The "80-point" playoff race

The race for the Western Conference wild-cards

As the season begins to wind down, the playoff races are heating up. In the Western Conference, the 8th place Coyotes are sitting at 82 points, only ahead of Dallas by three and Vancouver by four, following the Canuck's win over the Wild last night. Vancouver's win stopped the 7th place Wild, with 85 points, from jumping farther ahead of Phoenix.

Although the teams are spread out fairly evenly, it's close enough to worry if you're Minnesota or Phoenix. Vancouver has finally picked up the pace and won their last three, so tonight's game against Colorado will prove crucial in their playoff chances. Both Phoenix and Minnesota have games tonight as well, so tonight could be very telling for the West's wild-card.

The EPIC playoff race in the Eastern Conference

But the Western Conference doesn't come close to the current drama in the East. Four teams are tied at 80 points, battling for the two wild-card spots to make this year's first round. Unless the Flyers (three points ahead of the four-way tie) fall apart, two of those 80-point teams are going home early.

Gustav Nyquist is keeping Detroit alive in the playoff race with 9 goals in his last 6 games. But is that enough? (Photo by Greg Fiume)

Each one of these squads has quite a story. First we have Detroit, who is desperately trying to keep their playoff appearance streak alive. At 22 seasons, it's currently the fifth-longest all-time in the league. The Wings have struggled with injuries all season, and currently are without Zetterberg, Datsyuk, or Abdelkader. They lost a pivotal match in regulation against Columbus on Tuesday, bringing the Blue Jackets to 80 points. Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, and Alfredsson can only do so much alone. Wings fans are getting impatient to say the least, considering they haven't experienced missing the playoffs since 1990.

A few hours south, the Blue Jackets are attempting to make their second postseason appearance, ever. Their first, five years ago, was a four-game exit to Detroit...The Blue Jackets have surprisingly re-tooled quite well since losing Rick Nash, now with a near 30-goal scorer in young Ryan Johansen, who's having a breakout year. Anisimov and Dubinsky, both former Rangers, have been performing well. The Blue Jackets have a rough road to finish the season; four of their ten games are against Pittsburgh, Colorado, the surging Philadelphia Flyers, and Chicago.

Ovechkin, seen here scoring against LA on Tuesday night, leads the NHL with 48 goals this season (Photo by Rob Carr)

The Washington Capitals are an interesting situation. Alex Ovechkin leads the league in goals by a mile, and has near-singlehandedly made the team's offense this year. However, the team struggles with nearly everything else. With nine games remaining, the Capitals need to make a large offensive push. Although the Caps have made six-straight playoffs, it's been an early exit every single time. Even during their 2010 President's Trophy run, the Canadiens found their way around the Caps' strategy. This might be the team's last chance before big changes come sweeping through.

Gardiner, Gleason, Bernier, and Reimer watch from the bench as Toronto fails to tie Tuesday's game against St. Louis. (Photo by Nathan Denette)

And finally, Toronto, who earlier had a large jump on the playoff race, now have lost their last six. They have sat stagnant at 80 points since March 13, letting everyone catch-up. Partly due to Bernier's injury, and partly equated to sloppy play, the Maple Leafs are facing an uphill climb to what looked like an easy playoff spot. With only 8 games left in their season, Toronto has to do nearly perfect to catch up to the other 80-point teams, as they all have games in-hand. Toronto can max out at 96 points, while Detroit and Columbus can both still reach 100. 

Therefore, a key game is tomorrow at 7 p.m., when Toronto plays in Philadelphia. If the Leafs can snap their losing streak, this will give the pack of playoff hungry teams a chance to catch the Flyers.

All of this, of course, is to determine who gets to face the grueling first round matchup against either Boston or Pittsburgh...good luck! 

