You have to pardon my lack of enthusiasm for the good ship Maple Leafs these days. I have to admit that their on ice performance and more so results has got me a tad bit apathetic. More so, the coverage of the team has done nothing to excite me. I know it seems a little bit odd to say it but I miss the days when the Leafs were getting carved for everything they did…

When those who used to bash them all the time, are telling us that things aren’t as bleak as they appear, well, where the hell is the fun in that? I watched a good part of last night’s game tonight and was left with the conclusion that there are 3 players on the Maple Leafs that are potential difference makers.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way, I mean how big an idiot would I be not to mention Phil Kessel? That being said, he is the one guy on the Leafs team who you noticed every time he was on the ice. When little TSM plays, there is always one guy on every team who is eons ahead of the rest of the team. Kessel is that guy on the Leafs. There is no one who compares with his speed of talent- no one close. The hope and I do mean hope is that Kadri resides somewhere in the same zip code.

The second is Gustavsson. He stands tall has a presence and despite only playing in a few games, he has earned the confidence of his teammates. Yes he has made mistakes. What he hasn’t done is let in the crap goal at the most inopportune time as Toskala always seems to manage to do. As Gustavsson’s plays goes, so too will the fate of this team.

Lastly is Kaberle. The guy who I said they had to deal last summer is playing out of his head. He, is eons ahead of the rest of the pack on defence right now. There is no one playing at his level.

The problem is, that the drop off from those three is gigantic. Brian Burke talked about having his skill guys and then his plumbers- a top group and a bottom group. Right now the distance to getting to that point appears to be huge. The fall off from Kaberle to the next defenceman is amazing. What’s more unbelievable is that the next best guy, in my opinion is Ian White! The guy who didn’t dress early next season. Here is a guy who doesn’t have a ton of talent but works his ass off every shift. The drop in forwards is worse. There isn’t one guy right now who can score. After Kessel went 0-10 last night (and I am not knocking him), who is left to score the goals? i have confidence in no one.

A friend emailed me last night that the Maple Leafs are 19 players away. You have to laugh. The alternative is much worse isn’t it? I don’t know why it has happened but the skill level, especially upfront is embarrassing. Grabovsky, Blake, Stajan, Hagman are all, for the most part totally infective. You have to think that at some point relatively soon it will make sense to bring the college kids up and let them go. I mean last year Luke Schenn played well when he was getting tons of minutes. Why not say to Hanson and Bozak (who may or may not have had h1n1 flu) guys, go out there and play as hard as you can and don’t worry about screwing up- I will still throw you out there again. It’s pretty much what Wilson did last year with Schenn. I can tell you this as a fan, I would be much more interested in watching those guys then the aforementioned group now. I watch the current group and I just get angry. At least if they were kids, you would be patient, feel that there is a system in place etc.

So….Burke has a foundation of 3. Kadri, as pathetic as it sounds right now is the great hope to get to 4. It’s no wonder Burke has been so quiet of late, the magnitude of the job ahead has to be incredibly daunting.

You have to love the television business… Sportsnet drew huge numbers for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning game last night. It was in the top 10 most watched events in Sportsnet’s history. So, what does David Akande say? ““This number proves once again that Sportsnet is the destination for hockey that matters. Whether it is for the pre-game show, intermissions
or the game itself, we are the home for the Toronto Maple Leaf fan.”

Classic! Hell, this game could have been on Rogers 10 and it would have drawn the number. I think what Akande meant was thank you Phill and the entire Maple Leafs training and medical staff for getting him back so early as otherwise we would be shitting bricks.

Meanwhile, one has to wonder about the pressures and limitations on writers for the MSM. I say that because when you read Bill Houston’s blog these days, he is a lot more daring than he used to be while writing for the Globe and Mail. Case in point:

” Don’t take it personally, Bruce. Avery trashes everybody. Besides, you are fat. And if Avery motivated you to lose a few pounds, that’s a good thing.”

No, “Bruce” doesn’t refer to the author of “off the post”, rather it is referring to the head coach of the Washington Capitals. Boudreau was apparently taken back by Sean Avery’s comments about Boudreau’s weight.

Am I alone in thinking that now that Houston is out from under the Globe and Mail he is going to be a lot more candid than he was before. For some reason I just can’t see him calling Bruce Boudreau fat while writing his old column. A refreshing change to say the least. I guess he subscribes to the truth hurts philosophy.

