Leafs Lose 4-1 to Colorado

Funny thing happened at work today, a good friend of mine, asked me " so are you going to give up doing your blog"?. I didn't understand the question clearly, or more precisely, the reason he asked it. Then it dawned on me, as he walked away busy wrapping up his day. He assumed, that in my frustration with the Leafs, that I would, like all the other bandwagon jumping Leafs fans have done eventually give up.

The answer, is no.

Now, I'm not looking at the team through rose colored glasses, and I'm not going to pretend that there aren't some serious issues. I refuse however to throw in the towel!

This is a collection of players in my estimation that simply don't know what to do. Ron Wilson has ( hopefully ) been preaching defense, so the forwards for some strange reason have forgotten how to score, and the defencemen, know that they need to score more, so they apparently have forgotten how to defend.

Collectively, you have exactly what you are seeing now, the worst regular season start in franchise history.

It will get better, it has to really. I'm fairly certain that no team has ever gone win less for the entire season.

Here is the game re cap, courtesy our friends at the Canadian Press,( I'm sorry, my heart just isn't in it).

Oh, and as a parting shot, I have some advice for Coach Wilson, next game, try sitting the fighters, and tough guys. Make the guys who are supposed to score fend for themselves, see if that gets them moving!

Until next time, you kids play safe!



Ron Wilson's next move to try and wake up the win less Toronto Maple Leafs is to give his players the day off.

The Leafs coach benched two of his top scorers in favour of rookies and was forced to start third-string goalie Joey MacDonald on Tuesday night and still wound up with the same kind of result - a 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

Even though that left Toronto sitting dead last in the league, Wilson is sticking to his plan of having everyone take Wednesday off. The team has just one game over the next 10 days and he's intent on using that time to lighten the mood.

``First of all, we've got to relax here a little bit - maybe just do a complete reset,'' said Wilson. ``The worst has already happened up to this point (with) how you could possibly start a season. We're not going to practise all of those (upcoming off-days) - it might seem logical to practise and work on everything, but we've got to just relax here a little bit and step away tomorrow.

``(We'll) try to have a little bit of fun on Thursday and go from there.''

After starting 0-5-1, there's only one direction to go.

Former Leaf Darcy Tucker played a big role in the latest setback, scoring a goal and adding an assist in his first game back in Toronto since being bought out in the summer of 2008. He was thrilled to make an impact.

``I'm not going to lie to you, it felt great,'' said Tucker. ``To score back in a place where I've scored a number of goals over my career, it was exciting. I think it was more exciting for my kids in the stands than anything.''

He's still being paid US$1 million per year by a Leafs team that looked like they could have used some of his energy on Tuesday.

Brett Clark, David Jones and John-Michael Liles had the other goals for Colorado (4-1-1). Craig Anderson made 30 stops to earn his fourth victory of the season.

Francois Beauchemin replied for the Leafs, who don't play again until hosting the New York Rangers on Saturday.

Even though there was clearly a foul mood in the team's dressing room after the game, many of the players believe the only way to turn things around is to stay positive.

``The easy thing to do is to hang our heads and get frustrated and get down,'' said Leafs defenceman Mike Komisarek. ``That can't happen.''

Wilson was so desperate to try and get his team going that he sat veteran forwards Matt Stajan and Niklas Hagman, who had accounted for five of the team's 12 goals prior to the game against Colorado. He was pleased with the play of rookies Viktor Stalberg and Tyler Bozak in their place.

One of the only bright spots came when Bozak registered an assist in his first NHL game.

``That's definitely a proud moment for me and my family,'' said Bozak.

After the game, Wilson indicated that he's likely headed back to the American Hockey League this week. MacDonald, meanwhile, might get another start because No. 1 goalie Vesa Toskala will be out as long as two weeks with a knee injury and backup Jonas Gustavsson remains sidelined with a sore groin.

The journeyman goaltender finished with 24 saves in his Leafs debut on Tuesday.

``There was some weird bounces tonight,'' said MacDonald. ``Those things happen when you're in a slump.''

Toronto gave Colorado two power plays in the opening 10 minutes of the game and Clark capitalized on the second one. His point shot beat MacDonald while the Leafs goalie was being screened by Ian White _ his own defenceman.

Jones extended that lead to 2-0 just before the intermission. He made a pretty play on a solo rush to get around Tomas Kaberle before sliding the puck by MacDonald with 50.9 seconds left in the first period.

``We're getting beat 1-on-1 _ and guys getting beat 1-on-1 who shouldn't,'' said Wilson. ``It should not happen in this league. It's not like it was Joey Sakic.''

Falling into an early hole has been a big problem for these Leafs, who have been outscored 10-2 in the opening 20 minutes of games this season.

Beauchemin briefly brought some life back to his team with his first in a Toronto uniform at 3:33 of the second period, but Tucker quickly nullified that by scoring his third goal of the season just over two minutes later. The feisty winger pumped his fists after knocking in a rebound from the top of the crease on a power play.

The real dagger probably came on Colorado's fourth goal as Liles saw his floating shot go off the head of defenceman Mike Komisarek and into the net at 9:36.

There was still half a game to be played but the result was sealed by then.

