Leafs add Scrivens, goaltending deepens

The Leafs added another goaltender to their roster with the signing of Ben Scrivens to a one year entry level contract. Scrivens hails from Mike Weir country – Spruce Grove Alberta – and was one of ten finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, posting a scintillating .934 save percentage and 1.87 GAA. The 6’2″ Scrivens also managed to post the third-longest shutout streak in NCAA history last season.

Scrivens will likely start in the ECHL next season, with the Leafs’ goaltending roster overflowing with candidates looking to match up with the Buds’ goalie coach Francois Allaire.

Leafs lock Monster, Jussi Rynnas

The Buds have locked down the Monster in a new 2 year contract, and have signed free-agent goaltender Jussi Rynnas of Finland to a multi-year contract. The Jonas Gustavsson contract was announced a week ago, and brian Burke announced the Rynnas deal Friday.

Rynnas will probaby start next season in the AHL with the marlies, but if either of Gustavsson or Giguere come out shaky or get injured you could see him between the pipes sooner rather than later – and Coach Wilson will also likely give the Finn an outing or two in pre-season.

Assuming Gustavsson takes on the #1 spot in net, that leaves the Leafs with Giguere’s remaining year – worth $7m, $6m hitting on the cap – to see if Gustavsson is the real deal and bring Rynnas along. Giguere still fancies himself a starter so it’s unlikely he’ll take a pay hit to stay a Leaf. Look for him to be dealt at the deadline next year to jettison salary, especially if the Leafs are having another boner season.

GO LEAFS GO!!!

Fitting end for Leafs’ lousy season

The strong finish to an otherwise horrible season can at least provide some comfort, even if somewhat cold, to Leaf Nation. The Habs and Leafs going at it on a Saturday night – end to end hockey and overtime – nothing better than that except coming out on top. Nice that {haneuf scored the winning goal – look forward to seeing him made captain at the beginning of next season.

So that’s it then. A dismal showing – the worst in decades. It’ll take a mighty effort to turn things around, but I was encouraged by the moves made at the deadline and the influx of young, eager talent. It’ll be interesting to see what Brian Burke does over the summer. There’ll be some changes no doubt.

GO LEAFS GO!!

Pat Burns For The Hall Of Fame

Put Pat Burns into the Hockey Hall Of Fame. It’s a no-brainer. They did a rush job on Mario. Why not Pat?

The only 3 time winner of the Jack Adams Trophy – 88-89, 92-93, 97-98, 15 years coaching in the NHL, another 4 in the minors before that. Of those 15 years coaching in the bigs, only 3 seasons missed the playoffs. Two conference finals with the Leafs. Witnessed the Kerry Fraser, Gilmour Gretzky fiasco. Won the Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2002-03. Coached 1019 games, with a record of 501-350-161-14.

 Facebook has a fan page, as does the Montreal Canadiens.

 Thanks for the memories Sir.

GO PAT GO!!!

Thrashers, Antropov eliminate Leafs from playoffs

The boo-birds were waiting for Nik Antropov, and he responded in kind, potting the winning goal in the third to officially eliminate the Leafs from the playoffs. Has it really been 6 years since we say hockey in the spring? So sad.

The 14 point spread between the 29th place Leafs and the 30th place Oilers is sufficient padding to keep the Leafs off the basement floor for the season. There’s 4 points separating the Leafs from 25th place, providing the Canes, Panthers, Islanders and Lightning all cave and the Buds don’t. Everybody south of Carolina in the standings are currently on losing streaks right now, and all of them also have a game in hand, so barring some miracle the L:eafs are likely to finish 29th or close enough to it the Boston comes up cream pie in the lottery draft.

The end drawns near.

GO GOLFING BOYS!!! GO GOLFING!!!

Good effort comes up short against Pens

Oh… Sidney Crosby… you goal scoring machine you.

The Leafs played a good game in Pittsburgh, outworking the Penguins for much of the game, but came up a bit short in the OT frames. I can’t fault Giguere at all, who had 45 shots blasted at him. I thought it was game over for sure when the Buds took a cheap penalty in the OT frame, but they managed to fend that off and send it to the shootout.

Dion Phaneuf continues to make a case for himself as the next Leafs captain. What a work horse this kid is. He put close to 30 minutes of ice time in yesterday. You can see bits of Kaberle rubbing off on Luke Schenn too, who has adopted that sudden “stop and curl” move that Kaberle uses when skating out of his own end and facing an aggressive forechecker.  

Just 6 games left until golf season. The Leafs have quietly crept closer to the pack in the eastern conference standings. While it’s unlikely they’ll affect any of the playoff matches being hammered out, they’re certainly taking a healthy run at knocking Boston’s first roundpick down a few notches. Four of the 6 games are at home, the final 2 games away – the Rangers on the 7th and the season finale playing the Habs in Montreal on the 10th.

GO LEAFS GO!!