Lastly, I am sure i am in the minority here, however i don’t think it’s that big a deal if some professional athletes got their H1N1 shots ahead of the rest of us. To be honest I kind of expected it. Oh, and I think what David Branch did today took enormous balls. I would have preferred it if he had tossed the Erie coach as well. Branch’s rationale was that players lack the respect and that is why the injury took place (combined with the current health of the victim). Well, if a player skates 40-50ft at breakneck speed and pulverizes another player, one has to think that part of that follows the coaching philosophy of the team. I feel for the kid who got suspended- but not nearly as much as I do for the victim or his family.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Houston is here

That collective shudder you just heard throughout the OHL is the surprising return of the 2008-09 Player of the Year, Cody Hodgson of the Brampton Batallion.

Tabbed by many, including TheHockeyNews.com, as a Calder Trophy contender heading into the season, Hodgson continued to show the lingering effects of the bulging disc he suffered in the off-season and did not impress in Canucks camp.

This is Christmas come early for a struggling Batallion squad that has stumbled out of the gate to an 0-3 start to the season after reaching the OHL finals one year ago. Interestingly, Brampton began the year in disappointing fashion last season as well, starting out 2-6 before turning the season around.

Hodgson’s return also marks another entry into what will be a fascinating OHL scoring race. With Nazem Kadri (London Knights) previously being sent down by the Leafs to join Taylor Hall (Windsor Spitfires), Tyler Seguin (Plymouth Whalers), Eric O’Dell (Sudbury Wolves), and Luke Pither and Alexander Burmistrov (Barrie Colts), Hodgson will be in tough to claim the OHL scoring mantle from John Tavares.

so far56% of respondents to our survey think Nazem Kadri should be sent back to his junior team..

“”It’s not so much what the young guys are doing,” Wilson said before Tuesday night’s 3-2 pre-season shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Air Canada Centre. “It’s that the veteran people have responded. They’re the ones who have played really well. I couldn’t say that last year, and we ended up with young people getting elevated roles in our lineup.” National Post

So, the question is….Should he stay or should he go?

What’s the answer Leaf fans?

And there you have it. The big deal is done, and now all that is left to do is play the games. It says here that the pressure on the team just got turned up a few notches. No more tank nation that’s for sure! This team has to make the playoffs for this deal to make any sense whatsoever. Below is a list of the early returns on the deal, there isn’t much right now, so we’ll do it again tomorrow night. Here is my thought. Most of us believed in Burke when he got the job. We can’t think that over night he got stupid. We have to faith that he knows what he is doing. I hope that he can recover some semblance of these picks in moving some of his surplus defencemen and forwards too:

TSN:

“The drama surrounding Phil Kessel has finally come to an end as the Boston Bruins have traded their disgruntled sniper to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for a first and a second round pick in 2010, and a first round pick in 2011. Kessel and the Maple Leafs then quickly agreed to terms on a new five-year, $27 million deal. The trade ends a saga that began during the lead-up to the NHL Draft when Kessel originally appeared to be headed to Toronto in exchange for defenceman Tomas Kaberle and a draft pick. However, the deal was scuttled at the last moment due to a miscommunication over the pick.”

That’s all you need to know in a nutshell.

The Star:

“The trade represents a possible change in strategy for Burke. Up until now, he’s been content to stock up on draft picks and defenceman, but has done little to bolster the Leafs’ thin offence. While giving up three high picks is a big price to pay for Kessel’s negotiating rights, the Leafs also have several promising rookies in Tyler Bozak, Viktor Stalberg, Nazem Kadri and Christian Hanson, all of whom have scored during in the team’s first two pre-season games.”

The pressure on these young kids to perform just got much greater don’t you think?

The Globe and Mail:

“The Leafs could have signed Kessel, a restricted free agent, to an offer sheet at the cost of a first, second and third-round pick. But Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli stated he had ownership’s backing to match any offer sheet, therefore retaining the rights to the player. The University of Minnesota product was diagnosed with testicular cancer in his rookie season on Dec. 12, 2006. He missed 11 games to recover from surgery, played in a two-game in the AHL and scored once before returning to the Bruins. Later that season, he was given the Bill Masterton Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”

In Burke we have to trust. I think that Burke looks at the college kids has found draft picks. Perhaps he thinks that he can dip into that well again next year for younger players.

