The Force Is Strong With This One
JP Nikota
March 01 2012 07:22PM
As many of our regular readers are by now probably already aware, I am a teacher by trade. At the moment, I teach a smattering of different grades and subjects, including a grade five English class where hockey discussions often get heated. It's not uncommon for these discussions to find their way into the journal entries that I have the class complete on a weekly basis. Almost any subject can, with a little creativity, be turned into a rant about hockey. Just this once, the students were specifically asked to write about their favorite or least favorite sports team.
Read on to view a piece of writing that should give beleaguered Leafs fans hope for future generations of fans carrying the torch.
Leafs Demote Two, Promote One
JP Nikota
February 25 2012 02:30PM
The move wasn't exactly a big surprise, but it was nevertheless exciting. The Leafs waiving Jay Rosehill and Darryl Boyce was good news all around, but especially so for Matt Frattin.
To Trade For Top-Six Size
JP Nikota
February 24 2012 06:56AM
I think most of us can recognize that the Leafs currently have more trouble preventing goals than they do scoring them, but that doesn't mean that Brian Burke shouldn't add to his forward corps if a good player comes available. It wouldn't take a Rick Nash or a Dustin Brown to improve this current Leafs' forward group either; there are other names out there, I'm sure, that could help the Leafs that aren't being discussed on message boards all over the internet.
What's Eating Nikolai Kulemin?
JP Nikota
January 30 2012 10:14PM
If you're a top-six forward and Joey Crabb has doubled your goal production despite playing 10 fewer games, it's a pretty safe bet that things haven't exactly been going your way. But add to that the fact that this is a contract year and you are losing yourself future dollars by the day, and things look downright grim. [Editor's Note: This could be great news for the Leafs long-term]
OK, so maybe we won't cry for Nikolai Kulemin - he is still rather well off, I'm sure - but it doesn't help stem the frustration of seeing him on pace for 8 goals on the season. It's true that most of us expected at least some regression from last season's totals but this has been quite the dry spell. [Editor's Note: Here's a look at a simpler time's predictions - pre-season.]
In this kind of situation, the bad news is also, to a certain extent, the good news: Kulemin has a shooting percentage of 6.94% and it's bound to regress to the mean at some point. Click to read on.
Should Burke Add Top-Six Size At The Deadline?
JP Nikota
January 29 2012 01:33PM
Really, the only thing that Burke has emphatically said that he wants to acquire in the coming weeks is more size for his top-six. It's not a bad idea per se, but the Leafs' defense hasn't exactly been stellar and their goaltending situation is questionable to say the least. In short, I'm somewhat surprised that there hasn't at least been some mention of adding at another position.
