoff against a Philadelphia team that had beaten Winnipeg in their last game, and had 3 wins in their last four games. The Leafs had lost their previous encounter to Ottawa, but similarly had 3 wins in their last four games.
Starting goalies for this one were Ben "What's Rebound Control?" Scrivens and Ilya "My Husky is Weirdly Attractive" Bryzgalov.
Colton Orr was injured and unable to play this game - "Leafs Nation" was terrified.
Who would punch faces?
Who would fall down on odd man rushes?
Anyway, things went pretty well for the Leafs in this one. The game had a decidedly choppy flow with much of the first period played at special teams. The Leafs did well on the PK in the first though, killing off penalties to Phaneuf and Brown. Oh, speaking of Brown, remember when I asked who would punch faces? Whelp, Mike Brown filled the role tonight, fighting whateverthehell a Tye McGinn is. Anyway, it was a good road period for the Leafs. They managed to keep Philadelphia scoreless in the first, continuing their road success. Phil Kessel opened the scoring late in the first on this one that Bryz kind of miffed on. Toronto went to the dressing room up one to nil, the shots tied at ten a piece.
yeah, i think bryz might need a shot of jack daniel's, it would seem.
The Leafs would continue out-chancing the Flyers in the second, despite being outshot (only by a margin of 5-4), manufacturing scoring chances with pretty delightful puck movement. They went up 2-0 late in the second, on this scoring play by Nik Kulemin featuring a delightful pass by Nazem Kadri.
wowzers
despite how gorgeous that goal was, Toronto went into the dressing room with a one goal lead, as Scott "I'm a Douche, Not the Guy that Played Doctor Who" Hartnell halved the Leafs lead late in the second.
The third period was pretty exciting. Mikhail Grabovski put the Leafs up 3-1 shifty little backhander that looked a bit like this.
kadri keeps racking them up.
Carrying a 2 goal lead late, things had were obviously pretty perlious. The Leafs can't hold two goal leads, right? Of course not. In a somewhat rare turn of events, James van Riemsdyk took a penalty, then during the delay before his penalty was called, took a second, putting the Leafs down one man for four minutes. This of course lead to a Philadelphia goal, but we don't have to look at that, or think about who's fault it is, right? I'm going over three games here.
The Leafs managed to keep the one goal lead, well, that is, until the Flyers pulled their goalie late in the third. Jay McClement ended up potting the empty netter, and the Leafs won this one 4-2
Final shots on the game were 25-22
Ben Scrivens stopped 21 of 22 for a .920 SV% (not bad)
Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 17 of 20 for an .857%. That's totally worth his 5.6 million a year.
Woo.
Phaneuf lead the Leafs in icetime with 25 minutes and 41 seconds. He did a pretty good job of shutting down Claude Giroux who lead all players in ice time with 25 minutes and 43 seconds and picked up 2 points in his outing.
This was a pretty solid game for the Leafs, and Kadri was really shining on at least two of those set ups.
So, having bounced back pretty quickly from their loss against Ottawa, how would the Leafs fare in their next game?
Canadiens v. Leafs Feb.27.2013
Two nights later, the Leafs were back home, facing off the Canadiens, who they last smacked around to the score of 6-0 in their own building. Fearing attempts at retribution from the Canadiens, coach Randy Carlyle leaned heavily on Colton Orr throughout this game to provide umm, well... I guess intimidation? Or grit? Who knows.
oh boy, that's how this one's going to be.
so, another odd circumstance to this game was that James Reimer had returned to the lineup, but only as a backup? So, Reim-Time sat on the bench for this one and your starters were Ben "Cornell Boy" Scrivens vs Carey "Country Boy" Price.
umm, let's just skip reviewing this one for the most part. It was pretty darned frustrating.
Despite being outplayed, outshot, outchanced and out skated Toronto wasn't really out of this one 'til the third.
The leafs did open the scoring off of Frazer McLaren's epic chest-bounce goal career high second goal of the season. Umm, from there it was terrible. They ended the first tied 1-1. Mike Brown was kicked out for a questionable hitting from behind call. They miraculously ended the second tied 2-2. In the third things went to shit, and Montreal scored three unanswered goals.
Toronto was exceedingly flat throughout this game, and was never really into it.
Know what else was great about this one? Colton Orr had 14:55 of icetime.
14:55 - Colton Orr.
Yeah.
14:55 - Colton Orr.
Yeah.
Phil Kessel had 14:32
Bozak played 12:00
Toronto was outshot (i can copy and paste this phrase) 40-23 (!!!!)