Tough night at the ACC, Leafs lose 6-0

Cam Atkinson opens the scoring in Toronto with a first-period goal (Griag Abel)

A tough loss tonight for the Toronto Maple Leafs, as they were blown out at home 6-0 by the Columbus Blue Jackets of all teams…

Columbus, who are currently 2nd to last in the Metro division (now 9-12-3), would be the last team you’d think could rout Toronto so bad. With Marian Gaborik (the team’s only former 30-goal scorer) out with a knee injury for the next month or so, the Jackets don’t exactly have the strongest tools in the lineup every night.

Sloppy, lethargic, and passive were only some of the adjectives Sportsnet-590 used to describe Toronto’s play tonight in the ACC. The Leafs had a mere 18 shots in the loss, with only one coming from Kessel and none at all from Nazem Kadri. Coach Carlyle went on to say it looked like his team was playing on boots.

Meanwhile, Reimer had an awful night in net, stopping only 15 of 21 shots for a .714 save percentage. It’s his worst game since March 19, 2012 against Boston, where he allowed four goals on nine shots. Reimer will have to fight a lot harder than tonight if he wants to take the #1 starting job back from Bernier…The near future looks bleak for Toronto, as they are up against Pittsburgh on Wednesday. Hopefully Phaneuf isn’t suspended for his “illegal check to the head” on Anisimov.

Opening Night

This was opening night.

This was the Thursday night in October I would suddenly rush home and turn on Hockey Night in Canada. The night in high school, when I’d get home from marching band practice and run downstairs, frantically flipping to channel 99; Toronto would be playing their first game of the season. I got to see all the new and old faces once again, hear the voice of Bob Cole, and witness some fast-paced sports action once again.

This was the night I counted down to during my freshman year at CMU, starting from a month away. The player introductions, the first goal, all the excitement. I think September 2010 was half-spent sucking in the college life, the other half was waiting for opening night on CBC…

There wasn’t any anticipation this year…I’m so sad…

Opening night 2008, where Nikolai Kulemin made his NHL debut by scoring his first goal

Yep, it's a lockout

I mean these look more like baseball stadium seats, but you get the idea...

So it’s happened.

Work stoppage No. 4 for the NHL, I’m ultimately disappointed that there’s no guarantee of hockey this season in the major leagues…guess I’ll be watching a lot of football…While there’s still time to get a new CBA completed before regular season games are lost, the NHL just lost all the credibility it worked to regain over the last seven seasons. All the passive hockey fans will soon forget that they even watched the games on NBC and VERSUS, and continue watching other sports. I hope the owners realize what they’ve done soon enough.

I didn’t even realize there was a 10-day lockout back in 1992 until recently doing some research. It was right as the regular season was coming to a close. Wonder what the fans were thinking then, I can hear their voices call out from 20 years ago: “Oh no! What if the playoffs get cancelled?” They had no idea what would happen in this new millennium…an entire season cancelled, and another on the verge of the same misfortune. Fans used to not worry about this kind of problem, they focused on whether your team would make the playoffs or not, rather than worrying if the season would start on time.

So for now, rest in peace NHL…Looking forward to the 2013-14 season!

A New Look

Carlyle behind the bench last night against the Canadiens

The Maple Leafs had good leadership with the new Randy Carlyle, and defeated the Canadiens 3-1 last night, with Toronto taking 42 shots at Carey Price, compared to Montreal's 22. Compared to what we saw of Wilson for most of his 310 games, Carlyle was lively, up and down the bench, and did a great job in his first day on the job. Grabovski certainly had a great showing, collecting the game winner, and then his 20^th of the season. Toronto has a legitimate chance of still making the playoffs, though they've got to pass 4 teams in the standings in order to do it, Buffalo, Tampa, Washington, and Winnipeg, who they sit only 3 points behind. It's a tight race.

Gustavsson failing to stop Erik Cole's wide open shot in the first period. Cole scored his 23rd goal of the season on this one.