Leafs sign Irwin, dash Rangers

You just know John Tortorella let his squad have it after the OT goal went in, robbing them of a desperately needed 1 point. After all, where would his reputation as the Angriest Person Alive be if he didn’t let out fire and brimstone after such a stunning upset. Up 2 – 0, he watched as Kaberle scored an impossible goal from the corner of the rink to tie it up, and continued to watch, helplessly, as Kulemin potted the winner in OT.

As a side note, this was the last game as referee in Toronto for Kerry Fraser. His admission that he missed “The Call” – you know of which call I speak – doesn’t go far enough. But i goes as far as anyone would acre to admit. That blown call cost the maple Leafs the Stanley Cup that year, I don’t care what anyone says. There is no way thew Montreal Canadiens would have beat the Leafs in the finals. The Habs got lucky, drawing a Kings squad that barely belonged in the playoffs that year. So long, Fraser. Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out. I look forward to seeing pictures of you in 10 years, bald as an eagle.

Brian Burke continues his courting of young college prospects, signing free agent Brady Irwin yesterday. The 6′ 5″ - 205 pound power forward, 23 years old and from Toronto, just finished his fourth season with the University of Vermont with 15 goals and 34 points in 39 games. You’ll see this tall, lanky kid in camp this fall. Hopefully he’ll put on 10 or 15 pounds betwen now and then, which should make him almost impossible to move from the crease or get off of a puck.

And I still love the Phil Kessel trade.

GO LEAFS GO!!!

Monster mashes Habs

Leafs Nation may be staring in disbelief as The Monster, Jonas Gustavsson, continues to make a case for himself as the future of Maple Leafs netminding. While his play last night falls short of brilliant, it was good. Really good. Unbeaten in 5. Goals against closing in on the 2.0 mark, and save percentage well over .900.

Phil Kessel’s hot streak continues… what a laser shot this kid has. He hets in that spot just below and center of the top of the faceoff circles and he seems unstoppable from there, even for hot Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak. And I loved the shootout goal by Mitchell. Exactly the same move as the previous game against the Devils. Hard deak left, stop, puck to the right and in. Goalies will be waiting for that one next time.

So we’re above .500 at home for the first time in a while. Dreadful road record at 10 – 20 – 7. Guess that’s why we’re golfing in a couple of weeks. While its not mathematically impossible to reach the playoffs I can’t imagine 7 eastern conference teams completely collapsing to let us by into 8th place. Both Carolina and Atlanta are hot too. But the Leafs are just 3 points back of 7th and 4 points back of 3 other teams, so we can certainly spoil that 1st round pick Boston hopes to get for trading Phil Kessel to us.

Did I mention I still love that trade?

Dion Phaneuf is looking more and more like captain material. What a warrior. Another great deal swung by Brian Burke. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the C on this guy’s shirt some time soon.

GO LEAFS GO!!!

New Kids light it up

Edmonton got torched last night in Toronto, and for the most part it was a decent game of shinny all things considered. That is, considering the respective basement dwellers of the east and west conferences squared off with nothing to gain or lose but momentum towards an early golfing season.

That Edmonton managed to light up Toronto 4 times and looked like they wanted back into a game they were losing by 4 goals at one point is somewhat scary for our fragile goaltending situation. I think Edmonton – and Toronto – are better teams than the standings indicate. But someone has to be in the basement.

Tyler Bozak, Phil Kessel and Nikolai Kulemin seem to me conjealing as a line. They looked slick last night, racking up 8 points, with Bozak potting a goal and 3 assists. Kessel scored twice – something he  hasn’t done in a while. Signing Bozak looks like an act of genious now that he’s panning out. He’s playing great, and if he can manage to elevate his game as well as his size and strength for next year, the sting of not having a 2011 1st round draft pick pay need less ointment.

Kulemin continues to impress. Man this kid is fast once he gets the wheels going. He can really open things up in the middle when he breaks down the wing in top flight, usually drawing both defencemen and one back checker to the boards. If speed is the key to the future, Kulemin has a role to play here, as does Bozak.

Kessel? He just needs to score and keep scoring. What a wicked shot, a lightning release that’s really hard to stop, traffic or not in front of th goaltender. Pure sniper this kid. Love the trade, still.

So what’s in store after, as the 29th team, playing the 30th team in a 30 team league? Playing the 28th team in the league in their own rink today. That’s what.

GO LEAFS GO!!!

Deadline purge fuelling Leafs’ auditions

Trade deadline purges tend to do that. Give everyone that sickening feeling that no-one’s job is safe and they best step up or pack their bags. The young guys are on fire and everyone else around them seems to have caught onto the spirit – the Leafs have points in 4 of their last 5 and 3 of them were wins. Tonight’s tilt against the Oilers should be a doozy – 46 guys that’ll be golfing in a couple of weeks, all playing pond hockey for their jobs.

Just 15 games left until the suffering is over for yet another season. It’ll be an interesting summer, waiting to see what Burke pulls off remking this Leafs squad into something that can come in next season and compete night in night out. Hockey in May would sure be nice.

GO LEAFS GO!!!