I Like My Trade Deadlines Like I Like My Women, Scantily Clad and Slightly Inebriated. I Mean, Wait...

We missed the Trade Deadline festivities today because we have, you know, a life, and it doesn't look like we missed out on too much. Our breakdown of the bigger ones:

Ryan Smyth to the Islanders. Apparently the Maple Leafs were in on this one too, but it was New York who won out in the end. New York just got a lot better, a lot fast. However, they gave away a boatload of youth to get him. This only becomes a good deal if the Isles win the cup (Hah!) or resign Smyth before he walks back to Edmonton as free agent. Oh, and we're not sure why, but we're getting this weird vibe out of Edmonton that they just might be finished. Call it a hunch.

Yannic Perrault to Toronto. This is a cool move, and it would have been cooler if it hadn't been the Leafs' only move. Perrault is back for his third try with Toronto, and he comes as one of the NHL's underrated players. Mr. Faceoffs won't make or break Toronto's playoff push, but he isn't going to hurt. We are also cool with Brendan Bell leaving. He was the odd man out on Toronto's back line, and it's not as if Toronto is exactly desperate for young d-men. Also happy to see GM John Ferguson show some restraint on Jamal Mayers (Jiri Tlusty and a firster for a guy on pace for twenty points? What?). Question though, where's Gary Roberts?

Todd Bertuzzi to Detroit. Less than a year ago, Bertuzzi was worth just slightly less than Roberto Luongo, now he's good for a conditional draft pick. At least Florida fans won't have a daily reminder of the worst trade in NHL history skating for them anymore. Detroit inherits a no risk player with this deal. If he does well, and the Red Wings go far in the playoffs, they're on the hook for a first rounder, which is fair enough, but if he goes down again (he's not even back yet) they're out a third round pick. No biggie in other words. Good trade by D-town.

Dainus Zubrus in, Martin Biron out of Buffalo. The Zubrus trade is good, the Sabres are just looking for guys who can skate on two legs right now (Not that that stopped them from pasting Toronto 6-1 a few hours ago). Biron to Philly though? And for just a second round draft pick? This deal feels a little too late. The Slugs (we're doing our part too Erin) should have held on to him for the playoffs. Seriously, they didn't get enough in return to justify it. Also, Ty Conklin? Why does this guy get another shot at the Cup finals?

Gary Roberts to Pittsburgh. Great trade, and the only weird thing is that Roberts had to even think about it. A chance to play on the NHL's next dynasty? And he would have taken Toronto or Ottawa? Over Crosby and Malkin? Glad he came to his senses. The Penguins also picked up Georges Laraque, who somehow is earning more than a mil, and has a no-trade clause in his contract. Pittsburgh gets that enforcer everyone's been telling them to get. Now we'll see if a heavy was really the missing piece to their puzzle. Early prediction: It's wasn't.

Bill Guerin to San Jose. A good deal here, and a hell of a lot better than Atlanta's desperation trade for his teammate Kieth Tkachuk. He's no Forsberg, but San Jose gave a pretty clear up yours to Nashville.

Anything Boston did. So Boston has given up, fair enough, but how does trading away Brad Boyes and Paul Mara help? I thought rebuilding revolved around keeping your good young players. Whatever, we won't complain, because with Boyes safe in St. Louis (how about John Davidson, who probably deserves the title of Deadline King) we won't have a constant reminder of the unfortunate Nolan trade. Thanks B's.

In the end, the important thing is that the Leafs didn't do anything stupid this time (Francis, Johansson, Housely, Nolan, Gilmour, etc.). Baby steps, folks, baby steps.

Jason

What Happens When The Bruins Take On An AHL Team? This, Apparently

Following Monday night's humbling 5-1 loss to Toronto, Boston Bruins' coach Dave Tippet called the affair Boston's worst outing all season.

Dave, be careful how you challenge your team. Sometimes they might just go out and prove you wrong.

The two teams squared off for a rematch in Boston Thursday night, and the B's did just that. The Bruins not only served up their worst game of the season, easily outpacing the sheer godawfulness of Tuesday night, they also served up one of the worst games of hockey we've ever had the misfortune of sitting through, on route to an eventual 10-2 loss.

