Ducks at Islanders

The Islanders come into tonight's game losers of 20 of 21. Rick Dipietro will be in goal tonight. Rick has made an inspired comeback, his numbers are not. Rick ranks last and 2nd to last in the NHL in Goals Against and Save Percentage. The Islanders are having trouble scoring as well and are not playing inspired hockey.

As for the Ducks, they have won 3 straight and have tied Dallas for the Pacific Division lead with 38 points. They are also 7-2-1 in their last 10 and will travel to Long Island after beating the Caps in overtime last night.

Take the Ducks to continue their winning ways and the Islanders to keep up their losing ways.

Pick: Ducks -125

Columbus at Chicago

Columbus +255

at

Chicago -310

The Blackhawks look to avenge an 8-3 drubbing they took at the hands of Columbus Thursday night when the two teams meet again in Chicago. The Blue Jackets travel to Chicago coming off a 4-3 Overtime loss to the New York Islanders last night.

Thursday's game saw Columbus take command early and erupt for 4 goals in the 2nd period. Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said "There was nothing to be excited about. Discount it and throw it in the garbage can." The Blackhawks will look to do just that. They own a 27-7-3 record at home and haven't played since their blowout loss on Thursday.

SureShotPick: Look for Chicago to take out frustrations and avenge their loss. Take the Blackhawks -310 and bet big.

Trade Deadline Day

It's March 3, 2010 and the trade deadline is at 3pm EST this afternoon. For many teams, it's a last ditched effort to plug any holes or bolster their lineup for the playoff push. While for others, it's about unloading parts that don't fit your plans for the future. Historically, it's a big day and for fans, it's like Christmas.
A lot of movement is likely at this deadline. Many teams think they are capable of winning the Stanley Cup and just about every team in the league has some sort of playoff shot. One the most intriguing scenario's for today has to be the Florida Panthers. The Panthers continue to be one of those teams that knocks on the door of the playoffs every year but falls short. Talent is there but ownership's not willing to take the extra steps needed to get better. The Panthers traded away Jay Bouwmeester, Oli Jokinen in the past few seasons and reports are that Tomas Vokoun will be next if he waives his No trade clause. It will be interesting to see if players like David Booth and Nathan Horton are also moved. With their lack of success and constant trading away of talented players, the Panthers could find themselves in serious trouble of even holding on to that franchise unless a new ideology is found.
Another topic of the day is goaltending. Several teams in the league want an upgrade and should attempt to upgrade. If anyone saw the Chicago Blackhawks and New York Islanders last night, you would know what I'm talking about. Dwayne Roloson withstood a shooting gallery in the first to keep the Islanders in the game, who then erupted for 4 goals in the 2nd period to win easily. Many of the Isles goals tonight could have been stopped and if the Blackhawks think they can win in the playoffs with shotty goaltending they can't, no matter how good they are.
With Ray Emery out for the season, look for the Flyers to acquire a goalie. Could Marty Biron be heading back? Will the Islanders trade Dwayne Roloson or Biron now that Dipietro could be out ? Where does Marty Turco end up? Do the Capitals stand pat with Varlomov and Theodore?
Please comment and discuss the day's action.

My first game, and what's next...

So, I've officially seen a live Maple Leafs game in person. I sat at the very back of the Air Canada Centre and had only standing room behind me. Despite being so far from the action, I enjoyed every moment of the game. Listening to, and interacting with the people around me was definitley fun. I tried to start a few "Go Leafs Go" chants.

I always thought that when people said the ACC was quiet, they had to be exagerating. After experiencing the game first hand, it is true. I think the crowd is louder at the Barrie Molson Centre then the ACC. Even after the celebration of a goal, the crowd quickly died down to near silence. Maybe, sitting at the very back, I did not get to hear the entire crowd. I don't know. It seemed very quiet (except when the crowd was prompted by the screens to "Make Noise").

I would say my experience was great. Everyone around me had fun and I loved seeing Poni collect two quick goals. Some of the stops from Toskala were very impressive and had the kids next to me really cheering.

Now, the Leafs welcome the New York Islanders to town. Do you remember last time? Do you remember how the Leafs took over 60 shots and still found a way to lose?

I think, as Ron Wilson said, the team is doing a better job of going to the net and looking for rebounds. They have a "shoot first" mentality and everyone is now clueing in to what to do around the net. The Islanders are coming to Toronto after playing a tough game and losing to the Flyers tonight, while the Leafs played a relatively easy game against the Thrashers on Monday and are rested.