One thing Carlyle needs to improve first is the play of Toronto's defense, and their recent shaky goaltending. The first few minutes looked like a complete joke last night, not only did Gustavsson slip all on his own against the boards, he tipped the puck right in front of his open net! Had to have been the biggest clown moment of the year, I thought I was already watching SNL at 7:30 or so. If defenceman like Schenn flub their passes, and Gustavsson continues to misplay the puck, or keep falling over, Toronto, as Bob Cole once said, “won't last three games!” (in the playoffs, of course if they make it)

Speaking of Buffalo a minute ago, Vancouver sure looked like a joke in the first period last night, especially for the best team in the league right now. Toronto has to play Buffalo twice more before the end of the season, so they'll have to deal with Ville Leino, of course if he's still scoring like that in a month.

Grabovski scored two goals last night, joining Lupul and Kessel  this season at the 20-goal mark. Clarke MacArthur is next up to potentially reach the mark, currently sitting at 19 goals.

New Leafs Head Coach

Burke recently said Wilson was being "tuned out" by his players, it sure looks like it in this great perspective of a shot

1-8-1 in their last 10?

Well, that about does it for the Maple Leafs once again, I'm giving up hope on them for the 2012 playoffs. For a team that was in 7^th/8^th place and is now 5 points out a month ago, it's over. I've seen enough attempted comebacks and seen them all fail, each of the last 4 or so springs. Poor Toronto will be without the NHL playoffs once again.

As we look ahead to tonight's match-up against the Canadiens, Ron Wilson is no longer with us. After coaching 310 games for the Leafs with a mediocre record of 130-135-45, he's been ousted, a move I'm not surprised has come. (FI-RE-WIL-SON being yelled at home games probably helped, plus Schenn's awful pass a couple of nights ago) The Leafs look for some last-chance leadership with Randy Carlyle, coach of the Anaheim Ducks from 2005-2011.

Doesn't look too bad in blue and white, does he?

I'm not too worried about the coaching shift, Carlyle isn't a bad choice, since he was once a Maple Leaf himself, for a short time back in the late 1970's. He went on to have tenures with both Pittsburgh and Winnipeg. He has also coached Anaheim to a Stanley Cup, and who was working as his GM at the time? None other than Brian Burke. They obviously go way back, I feel this move could be one of the “missing pieces” for Toronto. Hey, maybe they have a chance after all.

NOW we're gonna win a Stanley Cup!

Time for a trade?

Leafs celebrating Wednesday night's win over the Oilers in OT

After looking at a Toronto Star poll showing that 81% of fans think the Leafs need to make a trade before the deadline; I remembered how big of a question this is. Usually, I’m not someone who likes trades in February, taking a player who’s been around all season, and exchanging him for someone new and unfamiliar to the team’s chemistry.

But of course, Toronto has only one victory in their last five, and is only one point ahead of Washington for 8^th place, and only two points ahead of 10^th place Winnipeg. This is pressure time, and not trading could mean a continued slide for the Maple Leafs, and ultimately not making the playoffs for the seventh season in a row. With that, after hearing the Mikhail Grabovski trade rumors, I think it’s absolutely a bad idea to get rid of Grabovski. He’s #3 this season in goal-scoring for Toronto, and even though he would be a free agent this summer, it’s hard to replace him now with that playoff spot looming in the distance. Who says you can't re-sign him anyway?

Kulemin, the Leaf's active leader in games played for Toronto. He has 5 goals and 18 assists on the season.

As hard as it is for me to say, I think if any Leaf HAS TO get traded, it should be Nikolai Kulemin. There are only 3 players left on the Leafs roster from fall 2008, Grabovski, Schenn, and Kulemin; all of whom have spent their entire tenure under head coach Ron Wilson. (Fun fact, Kulemin leads active Leafs in games played, with 291) From what I’ve seen recently, Kulemin hasn’t been making the biggest impact, especially compared to last season. Whereas Kulemin had 30 goals last season, he currently sits at 5 for this season. And with the Leafs’ season 70% done, Kulemin would have 7 goals if he continues his pace until April. A drop of 23 goals? Now that’s something to be concerned about.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Kulemin has been essential to Toronto in the post-Sundin era, and one of the few who has actually stuck around. He is a very clean player, and still manages to score some good goals, and set up some too. (He also one of my favorite Leafs)But with what could be considered underperforming, if anyone’s getting the boot, Kulemin should be the one to go. That being said, I would rather just see everyone step up their game and surge towards a playoff spot, therefore there wouldn’t be inevitable trade talk…Let’s see how the Leafs fair against the Canucks…