The Bruins defence was non-existent, and their goaltending from Tim Thomas (and his eventual replacement, Philip Suave) was softer than the scattered cheers in the lonely looking TD Banknorth Center. In fact, the loudest cheers were reserved for the announcer when he declared to the few faithful who remained, "Last minute of the third period". More welcome words are seldom uttered.

The Leafs got some lucky bounces, sure, but it was Boston's D that rolled out the red carpet, and it was the goaltenders who opened the door for them (Particularly Steen's third. That was ugly)

The ten goals are even more impressive when you consider who the Leafs had on the ice. We'll be blunt, they iced a team of nobodies. Darcy Tucker rejoined the disabled list, meaning that any semblance of veteran presence on the Toronto's roster was wiped away. But that's the great thing about young players, they have this funny habit of stepping up right when they have to.

Look at the score sheet. Ten goals and all Mats Sundin and Jeff O'Neil had to show for it was one assist a piece, Bryan McCabe nada. But Alex Steen, he of ten points in forty games, scored his first career hatrick. Matty Stajan, not doing much better, had a pair of assists to go with his two goals. Johnny Pohl notched a goal and an assist, and the line of Second Chances (Devereaux and Battaglia) combined for five points themself. Kris Newbury kept the pace up, providing a goal and assist, for three points in his two career games.

In other words, the Bruins were burned by a bunch of players who spent last season in the AHL. As if their night wasn't bad enough.

It's easy to cheer for a team that scores ten goals,

Jason

Can You Spot The Scoring Line?

O'Neil - Sundin - Steen
Tucker - Stajan - Kilger
Battaglia - Pohl - Devereaux
Ondrus - Newbury - Belak

Can you spot the scoring line? Don't worry, we had the same problem.

The Maple Leafs have hit their second stretch of major injuries, and so far, they aren't handling it very well. The first time around, at the beginning of the season the injuries all came on defense. Ian White (who impressed enough to stay with the big boys) and Brendan Bell were the minor league call ups, and Wade Belak found himself skating backwards again. The Leafs jumped that hurdle handily, relying on lots of goals and stable goaltending.

Fast-forward. The injuries have started piling up again, this time among the forwards. It started with Nik Antropov, but that wasn't news, because hell, that guy's always injured. Then, in the same game even, Kyle Wellwood and Alexei Ponikarvovsky, as crucial to Toronto's game as viagra is to Chris Chelios' (that came off harsh. We've got nothing against the NHL's reigning octogenarian), were both injured. Not to be outdone, Mike Peca, went out and showed the kids how to really get injured, breaking his tibia. His freaking tibia. That's one of them season ending injuries, for those without the advanced degree in human anatomy and sports physiology.

So, the Leafs are down four of their key cogs. Poni and Wellwood are still anywhere from a couple weeks to tomorrow away from being ready, and Antropov, who knows with that guy. The Peca injury is the worst though, obviously. Signed in the off-season, more for his inspiring playoff run with the Oilers and his ace leadership qualities than his 23 points, Peca was one of the cornerstones of this team. And now he's not.

This leaves some gaping holes in important spots. The top line is currently made up of Mats Sundin (who is probably going to carry this team into the playoffs or literally die trying - seventeen points in his last eleven games), Jeff O'Neill (who may share the same name with the guy who scored 40 for Carolina a few years back, but little else - ten in his last ten) and Alex Steen (whose three goals over his last nine games is a major improvement over one goal through his first thirty). Not a line that exactly inspires confidence.

Here's the line we've fallen in love with, though. We call it the Second Chance line. Bates Battaglia (the technical term for Battaglia's job here is "nepotism", but we love the guy anyway), Johnny Pohl (this is still his first chance actually, but he's making the most of it - seven in his last eight) and guess who, Boyd Devereaux. Signed to one of those AHL contracts in the offseason, Devereaux has finally worked his way back into the NHL with Toronto, and he's made the best of it too - he has three points in his three games back in the bigs.

So what the Leafs now lack in skill and goal scoring, they make up for in grit and chutzpah (see last night's checking line of Belak, Ondrus, and Newbury, which actually scraped together a goal. Don't worry, in true checking line fashion, it trickled over the line).