Ben Scrivens stopped 28 of 32 for an .875%
Carey Price stopped 19 of 21 for a .913%
This was just, well, an incredibly pitiful effort. There was very little skating, a whole bunch of not trying, and a bullshit face-off on the game winning goal that almost had me turn the channel.
i'm not even trying to be whiney, but this was bullshit.
so, how would the Leafs respond to a 5-2 shellacking from the Montreal Canadiens?
Whelp, we only had 24 hours to wait through to find out.
Leafs v. Islanders Feb.28.2013
After dropping a particularly awful one against the Habs, the blue and white had little time to reflect, facing off against the Great Atlantic Garbage Patch New York Islanders.
James "I'm totally not injury-prone" Reimer returns to the starters' position facing off against a guy who doesn't want to play for his team (the Isles have a few of those) in Evgeni "At least I'm not Paid 6 Million to play in the Minors Like DiPietro" Nabokov.
Reimer looked a little shakey throughout this one, allowing the first goal of the game to Josh Bailey on a snapshot just over three minutes into the first. He can't really be blamed for this first goal, but it was just a theme throughout, and is somewhat excusable, given his recent time off. It looked a little like this.
nhl +/- leader Mark Fraser and Cody Franson look
almost human on this one.
Despite a slow start, Toronto managed to tie it up on this one, from Nazem Kadri, about five minutes later.
i feel bad for criticizing his toe drag last week.
The Leafs had appeared to bounce back pretty readily from the disaster the night before, taking it to the Islanders, outshooting them 9-6 in the first, and generating many quality scoring chances.
The second period offered a little something special.
The teams started the second tied, but just 6:22 in Lubomir "I tried to crash my car because I don't want to play for this team" Visnovsky put the Islanders up two to one with a slapper after a broken up rush
his aim looked pretty good there.
Two minutes later, however, Nazem Kadri decided he was having none of this "Islanders with the lead" crap, and sniped home his second of the game and seventh of the season.
hoooo, man, this boy can shoot.
A scant minute and 30 seconds later, James van Riemsdyk joined in the fun and put the Leafs ahead again, 3-2. This was a pretty good play by JVR, taking the shot and following up the rebound for the goal. Noted Leafs facepuncher Colton Orr picked up an assist on this tally, and as such totally deserves more ice time.
that was some straight-up dave andreychuk shit.
The hits would keep on coming as 4 minutes later, Nazem Kadri would carry the puck into the Isles zone on a 1-4 (yes, he pretty much beat four Islanders on this one) and dangle through all of them before roofing a wrister from in close to complete his first NHL hat trick.
yeah, that was pretty awesome.
The Leafs would ride the streak of three unanswered goals into the dressing room for a 4-2 lead, despite being outshot by one in the middle frame. Methinks Mr. Kadri had a lot to do with that. Good work for such a big bust, eh?
Islanders fans look confused, and in awe of this
hockey playing prowess. "what's a hat trick?"
you can hear the one on the far left ask.
So in spite of some crazy work by Kadri, and a pretty solid effort by the rest of the team, things looked pretty scary heading into the third - after all, the Leafs and two-goal leads are not good friends.
even lumberg knows, man.
So the third period started in a fashion that well, quite frankly, didn't inspire much confidence. Toronto was hemmed in their zone for much of the period, and after a false celebration on a shot that actually hit the post (seriously, hockey is that bad on the island) they finally ridded themselves of this pesky 2 goal lead when Andrew MacDonald fired home a slapshot for his first of the season. I'd show it to you, but even youtube doesn't seem to want to look at it, so don't worry.
Seriously, there was no cause for worry, right? Toronto was still up by 1. This was the Islanders! And hey, Reimer's back - that dude is awesome, right? Not like that Scrivens guy who falls down and throws rebounds every where, right? He'll stop the rest of the shots he faces, right?
What's that? Kyle Okposo has a semi-breakaway?
Snap shot scores? 4-4 game? Oh, poo.
no, i cannot explain the sharks logo that pops up for a while.
it seems to me that youtube really hates the islanders.
well now, after all of this, it looks like we're headed to overtime. The Isles scored two unanswered goals in the third, outshooting the Leafs 9-8 to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Well, there's certainly no cause for worry here... right?