The best article this evening (the Boston papers don’t have a word on the deal as of yet) belongs to the National Post and Bruce Arthur:

“Sure, the Leafs general manager risked ridicule by proclaiming he wanted to trade for the No. 1 pick in the draft and then failing to do so, but that didn’t exactly saddle the team with long-term liability. It just meant he swung, and missed. “I have no problem with failing publicly,” Burke said last week, “as long as out fans know we want to hit home runs.” Phil Kessel, however, could be different. Phil Kessel could be a home run.”

It’s a hell of a price for a could be. Draft Schmaft got a certain former GM in a bit of trouble. Burke seems to be saying the same thing here.

“Why Kessel? Well, he scored 36 goals last season, he was a point-per-game player in Boston’s last two playoff runs, and he can flat-out fly. And did we mention he is 21 years old? For a Maple Leafs team whose forwards could best be described as a mixed and unappetizing bag, Kessel is a top-end sniper in the race to rebuild.”

Indeed, the upside is huge. Should the leafs be a lottery team this year or next, this is a disaster.

“And yet Boston refused to fit him into its admittedly jammed salary structure. Which seems odd, until you hear the whispers about Kessel’s inability to get along with teammates, or the way he and coaches tend to disagree when he is criticized, or his distaste for extra work.

There is a passage in Gare Joyce’s recent book, Future Greats and Heartbreaks, which details Kessel’s disastrous pre-draft interview with Columbus. All the Columbus guys said was “Teammates,” and Kessel said he didn’t understand. But after an uncomfortable silence, Kessel started to blurt out answers. “I don’t have a problem with my teammates,” he claimed. “I don’t have a problem with Jack Johnson,” he added. On and on he went. Apparently, he didn’t come across as a bad kid; just as a socially vacant one. And as badly as the interview went, after Kessel walked out, one of the Columbus guys said, a little dreamily, “Kessel’s a hell of a talent.”

The pressure on one Ron Wilson is much greater for next year isn’t it. His team has to win and win now. No more nice efforts. This team has to make the playoffs this season. Burke is betting that Wilson and Co. will be able to get Kessel to the next level. If not, who do you think goes overboard first, Kessel or Wilson?

“Eye of the beholder, indeed. If Kessel really is a media-shy problem child – well, this is not the right place for him. The most essential characteristic a Toronto Maple Leaf has to have is mental fortitude. The pressure in this hockey-crazy town can crack you; the celebrity can soften you like a lobster on the boil. Similarly, the two most essential characteristics a Toronto Maple Leafs general manager are simple. One, they need the ability to tell who can and cannot deal with this environment. Plenty of players are happier in the relatively calm climes of the United States, where nobody bothers you when you eat.”

One has to hope that Burke has done his homework on what he just bought. If the media pressure is too much for Kessel, we will know very quickly. The problem is there just isn’t enough veterans on the team to help him out. Who is going to show him the ways? There are a few guys, I guess. Enough??? We shall see.

“However the Kessel experiment goes, we will learn something about Brian Burke that we did not already know. If Kessel is a star who manages to fit into Ron Wilson’s program, then Burke’s vision will be proven to extend beyond whether a guy can make somebody else pick their teeth out of the glass. This could be, as we mentioned, a home run.

But if Kessel cracks, then the questions start. The road to perdition has traditionally been paved by GMs too willing to part with draft picks, in this town. Has Burke, like too many of his predecessors, been rendered overly impatient by the blue and white beast? Naturally, Burke insists that isn’t happening. We believe him. But we’ll see.

“Just started the first of five years,” Burke said in an informal gathering with reporters last week. “I’m not going to succumb to instant response. We’re going to stay on the long-term plan, but we think we’ve short-circuited it. We think we took a shortcut.”

Kessel is a shortcut, all right. The question is to where. ”

The last trade we made with the Bruins I believe was for a guy named Raycroft. That one didn’t turn out so good. Kessel had one good year in Boston. Much like Raycroft. Here’s hoping and betting that Kessel turns out better than Raycroft.

Berger of course is steadfast in his opposition to the deal. His last two blogs have told us why he doesn’t think this is a deal that the Leafs should make.

Mccown basically said today that if the deal was for a first and second pick he would do it in a heartbeat. He wasn’t sure after that.

Hanky??? This was not one of his best days. He missed on this one big time. All of his posts today had Kessel either going nowhere or to Nashville. Not the finest moment for hockey’s most infamous blogger.

