Sometimes hockey reminds you that it’s a sport, it’s meant to be entertaining, and not meant to be enjoyed as an intellectual pursuit. The Toronto Maple Leafs came into Thursday’s game against the Boston Bruins requiring a win, and having an excellent chance to do so facing a tired squad playing their backup goaltender. Until…
No matter how the NHL alters the language of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, you’re always going to be able to find ways for teams to pay players more than their rival teams on the free agent market. After the salary cap was introduced, it didn’t take long for teams to handcuff themselves by spending lots…
That tweet was written on October 29th, after the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated Edmonton 4-0 in Edmonton. The next night, Toronto was in Calgary on the second half of a back-to-back, and rather than the Calgary Flames give the writer of that particular tweet a large helping of crow, Toronto defeated Calgary 4-2 despite being…
I was listening to the newest Steve Dangle podcast and a listener emailed in a question about which coaches should replace Randy Carlyle. It’s interesting because one or two episodes ago, Steve & Co. couldn’t really place a finger on a candidate. One of the many emailers submitting a question about Carlyle provided a list…
It presumably hasn’t escaped people’s collective grasps that the Toronto Maple Leafs have stopped being out-shot as much during this lengthy losing skid. Sure, until the game against the Blues, the Leafs had actually out-shot its opposition 160-154 in the first five games, including two consecutive out-shooting games against Detroit and Tampa Bay followed by…
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ goaltenders save percentage is now a ghastly 9th in the National Hockey League, and James Reimer’s has fallen below the league average for starters on the year over the last two games. The losing streak isn’t James Reimer’s fault so much as it’s been that Reimer’s regrettably been the guy in…
The out-of-town scoreboard has not been kind to the Maple Leafs over the past week (as I type this, I notice that Philadelphia has just scored twice to take a 2-1 lead over St. Louis) so this Toronto-Montreal clash becomes less of a first-round preview and more of a… I hate to call it a…
James Reimer is one of my favourite Leafs, but it doesn’t take a hater to note that Reimer is going through a rough stretch right now. After last night’s performance against Tampa Bay, Reimer is currently playing through his worst 20 games in his NHL career, save percentage-wise. Since November 25, Reimer has stopped 520…
Me, watching Sunday afternoon hockey (except I use a french press) A shorthanded Toronto Maple Leafs lineup lost a Sunday afternoon game in Washington, in more ways than one. The Leafs were shorthanded because they’re missing some of their top players due to injuries, illnesses, as well as mysterious disappearances. The Leafs shorthanded group also…
During the third period of last night’s Leafs game against the Kings, the Leafs held a 3-2 lead and had a faceoff in the defending end of the rink, to the left of James Reimer. The Kings had Anze Kopitar on the ice, an elite forward and faceoff-man. The Leafs had Tyler Bozak and Jay…
The point an old elementary school science teacher of mine would hammer home when discussing the scientific method was that it must be replicated: an experiment is basically useless if it can only be performed once and not over and over and over again. The way he’d explain this is that the steps of the…
Shortly after Phil Kessel made the score 2-1 for Toronto, Craig Simpson (in his infinite wisdom) decided to call Kessel a “one shot scorer”. I’m not sure about that description. Kessel came into the game third in the NHL in shots on goal. His shooting percentage of 11.2% is not an eyebrow-raising distance from the…