Proving they're legit

Well three months ago I said it was time for the Leafs to prove if they’re legitimately a threat to making the playoffs for the first time since 2004. Amazingly enough, their chances haven’t evaporated at this point; they’re in 7^th place right now! YEAH! Go Leafs!

James Reimer picking up his 10th win on the season against Edmonton, being congratulated by Phil Kessel.

Toronto did great on Monday night against Edmonton, leaving the Oilers even farther out of the western conference playoff race they’ve been out of for weeks. (Certainly a matchup I always like, Leafs & Oilers, basically my two favorite teams) A great 6-3 win for the Leafs against the Oilers, but sadly they had to play another game just the night after…1,500 kilometers away.

The fatigue really showed. Shots against Winnipeg were 29-18 in favor of the Jets as they won the game 2-1. A high note though was Phil Kessel’s 30^th goal, coming in the first period, the Leafs’ lone goal in the game. There was also a fight in the 3^rd, where Joey Crabb basically made a fool of himself by getting thrown down to the ice by Johnny Oduya. This picture pretty much describes the game for the Leafs…

Either way, Toronto really could’ve capitalized on the Jets game last night. They would’ve jumped to 64 points, and put a bigger gap in front of the 9^th and 10^th place SE division teams. (Currently Florida with 59 points, and now Winnipeg with 56) With Ottawa still at 61, handing a loss to the Jets last night would’ve really been catastrophic to their drive to a playoff appearance. Now Winnipeg is still hanging on, still 5 points out of the 8^th spot. Now the Leafs have two pivotal games ahead of them, the Flyers tomorrow night, then the Canadiens on HNIC, Saturday at 7pm, heavily anticipated for Mats Sundin’s number 13 getting “honoured”… I really wish they’d just retire it, I don’t want anyone else to don a #13 for the Leafs, ever. Nobody beats Mats. I have enough trouble getting over the fact that Lombardi wears #15, only months after the well-remembered Tomas Kaberle was traded away.

Regardless, the Leafs have proved after 3 months that they are legit. I mean, they even got around to beating Detroit last month, now that was an excellent game. If Reimer and Gustavsson continue to play well, and Kessel & Lupul continue their scoring ways, the Maple Leafs will be in the playoffs. Get excited.

It's been a while

Sooooo it's been a while...about a month and a half to be exact. Yep, haven't posted anything on here since December, when Milbury got booted off NBC. Sorry about the massive gap, I got busy playing Minecraft and being overloaded with CMU things. Don't worry, the next posts on here are coming soon! (I mean, don't think that many people could be upset about the hiatus, how many people even read this?)
More Maple Leafs posts, CMU posts, Kappa Kappa Psi posts, and other stuff coming soon to an internet browser near you! (BETTER NOT be IE, at least be better than I am with-to-date technology!)

Time to prove if they're legit

7-0. Seven to Nothing. Ouch.
I didn't see the Leafs game on Saturday night, I was actually playing in 2 different ensembles at CMU's Band-O-Rama, one of which was the marching band...of course, what did I miss? All I needed to see was the score when I got home, and it tells the whole story. The Leafs once again couldn't beat Boston, even though their record is far superior to Boston's right now. Kessel got no points against his old team, and Seguin got a hat trick...same old story as the last two seasons, Toronto just can't figure out how to beat Boston, whether it's a curse or not, it sure is damn annoying...
Toronto currently sits with a record of 9-4-1, and 2nd in the Eastern conference. Kessel still leads the league in goals and points, so you could say that the loss is merely a small ding in the armor. I would love to say so, I mean there's good reason to, you started Scrivens and watched a horror show in net because of it. (Though I am proud of his performance last Thursday against the Blue Jackets, where he picked up his first NHL win)
But James Reimer is out, and who knows when he'll be back...plus, now Connolly is out, so Toronto's taking a hit here. Is this the end of their great start? Can the Leafs purge through this tight spot right now and keep up the good work? We're all at the edge of our seats waiting to find out. This game against the Panthers will likely give us some answers.