Of course not! Check this out
good ol' joe bowen with the call on the game winner
Early into the extra frame the Leafs managed to mount a bit of pressure down low in the Islanders zone with some good puck movement between MacArthur and Grabovski. This lead to Phaneuf being able to cheat in a bit, and pick up a great pass from Grabbo, then bingo-bango, a slapshot doesn't miss the net and the Leafs win this one in OT, 5-4.
the leafs celebrate their victory.
The Leafs didn't exactly go into Long Island and beat the crap out of the Isles, but they got out of their with two points, and some nights that's about all you can hope for. Reimer didn't look lights-out-amazing in his return, but he did look better than Scrivens often did in his relief.
Reimer stopped 23 of 27 for a (pretty crappy) save percentage of .852%
His counterpart at the other end, Evgeni Nabokov only stopped 23 of 28 for an .821%.
Astute eyed, well-mathed readers will recognize that this means the Leafs actually outshot somebody in this game... by a margin of one! 28-27. Nazem Kadri and Matt Moulson led their respective teams with 5 shots each. Kadri outscored everyone in the game with 3 goals. Travis Hamonic lead all skaters with 24 minutes and 40 seconds of ice time. Dion Phaneuf was a mere 28 seconds behind, clocking in at 24:12.
Special teams were a factor in no way for either team on the night as, in a bit of a rarity for an NHL game, neither team was called for a penalty for the entire 60 minutes plus overtime.
The Week That Was
So the week that was again turned out somewhat reasonably for the blue and white. The victories in Philadelphia and Long Island were necessary - this allowed the Leafs to keep pacing themselves ahead of these teams in the standings, albeit not by much in the case of the Flyers.
Monday's game against Philadelphia was probably the best of the week. The team had a lot of jump, and while outshot by a thin margin, Toronto managed to outchance the Flyers and slowly improved their posession numbers.
Wednesday was a wash, plain and simple. Right out of the gate the team didn't show up to play, and much of the game's pace was dictated by les Canadiens. The Colton Orr debacle again shows some of the various reasons that people in Toronto are somewhat unhappy with Randy Carlyle. His insistence on rewarding players for good play isn't a problem in an of itself, but promoting players to roles and positions they have no business playing is somewhat foolhardy. Understandably, missing players like Frattin and Lupul will put holes in your lineup, but any one of Brown, Steckel or McClement would have been a more suitable replacement than Orr. This doesn't begin to explain how the Leafs managed to lose this one (they really didn't start skating 'til the third.) But it is an interesting note about the focus and aim of Carlyle's decisions. How much ice Kadri gets as a result of his hatty will be interesting to see based on this same "reward for good work" concept.
Thursday was generally a pretty good game. Though it might have been nicer to see the Leafs handle the Islanders more readily, ultimately a win is a win. Reimer looked a liiiittle shaky throughout, particularly in the third, but that's not unexpected in the first game back from an injury. Kadri's "breakout" this year is a posing some interesting questions that (well, have been asked for a little bit of time already) will need to be looked at in the next couple of months. Does the team keep Nazem in a sheltered third line role and keeping lighting up other teams' third line? Do they swap Kadri and Bozak, hoping that the shift will invigorate Kessel and Bozak? How much more complicated does this get with the return of Frattin and Lupul? Where do they fit in based on JVR's great play of late? Caryle, and to a different extent Nonis, have some personnel decisions to make in the remainder of this season and into the off-season. Another unfortunate note in this one was the free point given to the Isles by taking it to OT. Holding leads hasn't exactly been a hallmark of this team of the past five to seven years, and the absence of a second shut-down type defenceman to aid Phaneuf might go a long way into shoring that issue up. I'm not sure we've seen the solution in Kostka and Holzer.
Either way, Toronto currently sits 6th in the East with 26 points in 22 games. Right behind them? Reigning Eastern Conference Champions, the New Jersey Devils with 25 points in 21 games. Wow. Oh, hey - let's take a look at who each team plays next.
Oh, what's that? They play each other on Monday? That'll be fun.
That just starts off what is very busy week for the Leafs.
