Archive for March 19th, 2009
THURSDAY’S GAMES AND PICKS
For in depth look into the NHL teams records and preview of tonight’s games please go back to the “Home Page” on Hockey God, at the bottom lower left hand side:
Click on “Scoreboard” and review every game by clicking in the individual games being played on Thursday.
Tonight’s Picks
LAK @ BOS: Take BRUINS
MTL @ OTT: Take CANADIENS
WSH @ TBL: Take CAPITALS
TOR @ FLA: Take PANTHERS
EDM @ COL: Take OILERS
STL @ VAN: Take CANUCKS
ANA @ PHX: Take DUCKS
NSH @ SJS: Take SHARKS
BURKE’S WAY OR THE HIGHWAY !
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS DECISIONS . . .
| NE | 71 | 29 | 29 | 13 | 71 | 213 | 252 | 13-13-9 | 16-16-4 | 6-3-1 | Won 2 |
Brian Burke General Manger of the Maple Leafs is in a strange position at the moment with his hockey team. On one hand he would love nothing more to land in a lottery spot and a chance at sure fire first rounder John Tavares of the London Knights in the OHL.
Burkie is not stupid he may be a junk yard dog that barks at whoever pisses him off in hockey, but stupid is not something you can accuse him of. So then why in Tampa Bay and other nights since he has become the boss at the ACC was he hooting and hollering at the team from his private box?
Some would say ( mostly media types) why is Burke cheering for his team to win games in the heat of the battle Burke shows such strong emotion for his team when his team needs to get a higher draft choice this summer?
Legit question ? . . . After all Burke has made it clear that it’s time to rebuild not only verbally since he took over but he dealt Nik Antropov & Dominic Moore to the Rangers and Sabres respectively. That trade basically sent the message loud and clear WE ARE IN REBUILDING MODE.
But anyone who has played, coached or managed at a high level will understand what I am about to say. When your team is playing your body takes over the mind whether you like it or not your COMPETITIVE JUICES get going and you want to win!
This is why fans are seeing Burke nearly jump out of the box in shoot-outs, close games and fights with his team on a nightly basis. It’s his will to win, his passion and drive for the team, not to mention winning is good for the players remaining development. Burke knows the players left will have to learn to not accept losing as easy as they did in past years in Toronto.
Brian Burke and his side kick Dave Nonis will have to do some heavy evaluating of the current roster before deciding who to bring in to add to the heavy amount of grit needed, finally making this a Burke-Toronto roster for next season.
CUJO PLAYS WELL BUT . . .
Curtis Joseph should walk away and into the retirement sunshine after finishing this season with the Maple Leafs.
Having played poorly at the start whenever he got in the net and now rebounding playing very strong the last few games he’s been in.
“It’s easier to retire if you don’t feel good and you have an injury, but I still enjoy the game and I could tell the other night after the game I enjoy it immensely,” he said. “And I’m always good for the salary cap.” Meaning the game in Tampa where the Leafs won in a shoot-out and Cujo made several key stops.
There has been a marriage break-up and play that almost resulted with the team pushing him into immediate retirement.
Joseph said he is always good for the salary cap after making $750K this year referring to the fact that he would sign back to play in Toronto for the league’s minimum.
“He struggled at the beginning. But he’s worked hard,” said coach Ron Wilson. “He’s never missed a practice or taken a day off with all the other issues that have flown around for him. He’s just been a true professional and he’s started to find his game again.
But the simple fact in Toronto with number one goaltender Vesa Toskala needing to be pushed by a capable backup who could steal his job at any given moment would work much better. Toronto has to give Vesa one more chance to see if he can carry the load with injuries out of the way.
ICE TIME IN TORONTO A PLENTY
With Nik Hagman still out with injury and having dealt centre’s Nik Antropov and Dominik Moore ice time around the Maple Leafs is a plenty for players trying to show their goods for next season.
It’s the players that take advantage of this fact with Ron Wilson and get more ice time and a chance to show GM Burke their future is with the Leafs.
Well that’s exactly what forward John Mitchell is doing right now having played as much as 20 minutes a night over this time and he started to show massive upside and promise.
There is noone that will mistake Mitchell as a top 6 forward with the Leafs but much the same as Moore did with the extra ice time he can show the management that there has to be a place for him on the roster.
Mitchell looked like he couldn’t play consistent earlier in the season and Wilson sat him out but he seems to have got the point that for him to be useful in the NHL he has to play as hard as he possibly can using his big body aggressively.
JASON BLAKE
Blake seems to be struggling since the departure of his center at the trade deadline Dom Moore. Blake was well on his way to another big year like when he was an Islander but that has been stalled the last few weeks.
Mix that with the fact that he has been battling with teammate Mickal Grabovski in practices over the last few weeks as well and you have a pissed off Blake.
Blake still leads the team in goals with 24 thanks in part to Antropov being dealt, now has to get his shit together if he is going to have any chance at production next season.
Burke won’t buy out Blake in part because it would still be to much of a cap drain on his team, but also because Blake showed so much promise that although he was inconsistent at times he became a solid contributor. Blake should have no problem being a top 9 player and helping the Leafs depth next season.
WHY DEVEAUX UP ?
With Toronto rookie forward Russian Nikolai Kulemin’s wife expecting a baby the Leafs needed an emergency call up to take his place on the roster.
My question is why in the hell did they give it to Andre Deveaux over several other deserving players on the Marlies?
Like Jiri Tlusty who has started to play finally to his capabilities in the AHL after being force fed the NHL last season.
Tlusty has put up some impressive numbers for the baby Leafs this season in 57 games played he has scored 23 times adding 38 helpers good for 61 points. Tlusty is finally breaking out to the player the Leafs were hoping and would benefit from a call up showing him the big club hasn’t lost interest.
Tlusty not to mention Jeremy Williams 23 AHL goals would have been a much better call at this time then the pretend tough guy Deveaux who got filled in some of his fights, when you could talk him into taking his gloves off at all at the NHL level. Burke likes to reward the AHL tough guy is the only logical explanation, I just wish the kid would fight and be legit when doing it.
| J. Blake | 67 | 24 | 32 | 4 | 56 |
| M. Stajan | 65 | 14 | 35 | -5 | 49 |
| A. Ponikarovsky | 71 | 19 | 29 | 6 | 48 |
| L. Stempniak | 65 | 13 | 26 | -10 | 39 |
| P. Kubina | 71 | 13 | 25 | -6 | 38 |
| N. Hagman | 58 | 19 | 18 | -5 | 37 |
| M. Grabovski | 67 | 16 | 19 | -5 | 35 |
| T. Kaberle | 51 | 4 | 27 | -14 | 31 |
| J. Mitchell | 65 | 9 | 16 | -14 | 25 |
| N. Kulemin | 64 | 11 | 12 | -9 | 23 |
For Hockey God I’m Dave Frost
www.joneslimousine.com