Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Talk: January 2015

Saturday 31 January 2015

Lack Lustre Leafs

The struggling woes of the Toronto Maple Leafs continued this week with more losses. The most recent was a lost to the under achieving Arizona Coyotes. Ranked third worst in the league the Leafs allowed the Coyotes to come from behind and win it in the third period. Leading the game into the third the Leafs looked to be in a good position. Bernier was on top of his game and even Kessel managed to rid himself of that awful scoring drought. However, off the opening face-off the puck was dished back to the Coyotes defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larson who promptly shot the puck down the ice from his own blue line. The shot was on net and managed to fool Bernier. My mind immediately took me back to images of Vesa Toskala a few years ago when he let a similar bouncer into the net. This fluke goal would soon be followed by another stinker less than four minutes later. While crouched against the right post Bernier allowed a shot from the goal line to squeak between him and into the net. The Leafs ultimately lost the game 3-1.

This epic collapse on this particular night is an almost too familiar one of late. Members of Leaf Nation have been experiencing this type of play for the past few years and must be getting sick of it. When all else fails burn it down and start again. Unfortunately I find myself coming to this point. I regret to say it but I honestly do not think that there is anything left from the current organization to save. Starting from the ownership, management, coaching staff and the players. I think it is even time for the stick boy to find a new calling. A major change needs to take place and that starts with the ownership. They have tainted this group to the point that I do not believe they are capable of winning anymore. The fact that Coach Horachek has set a new Leafs record for the worst coaching record for a starting coach is befitting of this sentiment. This proud and successful franchise has been reduced to a joke.

Start from the top and work down. Wholesale changes need to be made and they need to be made now. I have already given up hope for making the playoffs this year just like many recent past years and it is only halfway through the season. It is time for a change and not just the coach or a couple of star players. The entire system needs to be redefined. If I was Carlyle I would be laughing all the way to the bank right now.

Wednesday 14 January 2015

William Nylander Assigned to Toronto Marlies

Top prospect William Nylander will face important physical challenges with the Marlies, current Leafs who have honed their craft in the AHL say.

William Nylander Toronto's 2014 First Round draft pick has been assigned to the Toronto Marlies. Nylander had been playing in his home country of Sweden with Team Modo in the Elite League. Nylander was almost a point per game player on the last place Modo and had a reasonably good performance in the World Juniors earlier this month. It appears that the Toronto Maple Leafs were dissatisfied with the situation in Sweden and have made a quick decision to have him brought into the North American hockey system earlier than expected. This in my opinion is going to be a challenge for Nylander. There is a huge amount of expectation that comes along with being a Leafs number one draft pick. The fact that Nylander is a skilled forward with goal scoring ability is not lost on members of Leaf Nation. Unfortunately I for-see problems with Nylander being able to develop on a smaller ice rink with more physical players. The Leafs have put their hopes in Phil Kessel who appears to be made of glass, unable to take or dish out a hit and only knows how to play in the offensive zone. Brining a similarly skilled player into the Leafs organization in mind is a big mistake. This appears to be another decision made by the Leafs brass that failed to look at the big picture and take everything into account. They needed scoring and made a rash decision to bring in a small European player. It makes no sense to me that the Leafs selected Nylander 8th overall when a player like Nick Ritchie was available and ultimately went 10th overall to the Anaheim Ducks.

Ritchie an Ontario native is a goal scoring power forward who plays in the OHL. But for whatever reason the Leafs passed on this player. It is decisions like this that have plagued the organization in recent history but, hopefully I am wrong about this one, and Nylander becomes a superstar leading the lovable loser Leafs to their first Stanley Cup in nearly half a century.

Saturday 10 January 2015

Zemgus Girgensons Voted to NHL All Star Game

Zemus Girgensons received the most votes in the 2015 NHL All Star fan voting contest. That's right Zemus Girgensons the Latvian native playing in his second year with the Buffalo Sabres is apparently the most popular NHL player this year. Girgensons was the first overall draft pick in 2012 and is currently tied for 161st in league point getters. He has zero NHL playoff experience and has a total of 113 games played in the NHL. Why Girgensons was selected by fans as the most popular player in the NHL this year can only be described as an enigma. An enigma as defined by Dictionary.com is; "a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand." I think that sums up my feeling on this subject exactly. Let us look at the facts. Girgensons is a little known European player playing in Buffalo. The Sabres, at least this year, can be described as a lack lustre basement dwelling team at best. Without the support of southern Ontario residents crossing the border for cheaper tickets I do not think that Buffalo would even be able to support a team. There is a reason O Canada is played at every Sabres game even when both teams are from the United States. To think that there are over a million and a half Buffalo Sabres fans that voted for Girgensons is simply moronic. I think it may be hard to find that many true Sabres fans in total never mind enough to actually go online and vote for someone most people have never even heard of. Take a look at the other five players as voted by fans. All five are from the Chicago Blackhawks. All five are popular well known players with Stanley Cup rings. All five come from a huge and successful hockey market. The fact that Girgenson came in first in fan voting can only be attributed to two scenarios.

Scenario One

The first scenario is that every resident in the country of Latvia went online and voted for their most successful NHL hockey player. The population of the entire country is just over 2 million. A recent internet search on Latvia shows that around 70% of the population has access to the internet with 60% of its people using the internet at least once a week. Girgensons received 1, 574, 896 votes in total. Simple mathematics would tell us that there are not enough people using the internet in Latvia to account for such a scenario. Unless voters are allowed to cast votes numerous times this does not seem like a viable solution to the enigma.

Scenario Two

The second more plausible conclusion I have come to is that society as a whole has decided to make a mockery of the NHL All Star fan voting process. It would appear to me that the only way Zemus Girgensons receives more than 300,000 more votes than the next closest player (Patrick Kane, a current Chicago Blackhawk and a Buffalo native) is that people have clearly played some sort of internet joke. By voting for someone that has no obvious reason to be in an All Star game the hockey watching public has done a great disservice to this great sport. I think this is the last time we will see the general public being used as a determiner for who plays in the NHL All Star game.

Players Officially Named to All-Star Game

First Six NHL All-Stars (voted by fans)