Cliff was famous for draft schmaft. Burke has in essence said the same thing hasn’t he… In Burke we trust. His team has to not be a lottery team the next two years in order for this deal to survive basic scrutiny. If they are….look out.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

First it was Stephen Harris in the Boston Herals siting unamed sources closes to the Bruins that something is imminant and now Damien Cox is suggesting that this has to end soon or Burke may pull the offer sheet out of his back pocket”

“In fact, sources indicate that if Kessel isn’t traded in the next 48 hours, the Maple Leafs may be prepared to lay down an offer sheet in order to bring the issue to a conclusion.”

“The Leafs are believed to have offered two first round picks and a second – more than the free agent compensation of a first, second and third – but could amend that to involve young players. Nazem Kadri, however, is out, and probably Tyler Bozak and Christian Hanson are too since GM Brian Burke knows future attempts to sign NCAA free agents would be damaged if he dealt either Bozak or Hanson just months after signing them.

Winger Viktor Stalberg or forward Jiri Tlusty are possibles, but the Bruins would likely view either as anything but a guaranteed contributor for this season. Tomas Kaberle, included in trade talks between the two clubs in June, now has an active no-trade clause again.

For the Leafs, waiting much longer carries with it the risk that other teams might suffer injuries and therefore join in the bidding. So the likeliehood is that this weekend will see Kessel either traded or tendered an offer sheet.

Kessel is still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery and won’t play until mid-November. But he should know the identity of his new team within days.”

Great blog post by Damien. Let the banter continue and the countdown officially begin….

@yyzsportsmedia

Here is the lineup for tonight’s game:

Defence

Forwards

Alexei Ponikarovsky – Mikhail Grabovski – Nikolai Kulemin
Niklas Hagman – Nazem Kadri – Lee Stempniak
Christian Hanson – Tyler Bozak – Viktor Stalberg
Jay Rosehill – Rickard Wallin – Ben Ondrus

Mike Komisarek – Tomas Kaberle
Andy Rogers – Luke Schenn
Jesse Blacker – Carl Gunnarsson

Goalies
Joey MacDonald
James Reimer

LT will be back after the game for post game thoughts

@yyzsportsmedia

CHL junior hockey is ready to kick off its 2009-10 season as 60 teams from the OHL, WHL, and QMJHL get set to embark upon the road to the Memorial Cup. To give you a taste of what to expect along the way, I will be examining who to watch and what to look for within each of the OHL’s three leagues. Today, let’s check in with the OHL.

The Windsor Spitfires juggernaut enters the season having not missed a beat since winning the franchise’s first ever Memorial Cup last May. LW Taylor Hall, fresh off an MVP performance at the tournament, looks primed to succeed John Tavares as hockey’s Next Big Thing and is already being tabbed by some as a projected first over-all pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. He is backed by an impressive supporting cast that includes D Ryan Ellis, a 2009 first rounder (No. 11, Nashville Predators) and Max Kaminsky Trophy winner (OHL MVP). All in all, the Spitfires have 11 returnees, not a good sign for the rest of the league.

But that target on their back will not fade, especially with a number of talented teams chasing them.

The London Knights always seem to loom large among the OHL contenders, and this season is no different for the Spitfires’ Western Conference rivals. With Tavares off in Long Island, the big question with the 2008-09 conference finalists is the availability of Leafs No. 1 pick Nazem Kadri (7th over-all), who is turning heads among some of the big club executives. While it would be difficult to absorb the blow of losing Tavares and Kadri, the presence of forwards Phil Varone and Philip McRae, along with defencemen Michael Del Zotto and over-ager Steven Tarasuk would certainly be a nice cushion.

Switching over to the Eastern Conference, the Barrie Colts represent one of the few teams in the “O” who can match the firepower of Windsor. New acquisitions Luke Pither (from Belleville) and Alexander Burmistrov (Russian import) will lead a deep forward corps that returns 10 Colts from last season. Their season will come down to performance on the back end, with a shaky defence and a first-time starting goaltender in Peter Di Salvo.

The league’s three local squads – the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors, the Brampton Battalion, and the Oshawa Generals – are heading in a variety of different directions. The Majors are a team on the rise following their conference semifinal appearance last season. With a standout goaltending tandem of Chris Carrozzi and J.P. Anderson and defensive stalwart Cameron Gaunce, goals will be at a premium for opponents.

However, the Battalion and Generals seem to be going in the other direction. Fresh off a run to the OHL championship final, Brampton has been quickly thrust into a rebuilding phase after losing its top three scorers from last year – Matt Duchene (Colorado), Cody Hodgson (Vancouver), and Evgeny Grachev (New York Rangers). The Generals, meanwhile, are well into their rebuilding effort after getting younger in a hurry following their swap of Tavares and Del Zotto which netted them RW Christian Thomas, D Scott Valentine, G Michael Zador, and a slew of draft picks.