After NJ at home on Monday, they play Ottawa at the ACC on Wednesday, the Bruins in Boston on Thursday, and host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday. Save the Devils, each of these teams is in front of the Leafs in the standings. This'll be a big challenge, as "Death" March generally is. If Toronto hopes to stay in the playoff mix, picking up wins down this stretch will be crucial, and they'll need to get out of this week playing at least .500 hockey to tread water. They should be able to beat New Jersey, and they should be able to beat the Senators. Hey, they've even played well against the Pens this year, so the opportunities to grab some points are there. Hopefully we'll see the Leafs take advantage of them. Sitting in a playoff spot at the almost half-way point of the season is pretty much the trajectory we saw last year, and we all know how that worked out. The team has been managing to pick up wins in quite a few games where they've been outshot and outchanced, but that isn't always sustainable. Their PDO (even strength shooting percentage and save percentage added) is among the bottom in the league, and it's quite possible we could see a regression in the wins column due to some of this. The Leafs somehow missed the boat on not offering sheeting Ryan O'Reilly, so we know this lineup is where the improvement is going to have to come from. Hopefully we see Carlyle deploying his lines a little more sanely, leaning more heavily on the Grabovski and Kadri lines, and less on Colton Orr and his facepunchers. The returns of Frattin and Lupul might help, as stated above, as would the re-introduction of Jake Gardiner, but all of that is still a ways off now, so we'll have to see how things progress with the current lineup.
Odds and Sodds:
Realignment:
This is stupid. Y'know, like, pretty darned stupid.
The NHL has been discussing realignment for a couple of years now.
Detroit and Columbus are unhappy they're in the West. Winnipeg shouldn't be in the East.
How do they want to fix this?
Returning to four divisions.
In these 4 new divisons the top 4 teams would still make the playoffs, completing your sixteen team field. The dumb issue however, is that there are 7 teams each in big orange and yellow blobs to the west, and 8 teams in each of those blue and green to the east. This means that in two divisions three teams won't make it, and in two 4 won't make it. Seems a little unfair, no? Suggestions have been made to implement "wildcards" or "crossovers" to make it somewhat more fair, but that seems to overcomplicate the issue to me. I don't like it. I suggest one of two scenarios.
Scenario 1:
Don't change everything around for the guy that owns Little Caeser's Pizza and a team in Columbus that probably shouldn't exist.
But if you're going to make small concessions to tweak things for them, swap Columbus and Winnipeg. The Jets now play in the Central with Nashville, Chicago, St.Louis and Detroit.
Oh, right - but Detroit wants to be in the East? Swap them with Tampa Bay. Does that make sense? Tampa being in the West? No, but it makes about as much sense as the Red Wings being in the West, and who really cares about those damned Bolts anyway?
Tampa's not that far from Dallas.
Scenario 2:
Fine change the stupid divisions around so that the whiners in Detroit and Columbus can get local start times, and not have to go on long road trips.
Yeah, okay, whatever. You decide to do it this way - do away with the conference/division format for the playoffs. Seed the teams from 1-16 in terms of points and have and have top play bottom. It'll probably eliminate some of the upsets we've seen in recent years, but at least we're not trying to get all baseball on our playoff format.
It's all kind of a moot point, because this is all going to get flubbed around whenever they decide to move Phoenix. And really, they should have just moved Phoenix back to Winnipeg instead of sending Atlanta up there - then we wouldn't have half this mess to begin with. Then Atlanta could have gone to Seattle, or wherever the hell out west you want or up to Quebec or Toronto, wherever the hell in the East you want.
However you slice this, realignment is stupid.
Komisarek:
So word broke yesterday that Mike Komisarek has requested a trade from the team, supplying apparently 12 destinations he'd consider a trade to. Komisarek last played on Feb 2nd and has already been a healthy scratch 14 times this season, and for the better duration of last.
Komisarek was one of the bigger signings by Brian Burke in his first summer here, and one of the worst, in retrospect. On paper it had appeared as though Burke had constructed a defensive wall of steel, featuring Komisarek and Beauchemin, and former Red Wing and Stanley Cup winner Brett Lebda.
It turns out that these guys were all pretty good - umm, before the lockout - well, except Beauchemin who is still great, but was shipped out for Lupul. Komisarek never really showed the form or pedigree that made him such a steal on the free agent market, depleting the Habs defence corps instantly everyone thought.
Turns out Mike Komisarek isn't very good at hockey any more - oh, and he might start fights with ladies at clubs and then hit them - tres professional.
Either way, I'm pretty happy he's requested a trade, but pretty sure that nobody will take on his 4.5 million dollar cap-hit, and that we'll see him bought-out by the Leafs this summer.
Good riddance, I'd say. There are plenty of affordable players in the system with higher ceilings that I look forward to seeing developed now that one more spot will be available.
komisarek looks like a turnstile in one of his last shifts as a leaf.
So adios, Mr. Komisarek. Don't get stuck on the Gardner on the way out of town.
That's it for this week - pop by next week and we'll see where the Leafs are sitting after the first week of the toughest month in their schedule.
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