Why do I get a strange feeling of dread? The Leafs terrible record on home ice is a start, and their performance against the Islanders last month is another reason to feel a bit quesy. Still, the Leafs have been playing well for a few weeks now. Tomorrow's game should be a good one.

Road Trip!

Steve says:

With that sweet home win, the boys in blue get themselves ready to hit the road on a 7 game road trip. They will not be back at the ACC until Sat. Dec. 29th vs. Rangers (Avery vs. Belak anyone?).

Anyway, here are the teams we are playing on the road, their last 10 game record and their position in relation to us in the standings:

Thrashers 5-4-1 below us
Canadiens 3-6-1 above us*

Hurricanes 4-6-0 above us

Lightning 3-6-1 below us

Panthers 6-4-0 below us

Islanders 3-5-2 below us

Flyers 4-4-2 above us*

(* equal in points, but they have games in hand)

So it looks like we have a good chance of not only winning some more games on the road, but with the race being so close (only 7pts separate us from 1st in the East!) we could really put ourselves in a good position heading into the 2nd half of the season.

Also, with the issues that teams like the Sens have been having lately, and the schedule they have in front of them, there is a chance of a few losses which would be great for the Leafs.

All of theses games are "4 point" games meaning that if we win in regulation, not only do we get 2 points, but we keep the other team, who happens to be in our conference race, from getting 2 points.

Hope we can keep up the winning ways.

As an aside, there is talk of the Leafs talking trade with San Jose...Marleau for Kaberle?...personally I think we should stick with the happy group we have for now...I think adding Marleau would only add to our offense..which isn't really an issue..it's the D we need to secure going forward.

Game 5

Steve says:

Sundin Sundin Sundin!

Well he finally did it. Mats Sundin is the top goal scorer and point getter of any Maple Leaf Ever!

Good on ya Mats!

And, as the gracious leader that he is, he immediately thanked the fans for their help along the way.

There will be many sites praising Sundin for all of his accomplishments so I am sure if you want more Sundin stats you can Google them easily enough. I want to talk about the game itself.

The loss to Carolina was exactly what the Leafs needed to kick them in the ass. They have been playing (for the most part) slightly above mediocre hockey and squeaking out wins here and there. Then a team like Carolina comes to town and say hey Leafs, suck on this!

The team could have gone one of 2 directions after the loss to the Hurricanes...suck more or kick some ass....I'm glad they chose the latter.

Everything was really firing for the buds. they cut back on penalties (still more than I would have liked, but getting better), the defencemen actually started to hit. They called up some speed in Gamache (who I thought should have made the opening roster) and I gotta say that Raycroft looked pretty sharp.

The thing that made Raycroft look sharp is that our defencemen cleared the front of the net and they cleared away rebounds for a change. Most goalies in the NHL can stop what they see. It's the screened shots and the rebounds that get behind them. So when our defencemen actually do their jobs, even Raycroft looks good!

If they can keep up that style of hitting defence and solid rebound clearing, our goalie tandem will take us a long way!

Go Leafs!

Chris says:

So they gave Mats Sundin all three stars last night.

Not too shabby. Scratch that. It was freaking amazing.

In an 8-1 slaughter of the Islanders Sundin finally found that elusive point number 917 to sneak past Sittler as the Leaf’s all time point leader.

Sundin is slowly but surely winding up his career. Which means the opportunities for him to hoist a cup over his head are starting to shrink. Is this the team that can help turn it all that around for him? My gut reaction says no. Essentially we’re the same team as last year, good, but not good enough. The Leafs made a smart upgrade upfront landing Blake but what they really need is another high level sniper and a consistently solid puckstopper. Both of which have eluded this club for the last couple of seasons.

But it’s a long season and we’re barely out of the gate here. And while it’s nice to get in a drubbing like that every now and again, that accomplishment is diminished slightly by the fact that the Leafs were on the receiving end of a similar pounding only two nights earlier.

With such a demanding schedule ahead of them the trick to making it into the playoffs is going to be consistency, and unfortunately, on that front we’ve been found lacking.

So while it’s important to enjoy this milestone while we can, our number one focus has to be on making sure that we’re bringing our A-game to the ice, week in and week out.