Aside from the championship contenders, there are a number of intriguing storylines to watch heading into the season.

-  The Kingston Frontenacs, led by head coach Doug Gilmour, looked primed to advance past the first round of the play-offs for the first time since the 1997-98 season.
-  A talented Ottawa 67’s team is set to reign in the post-Brian Kilrea era, led by a strong defensive unit that returns Tyler Cuma and Julien Demers.
-  Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds F Jordan Nolan, the team’s top scorer last year and the son of Ted Nolan, will open the season serving a 20-game suspension following an attack on R.J. Mahalak of the Plymouth Whalers late last year. In his absence, the Greyhounds will look for a boost from No. 1 over-all draft pick Daniel Catenacci.

How good does it feel to say that???? Man it has been a LOOOOONNNNG time coming, exhibition or no exhibition:

Forwards
Andre Deveaux – John Mitchell – Jay Rosehill
Nikolai Kulemin – Jason Allison – Jiri Tlusty
Wayne Primeau – Nazem Kadri – Colton Orr
Viktor Stalberg – Tyler Bozak – Christian Hanson

Defence
Jeff Finger – Francois Beauchemin
Garnet Exelby – Ian White
Phil Oreskovic – Jonas Frogren

Goalies
Vesa Toskala
Joey MacDonald

Whom, Leaf fans do you think will make the big club? The over under is at 20%…thoughts?

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Just got back from the Blue Rodeo concert and it was awesome. Lt rocked and rolled through the entire show and sang every word! The opening act as many of you suggested was really good too.

Rookie camp is almost up on us and there are two players I think that will garner the most attention in both rookie camp and the full training camp. The Toronto Maple Leafs first round pick Nazem Kadri has, unfairly, in my opinion huge expectations simply because of the season Luke Schenn had last season. As a result of Schenn making the team last season, expectations for Kadri will be high. I know the answer is simply that just because Schenn made has no bearing or reflection of Kadri. I do know about expectations though in this town, and people I do believe will feel let down if he isn’t good enough to make the team. The right answer is that he should play wherever it affords him the best opportunity to develop. Opinions on that will be far and wide. Where does leave him, I don’t know, but I am betting that he doesn’t make the team. I would be less surprised to see him back with the London Kinights than I would to see him a Leaf. That would really surprise me.

In the same vein is the question of the young goalie Gustavsson. He is older, more mature, but he too has never played in the NHL. Goalies also tend to take longer to develop. If Gustavsson bombs out of the gate, how long do they let him stay with the big club and not play? How soon do they send him to the minors? How much of that is based on the play of Vesa Toskala? If Toskala is no better this season than he was last, will that put added pressure on The Monster? I really hope not. In an ideal world, the growth and maturation of Gustavsson should be totally unrelated to that of the rest of the team and or Vesa Toskala. He should be afforded every opportunity in training camp to make the team. If he struggles then he should go down and get his game minutes in. Will that happen? Time will tell. In both cases the pressure on both kids will be immense. The pressure on Burke will be equally as high. Not trading away picks and prospects at the draft was Burke’s first test. Not rushing his kids will be his second.

On the topic of the Maple Leafs, it is very quiet out of MLSE after the report of no official team representative at Ted Kennedy’s funeral last week. Silence tells me that, unfortunately, there is no good explanation for the absence and that the good ship Maple Leaf screwed up. The appearance of not caring in this matter is hard to ignore. The silence on the matter is deafening too. Let’s hope that if it is true, that no one from the team was there, that it was a total 100% mistake and that the will admit so publicly.

So, Paul Kelly is on the hot seat already in the NHLPA? This has to be a joke right? How is it possible that the NHLPA can be this dysfunctional. Again, if it is true, and they are really thinking about replacing Kelly, then I have the perfect replacement for him. David Miller. Yes the Mayor of Toronto would be perfect to serve the NHLPA. He has done such a wonderful job as Mayor of the City of Toronto, i feel that we Torontonians should swallow hard and suffer by letting him go and run the NHLPA. If not Miller, Glen Healey would be an awesome choice! If you are sensing a little bit of sarcasm it’s because I am laying it on pretty thick!

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Editors note, I thought that if kadri made the leafs and lost his junior eligibility he could go to the marlies. I was wrong.