Disgruntled fans started to boo the Leafs towards the end of the second period and continued throughout a lifeless final 20 minutes. One even started to yell ``Let's go Raptors!'' as the building emptied early.

It was the kind of scene Tucker experienced during the end of his tenure in the city and he admitted to feeling a little sorry for his former teammates after hearing it again.

``I've got some close friends there, especially a couple guys I played with for a number of years in Kaberle and Stajan,'' said Tucker. ``I feel for them, obviously. But you've got to understand it's six games into the year - you don't make the playoffs in six games and you don't get on the outside looking in six games. It's a full season.

``Obviously, they've got some work to do.''

Notes: The Leafs honoured former captain Ted Kennedy before the game ... Liles missed the third period with an injury to his right shoulder ... Wilson also scratched defenceman Jeff Finger against his former team ... Teenagers Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly each had an assist for the Avalanche ... Leafs goalie James Reimer served as the backup in his first NHL game. He needed to get directions to the Air Canada Centre for the morning skate ... Attendance was 19,148.

Canadian Press

Keeping You in the Loop/ Maple Leafs-Avs Preview

What a difference a day makes! Matt Stajan and Nicklas Hagman will be out of the line up tonight vs. the Avs as they come to town to face the Leafs.

A frustrated Hagman was indifferent at the news,"It's just not working," said the Toronto forward. "There's only one way to go. We can only play better.

"We showed some good things in these games, but we just haven't played well enough to win a game."

Joining the team will be Joey Macdonald who replaces Toskala who has been sent for an MRI. Wilson would not disclose the nature of the MRI but also called up goalie James Reimer on an emergency basis.

Also re-joining the team reportedly will be Tyler Bozak and Viktor Stalberg, who has been out for a week do to a suspected mild concussion.

All things being equal, I like the Leafs to win this one and claim their first victory of the season. With an infusion of some youth and the Toskala question mark answered, at least for today, look for the Leafs to come out with a lot of jump and score early!

The question has arisen about Jason Blake and why he isn't a healthy scratch. That question could have do different answers. The first being simple, despite his lack of production so far this season and his sometime inability to hold on to the puck in his own end, Blake has been the hardest working Leafs on a consistent basis. Keep in mind, NOBODY on the Leafs squad has been producing anything of any note.

The second possible answer lies in a rumor spotted in the Globe & Mail over the weekend, that Burke will soon put both Blake and Toskala on waivers to try and create some cap space for when Kessel returns around mid to late November.

Don't forget, you can hear the tonight's action live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Until next time, you kids play safe!

Rangers Embarrass Leafs with 7-2 Win at MSG

24 goals against in 5 games! Let me say that again, 24 goals against in 5 games!!


Wow, on a night that saw the Leafs get pretty much dominated in the first, although they did manage to score late in the period, I thought, well, here we go again.

The Buds went into the second period with a full head of steam despite being out shot by a Rangers team who are so far undefeated at home this year and have suffered only one loss overall.

After Ponikarovsky scored with 45 secs to go in the opening period, there was a ray of hope in Leafs land. That ray was carried into the second , even after Girardi scored for the Rangers only 26 seconds in to restore a 2 goal Leafs deficit, the Buds seemed to have new life and were taking to the Rangers.

Jason Blake added to the frenzy with a late period goal at 17:21 of the 2nd, and it looked like the makings of a comeback going into the third!


Then, the aforementioned Blake took a stupid damned penalty with 25 seconds to go in the period......and the wheels just fell off.


After out shooting the Rangers in the second, the Leafs just couldn't seem to find the handle in the third. They surrendered 4 unanswered goals in the period including 2 by Sean Avery of all people, who now has 10 points in 9 games against the Leafs and seven goals!

The Leafs ended the game being beaten soundly by a score of 7-2. Despite having played what was probably their best game all around of the season, except for the Montreal game.


Several players played well for the Leafs tonight, Grabovski, Kulemin, Ponikarovsky, Hagman, Finger and Komiserik all had decent games for the most part. Even much maligned goal tender Vesa Toskala played a solid 2 periods and then seemed to forget how to play in the third. Among the issues that are plaguing Toskala, is his in-ability to control rebounds. Although I don't think that more than one of the goals tonight was a direct result of a rebound, it makes it more difficult for his own team when they don't know where the puck is going to wind up after a shot.

Tomas Kaberle looked horrible, on a play that resulted in a goal, when he went for the puck behind the left shoulder of Toskala and was tracked down by a Ranger forward, instead of protecting the puck and taking the hit, he literally jumped back out of the way and allowed the Ranger player to take the puck!!??!?? He is supposed to be a SKILLED, and seasoned player. I haven't ever shared that opinion. In my opinion, he has NEVER been more than an average player that was made to look good because of his supporting cast!

That however is only one of the issues that face the Leafs going into play with the Avalanche tomorrow night. Some of which I'm certain will be addressed by Coach Ron Wilson, and some of which will only be addressed in time.

I also feel that as much as I'm the first one to say that the players are supposed to be pros, and shouldn't look like a bunch of house league players, EVER! There has to come a time when people stop asking questions of the players and start asking them of the coach.

Until next time, you kids play safe!