Leafs at the World Championships

Things have been pretty quiet for the Leafs; with the playoffs in full swing there’s not a ton going on for a squad that’s misssed them every year since the lockout. Luckily for Leafs fans the draft is only six weeks away and there are a pile of Leafs currently playing for their country in the 2011 IIHF World Championships.

Through three games at the World Championships James Reimer has stopped 75 of 80 shots for a sparkling 0.938SV%. He looks to be making a very large case to remain Canada’s goalie even if recently eliminated players like Marc-Andre Fleury are available. (Note: Reimer stopped the puck in the lead image.)

Dion Phaneuf has three points in three games and nearly killed a swiss player with this solid shoulder to chest check:

With one assist in 3 games Luke Schenn is a +3. Mike Komisarek has no points in two games but is even. Hopefully he can use the softer competition of the WC to find his game in time for next season.

Carl Gunnarsson has no points but is a +3 for Sweden, and Mike Brown (shown helping Yan Stastny score) is a +1 for the USA team that may or may not have killed Osama Bin Laden. Germany’s Marcel Mueller has a goal and an assist in three games in the tournament.

On a weak Belarus squad Mikhail Grabovski has no points and is a -1 through 2 games. He likely misses Toronto and his best buddy Nikolai Kulemin, who clearly also misses Grabovski and the NHL. Kulemin hasn’t seen a ton of ice time on a Russian team that favors KHL players due to internal politics.

Most of our guys have nice looking stats and our young goaltender is still playing well? That’s good enough Leafs news for me.