Posts Tagged ‘toronto maple leafs’

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Maple Leafs in Goal Drought

November 1st, 2010 by Emma | Comments Off | Filed in NHL News

The Toronto Maple Leafs squared off against the New York Rangers on Saturday night. The Leafs were shutout, losing 3-0. The Leafs have had a hard time in the past few games scoring only seven goals in the past six games. Their record in the last six games is 1-4-1 with two of those losses going to the Rangers.

The majority of the shots from the Leafs came from the outside and even when there was a good opportunity, the Leafs failed to capitalize on it. There is some positive coming from the shots they are making on the Rangers: out of 92 shots 35 of them were blocked and 21 missed the net.

The Rangers large success goes out to their Swedish goalie Henrik Lundqvist. He played a large part in Toronto’s second shutout loss to the Rangers by making 36 saves.

Head coach of the Leafs, Ron Wilson stated that his team needs “to find a way around the front of the net… be sharper, be ready, think like a goal-scorer…we’ve only got two or three guys who feel comfortable with some scoring chances.”

The Rangers were not seen as an energetic team on Saturday playing their third game in four nights but they were taking advantage of their chances and capitalizing on their opportunities scoring getting a goal from Brian Boyle in the first.

The Leafs’ captain Dion Phaneuf got six shots in 40 minutes trying to score on his opportunities for the Leafs. Phaneuf is confident that his team will get out of this dry spell.

In the second period it was evident that the Leafs were discouraged going through their fifth straight scoreless period. They spent the game outplaying the tired Rangers and were still denied a win let alone a single goal.

Leaf forward, Tim Brent states that he is not worried because his team is getting chances and you shouldn’t “worry until you don’t get chances.”

The Leafs hope to find their offence hosting Ottawa on Tuesday and going to Washington on Wednesday. This is their first set of back-to-back games this season.

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Toronto Maple Leafs Trade Rumours Swirling

October 27th, 2010 by Matt | 1 Comment | Filed in NHL News

According to multiple and a radio interview done this week by Brian Burke, he confirmed he has had “two solid trade” offers. With the Leafs off to a 5-2-1 start to the season, there is not a pressing issue for the Leafs to make a roster movement. However, the Leafs do seem to be lacking the offense needed if they are seriously going to content for a playoff position this season.

With the demotion of Jeff Finger to the Toronto Marlies, the Leafs currently have over 4.5 million dollars in cap season putting them in very comfortable position going forward in the season. There are many teams including division rivals the Boston Bruins who are extremely close to the salary cap ceiling and will almost certainly be a team forced to make a transaction once injured players Marco Sturm and/or Marc Savard returned from the injured reserve.

Due to the recent history of trades between the Leafs and bruins (Phil Kessel trade) experts are predicting this could be one of the serious trades Burke has been offered. Rumours are swirling that the Bruins have offered young forward Blake Wheeler to the Leafs. The Leafs would love to add to their offense however may be sceptical of adding a top 2 line players with a right handed shot. The Leafs currently have Versteeg and Kessel on the right side taking up the top 2 lines.

What the Leafs ideally would be looking for is still that true number one centre. Both Bozak and Grabovski have showed signs of great promise already in this early season but being a day-in, day-out number one centre will be very tough to pull off. Kadri could be this number one centre but this will not be a resolution for a few years to come. The Leafs defiantly do have assets on their blue line that could be traded.

In the game Tuesday night against the Florida Panthers, the defence group looked very solid especially defensemen Luke Schenn and Brett Lebda. Lebda is a solid puck moving defensemen that could help make Kablerle or Gunnarsson expendable. If a defensemen is struggling for the Leafs it would have to be Beauchimen. An idea Burke could consider is taking a high salary top centre with 2 years left on his contract for Beauchimen who also has two years left on his contract.

Although it cannot be argued that the season is still very young and it would be premature for Burke and the Leafs to already make a move. However, if Burke is serious about these “two solid trade” offers then the time might be right. The team already needs more goals and this will be an ongoing battle for them. Give Burke credit this year so far with his moves that have helped with the offense but something is telling many of us he is not satisfied yet and a move soon could happen.

Off Topic: The Leafs Stanley Cup Odds have significantly been lowered since their hot start!

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Toronto Maples Leafs Stanley Cup Odds – 2010/2011 Longshots

August 29th, 2010 by Matt | Comments Off | Filed in NHL Betting

The last time the Toronto Maple Leafs were in the Stanley cup playoffs was pre-lockout in the 2003-2004 hockey season.  Since then the Leafs missed the playoffs for a miserable five consecutive years.  However, ever since the regime under Brian Burke there has been significant overhaul to the team’s roster and dramatic changes have occurred since the Dion Phaneuf and Jean-Sebastian Giguiere acquisition last February. Although it can be argued the Leafs can and should contend to make this year’s playoffs, there is slim to no chance for them to be considered Stanley cup favourites.

With yesterday’s acquisition of Clarke MacArthurs to a one year contract worth 1.1 million the Leafs salary cap hit currently sits at 58.7 million dollars leaving them with roughly 2 million dollars in cap space for the 2011 campaign. Examining the Leafs roster in greater detail it would appear on opening night their roster would include, 2 goaltenders, 9 defensemen and 12 forwards for a grand total of 23 players with the big club.  With promising forward prospects such as Kadri, Mueller, Hanson and D’Amigo not included in the 23 man roster in grows the speculation that Burke and management will need to shorten their list of defensemen.