Speaking of grit, the Leafs ground the Boston Bruins into the ground last night, 5-1. You can imagine the Leafs will be happy about that one, since a) this depleted roster has been a little starved for wins lately, and b) the Bruins have summarily kicked the shit out of Toronto all season. To see one go the other way was just a little nice. It helped that the Bruins played to lose, and that the Leafs cut down on the sloppy play that had been costing them recent games, and that Sundin continues to do most of the Leafs' goalscoring (and continues to ensure that no Leaf ever wears 13 again).

Because the NHL schedulers think they are funny, Toronto plays Boston again on Thursday. Believe it or not, it is possible to see too much of the B's, especially when they have this bad habit of winning against Toronto.

Until then,

Jason

Did You Know That There Are 3 Periods In A Hockey Game? The Maple Leafs Sure Didn't

We want to be supportive here. The Leafs are going through a tough time right now, and they could probably use a friend. We'd like to be that friend.

Let's go over the facts first. The Maple Leafs have dropped their last six (and about eight of those losses coming to Boston) with no end in sight. Worse is how they have lost their last three. In all three they led going into the third period, and in all three the Leafs ended up walking out with heads bowed. You can't blow third period leads and still hope to succeed.

Thursday's loss to Boston was fairly typical. The Leafs went into the third period up one-zip, on a lucky goal by Jeff O'Neil, you know, the kind of lucky goal you only get when the stars are lined up for you. They were playing well enough to win, and they would have too, if your standard hockey game lasted forty minutes.

We know by now that the Leafs are capable of more than this, the first twenty games showed that. Sometimes, all you can do is beleaf.

Jason

Mats Who? Oh, And Raycroft Too

Out of the blue, Leafs captain Mats Sundin is out for a month. A seemingly innocuous hit by an over Eager Philadelphia player caught up to our favourite Svenski on Wednesday when it was announced that he would miss 3-4 weeks with tendinitis (or whatever it's called. We're no doctors).

Flashbacks of last season are excusable. It was just one season removed that Mats was felled on opening night by a puck to the eye. He missed one month, but the Leafs played some decent hockey, thanks to a renaissance version of Eric Lindros (except after that one inspiring month, he kinda took the rest of the season off).

No Big E this time around, could the captainless Leafs rally in Boston? If you said no, you obviously missed the key part of the question. They were in Boston. 6-4 was the final, thanks largely to the ad hoc top line of, get ready for it, Nik "Borat" Antropov, Alexei "Ponikabobsky" Ponikarovsky, and Kyle "Sophomore Sensation" Wellwood. Inspiring? Perhaps not, but it worked. Antropov and Ponikarovsky both picked up 3 points a piece, and Boston provided their regular doormat position.

Now the bad news: Andrew "Razr" Raycroft, making his first return to Beantown since being given the boot, was in full domination mode when he went down with what looked like a groin injury. J.S Aubin stepped in and, well, the best you can say is that he did just enough to get the win.

To recap: The Leafs are now missing, besides a handful of defensemen (Pavel Kubina is still a week away) their best player in Mats Sundin, and their top goalie, in Andrew Raycroft. The Leafs probably could have done just fine without Matty, but without Andy too? Things do not look particularly sunny in Leaf land.

We'll also use this opportunity to ask, What the hell Boston? We did predict that they would struggle, because, well, that's what Boston does, but we figured they wouldn't be this bad. They have so many quality players, Chara, Bergeron, Murray, Savard, Boyes, Stuart, and yet they play so poorly. Actually, the mystery isn't that hard to solve: they have no goaltending. After a moderately decent 2005-2006, Boston decided to hang their skates on youngster Hannu Toivannen, decrying him the next Cam Ward. Er, not quite. So now Boston is in dilly of a pickle. The prospect they got for Raycroft, Tuuka Rask (possibly the coolest hockey name ever? Shut up Hakan Loob) is still a few years away.

So that's that. What, did you expect answers or something? Look, if we had those, we wouldn't be writing this blog right now.

Also, a shout out to our b-boys, the Raptors, who are off to a 2-2 start, which, frankly speaking, is all we ever asked. That second win came of a last minute three pointer from Chris Bosh, which is good to see, because many people are predicting a down season after contracting Tim Duncan disease. Andrea Bargani hasn't been particularly good, but the season is young. Patience, would be the operative word.

Until next time,

Jason