Goodbye October

So finally the Halloween festivities are coming to an end and fall can continue the way it should be, a focus on cooler weather, and colours abundant. Enough with all this “spooky” crap and decorations going up in every residence hall, especially the ones on my floor. (They always end up staying until mid-November too) I haven’t had a legitimate Halloween costume since I was 11, and haven’t trick-or-treated since 2008…I’ve been fairly far-removed from the holiday since. Being in college, I now just think of it as a weekend that has a ton of good parties.

Alas, October is over, along with all the good things that went along with it. So long to the marching band practices that were a nice, moderate temperature, and all the bike rides, cause those won’t be so bearable once the rain/snow picks up and the temperature drops. Hard to believe, but it’s already week 11 of 16 in this fall semester, time sure flies….I guess that means goodbye to the good part of the semester…

One thing that I sure hope doesn’t die in November though, is the Maple Leafs. 7-3-1. I am honestly blown away. Kessel has 18 points in 11 games, still leading the league. I wish I had been able to catch the Leafs-Pens game Saturday night, and watch Sundin return to the ACC and receive a standing ovation.

And well, all of us Leafs fans knew the announcement would come one of these days. Sundin’s number 13 will be honored by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and raised to the rafters on Feb. 11, 2012. I sure hope I’m at least tuned in to that game, can’t imagine anything else I would want to do that Saturday night. Sundin was my favorite player, and one of the greatest to play in Toronto. I owe it to myself to watch the ceremony live, it’ll be about the best thing that’s happened in the ACC since Mats was actually PLAYING THERE!

With my confidence for the Leafs at a peak right now, I’m also astounded when I look over to the West and see Edmonton on top of the entire conference!!! I think the Oilers have surpassed the Red Wings and have become my new 2^nd favorite team. With guys like Nugent-Hopkins, Hall, Eberle, all such young guys, I can’t get enough of this underdog-type team pull through and start out 7-2-2! THANK GOD the Oilers stayed in their right mind and kept RNH up in the major league, imagine, sending your top scoring player down to the minors? Imagine the outrage the entire city would have!

Let’s hope November has some good things in store. My birthday is coming up, that’s at least one. I don’t think I’m doing no-shave-November though, Nov. ’09 and ’10 were probably enough…

Certainly won't be anymore mornings like this...Friday, Oct. 14

The Interview

Saturday, October 21^st, 2006.

That was 5 years ago today. An anniversary that I remembered was coming up only about a week ago. But it immediately rang out with significance and nostalgia. I was in 9^th grade, and my Social Studies teacher assigned a big project, or at least one that seemed daunting to me at the time. Coupled with our textbook lessens of World War I/the Great Depression/World War II, we needed to interview someone, age 55 or older, and ask them 20 questions relating to their life/the world at the time/how it affected them. Right off the bat I didn’t want to do the assignment, I was fairly shy at the time and didn’t know any seniors that well.  From what I can remember, I think the interview had to be in person. So right off the bat I had to scratch my Grandpa off the list, as he was 5 hours away in Toronto, and I was in Southeast Michigan. The idea of using him for the project seemed like a great idea, but didn’t look like it was going to happen.

It was October 14^th, and I was watching the Maple Leafs play Calgary on HNIC. (The game where Sundin scored his 500^th NHL Goal) When I told my mom that I would totally interview Grandpa if I could, she remembered that she was visiting friends in the Toronto area next weekend. Sure enough, it was going to happen, I was actually going to Toronto next weekend, and getting dropped off to spend a day with my grandparents, all by myself, and to get this project done the way I wanted to. I was really excited.