With the trade speculation quieting down regarding Kaberle, the thoughts have to be focusing on what to do with Jeff Finger and his 3.5 million dollar salary. It would be great (but almost impossible) if the Leafs could trade him away for anything even if it was to a division rival. The most likely case for Finger seems to be he will be placed on waivers and sent down to the Marlies.  Finger will not be the happiest camper about this but at least he will then be in the Marlies line up every night, still able to live in Toronto and not have to re-locate his family. Lashoff can also start the season down in the AHL and receive big time minutes there while also keeping the Leafs defensemen on their toes.  Expect for opening night the Leafs defence to be: Kaberle, Phaneuf, Komisarek, Beauchemin, Schenn and Gunnarsson with Lebda being the healthy scratch.  With the crazy depth at defence their will be great inner competition for NHL spots which could lead this year’s Leafs defence core to be one of the strongest in the league.

With Finger being sent down, this will also help create great competition for a rookie to make the opening day roster up front. Early odds would give this opportunity to Kadri who is a highly skilled centre man who played most of his junior career with the London Knights. It is highly known that the centre ice position is the leafs greatest weakness and Kadri should be able to improve this problem. Whether or not he can be a first or second line centre already is the million dollar question asked around Leaf nation.  For opening night as of right now you can expect to see a roster looking as follows:

Versteeg        Bozak            Kessel
MacAarthur        Kadri            Kulemin
Caputi            Grabovski        Armstrong
Brown            Mitchell        Orr          (spare Sjostrom)

This is a respectable forward crop that has some young talent but will be hard pressed to fill the net on a consistent base this year.  If the Leafs could somehow swing one more deal to find a true number one centre that would be the ideal scenario. By getting a true number one centre it would relieve pressure on Kadri, and give Kessel a true playmaker to relieve the pressure on himself too.  The Leafs should consider parting with Kaberlee, Grabovski and even Bozak if needed. Although Bozak is a young and promising player he could be deemed expendable if the Leafs could have an all-star calibre centre men and Kadri for years to come.  If the Leafs are unable to lock down a number one centre it will make the task of making the playoffs that much tougher and by no means a guarantee.

Overall though the Eastern conference has arguably four “guarantee” playoff teams being:  Washington, Pittsburgh, Boston and Philadelphia.  The Devils should make the playoffs but they are no guarantee with a new head coach in place and the major roster changes that may still need to take place there if Kovalchuck finally signs. Tampa Bay and Buffalo are two teams the Leafs will need to win the season series against and those two teams are favourites of most to make the playoffs for obvious reasons. Therefore breaking this down there are: 4 guarantees, 3 good odd teams to make the playoffs and the Leafs would fall right behind in the eight spot. The scary thing though is this does not take into consideration Carolina who was one of the hottest teams post Olympics last year, or the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators who will all be determined to make the playoffs this year as well.

In summary the Leafs will make the playoffs for sure if:

a.)They acquire a first line centre ( even at the expense of Kaberle or Bozak)
b.)They win the season series against teams such as the Lightning, Devils and Sabres
c.)Teams such as Carolina, Ottawa and Montreal don’t play above their heads
d.)The defence core has healthy competition
e.)Young forward prospers compete for open roster spots
f.)Finger gets sent down to open up needed cap space

Toronto Maple Leaf Odds for 2010 – 2011

Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup Odds = +6000
Toronto Maple Leafs Eastern Conference Champ Odds =+2500

You can bet on it at Sportsbook.com where you will get $250 Free… Click here to learn more

Full 2010 – 2011 Stanley Cup Odds

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Kaberle Remains A Leaf For Now

August 16th, 2010 by Jordan | Comments Off | Filed in NHL News

Leafs defenceman Tomas Kaberle will stay put in Toronto, at least for now.

The clause in Kaberle’s contract allowed Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke to deal Kaberle up until August 15th at midnight, but if he was not traded by midnight then the no-trade clause would kick in again.

Brian Burke was a busy man leading up to the August 15th Tomas Kaberle deadline, as he talked to many teams around the NHL who were interested in receiving the services of Kaberle.  Burke announced on Monday that Kaberle would remain a Toronto Maple Leaf, stating that many teams made offers to trade for Tomas, but non of them reflected the talent level of Kaberle.

Kaberle has been in Toronto his whole NHL career as he was an eighth round pick for the Leafs in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft.  In his 820 games played he has scored 80 goals and chipped in with 402 assists for a total of 482 points.  Kaberle had a bit of an “off” season offensively last year as he only netted 7 goals and 49 points in his 82 games played.  Tomas remained healthy all season playing in all 82 games for his sixth time in his 11 NHL seasons.

The Leafs want to compete for a playoff spot this year, and if Kaberle remains a Leaf for the duration of the season it will definitely help them rather than hurt the team.  Kaberle will most likely see powerplay time beside Dion Phaneuf who was acquired by the Leafs near the deadline last season.  The Leafs are listed at +6000 or 60/1 longshots for winning the Stanley Cup this year, but are definitely going to be in the hunt for a playoff spot with Brian Burke doing a solid job in the early years of this Maple Leaf rebuild.  You can bet on the Maple Leafs to win the Stanley Cup or make wagers on NHL games online at Sportsbook.com!

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