That morning of the 21^st in Toronto, my Grandpa came in his big ’85 Buick and picked me up from another relative’s home, and soon there I was. Sitting at the dining room table with my Grandpa, I had him fill out some permission form or something, I almost thought he’d get annoyed and not want to be interviewed with how much there was to fill out! Finally, with my camera charged, full memory stick with 22 minutes of space, I set it down in the middle of the table, faced it at the wall, and pushed record.

I asked 20 questions, the first 5 or so were about growing up in Poland and what it was like, the next 5-10 were about World War II, (and his part in it, serving in the Polish army) and what followed the war for him. The last 5 were questions about culture/war that had taken place over the past 50 years or so. The interview was about 19 minutes, and I learned a bit about my Grandpa that I didn’t know. It opened my eyes to the fact that he served in World War II. WORLD WAR TWO. I think I had much more appreciation of my family history after that, and more drive to learn about my entire family tree. Another fun fact, I learned his name is actually Zdzislaw. (A Polish name) At the time I thought the interview was one of the coolest things I had ever done.

Little did I know there would be another project later in the school year, in the same class, about World War II specifically. We had to pick an event from World War II and present about it, so I chose the Invasion of Poland. When we visited Toronto as a family in April 2007, I had a interview with both my Grandma & Grandpa about the Invasion, and life during the first few years of the war. My Grandpa lived only a few kilometers from the border the night of the invasion, and said tanks rumbled right through the town overnight. The next few days for him were the beginning of his German education…My Grandma worked on a farm in Germany during the war, and after the war was in the Red Cross with the Polish Army. Both of them immigrated to Canada after the war, and met in Toronto.

That interview was not even 7 minutes, but incredibly in-depth compared to the original interview back in October. I had learned such valuable stuff because of those two projects. Whenever it’s October 21^st, I always think back to my grandparent’s house, and the stories they had to tell…

Phil Kessel

I have almost no time to talk right now, but all I have to say is this.

This makes me feel quite accomplished. Phil Kessel currently leads the league in goals and points. 5 goals and 8 points in THREE GAMES! For this very brief time, let's celebrate the fine performance done by Phil Kessel. WOOHOO. The Leafs are 3-0-0 because of him!

Also, congrats to Nugent-Hopkins on the hat trick on saturday night. Glad you're putting on a show right off the bat.

As for the jets, I see your 0-3-0 start and hope you get the ball rolling sooner or later. The fans might only put up with so much losing. (But of course, they put up with a lot of it back in the 80s and 90s)

Franson starts tonight!

Cody Franson, seen here in a Predators uniform, will start with the Leafs tonight.

Although at CMU today it’s our much anticipated Homecoming game against Eastern Michigan, I’m also anticipating tonight’s game with the Leafs against Calgary. It’s been an entire week off from hockey for Toronto, and now we finally get to see Franson, and MacArthur hop on the team! My only question to the Leafs is this, if you’re sticking Franson on defence for tonight, you’re taking Gardiner off, correct? I sure hope so.
Toronto’s defence line SHOULD look like:

Phaneuf-Schenn-Komisarek-Gunnarsson-Franson-Liles

Now that’s a pretty solid bunch right there, lots of experience. Anybody who thinks that one of these defenceman doesn’t deserve to play is out of their mind. For one thing, Gardiner’s a rookie, a ROOKIE, that has played two NHL games. Why would someone at the Toronto Star write that people want Komisarek out of the lineup? Take out Komisarek, and Toronto’s defence is back to the level it was just at without Franson, 5 good defenceman. Simple as that, I don’t have much faith in Gardiner yet, whose idea was it to stick him on the ice as soon as he got here anyway?

Whatever happens, I’m excited to see MacArthur back after his suspension that he didn’t deserve. Get ready for the Kulemin-MacArthur-Grabovski line!