Hey guys what's going on in this blog

Hey everyone both of you, just thought I'd stop in and see what's up. The lolNHL returns to action soon, tomorrow if you want to count the London games, and next week if you don't. Toronto is probably going to return to the ninth position, mere points out of the playoffs, teasing us yet again with a nice little run at the end only to shit on all of our chests. That's right guys, Pissed-off, bitter Dave is back!

Now if only those assholes Jared and Steve would write again...

Two Words ... (and it's not suck it)

VESA TOSKALA !!!

And Just When You Thought I Was Gone ...

I make a return appearance, just to annoy everyone once again. Unfortunately, this will not be my trademarked rant, I was just popping in to say "hello". While I'm here I thought I might do some predictions regarding tonight's awards ... not that anyone cares, but I will anyway.

Hart Trophy will belong to Sidney Crosby, but Luongo deserves it more.

Vezina Trophy will go to Marty Brodeur, 12 SO is ridiculous.

Lester B. Pearson Award winner will be Vincent Lecavalier, just have a feeling. Wouldn't be surprised if Luongo got it though.

Nick Lidstrom and the Norris Trophy ... get out! Ya think?

Calder Trophy winner will be Evgeni Malkin.

Selke Trophy is probably going to Rod Brind'Amour, Jay Pandolfo might surprise.

Lindy Ruff was again the best coach in the league, and hands down wins the Jack Adams.

Martin St. Louis will win the most pointless award in all of professional sports, the Lady Byng.

Well there are my predictions, someone will have to let me know how I did ... I'm certainly not watching that boring 2 or 3 hours of pointless TV.

What the fuck is a draft?

I'm not normally a big fan of Hockey's Future. It's a (valuable, I suppose) resource that a lot of people in the online hockey community swear by, but I've just never been into it. I could get into various reasons, but let's be honest, they're irrelevant and you don't care. You want the goods! And, thanks to this post at Japer's Rink, I found an interesting little experiment that HF has been conducting recently. It takes a look at the 2002 NHL Entry Draft five years after the fact:

We have measured success in selecting by using NHL games player, because it is
fair to all types of players, flashy goal scorers to defensive defensemen.
Overall, NHL teams have gotten an average of 22.5 NHL games per pick out of the
2002 draft class, which is not far from the averages for 2000 and 2001, each
after five years. The Toronto Maple
Leafs have gotten the most value out of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft thus far,
averaging 59 NHL games per pick. They accomplished this despite making
their first selection at 24th overall. The Chicago
Blackhawks came in fourth among teams, despite not picking until 21st
overall.

The above 'blockquote' (silly Web lingo) is from this article, whereas the link above (the highlighted word 'experiment' takes you to the Toronto-specific page.

Basically, 2002 brought Alexander Steen, Matt Stajan, Ian White, and Staffan Kronwall to the blue and white. It also brought Jarkko Immonen (and, for that matter, a handful of what HF had decided are 'busts'), but hey, he's a Ranger now, so he's not the point. The point is that it appears that the Leafs had a very good draft. I know. I'm as shocked as you.

Maybe a little bit more of that magic, eh guys? God knows that this team needs it.

I can only hope Darren Dreger is not lying to me

But, given my past issues with him, not to mention his horrid rumour-mongering and past career decisions, I don't hold out much hope.

Bryan McCabe still has four years remaining on a deal that averages $5.75
million per year. He also has a "no movement" clause which some suggest he
would waive for one team, the New York Islanders. If the Islanders can't
re-sign Ryan Smyth or Jason Blake, they'll need to make a splash. The
Maple Leafs won't initiate a discussion, but with 8 defensemen soon to be under
contract they might listen. Freeing up valuable cap space to enable the
Leafs to be a contender for top free agent players is very appealing. This is a
distinct possibility.

Now, McCabe certainly isn't, you know, TERRIBLE or anything, but I've never approved of his contract. For the caliber of defenseman he is (you know, worse than the much more affordable Kaberle), I want him either a lot cheaper or not on my team. I like the guy and all, but I'm not comfortable with Bryan McCabe the player for damn near six million a year. Like Dreger mentions, there's a lot of benefit to the team by trying to dump McCabe. We free up a ton of cap room and have the opportunity to pick up more players, such as a better defenseman (I'll take either Timonen or Hannan, thank you very much).

The bottom line, to me, is that without his breakout offensive first-half of the year last season, McCabe isn't staring at all that money because he not only isn't good enough defensively or consistent enough offensively (i.e. just not fucking good enough) for that kind of money, but he's not nearly the crowd favourite that other guys who've gotten ridiculous contracts (Tucker's $3 million, Domi's $1.5 million back in the day) are. The only reason he has that contract is because he has a big shot and was picking up lots of points on the powerplay at the start of 2005-06. He petered out after his injury, and he hasn't been the same "league leader" player since... well, no shit. He never was. Then again, when have the fucking Toronto Maple Leafs ever been known for their fiscal sanity?

I'm in favour of moving him, but I want as much as possible in return. He's not a terrible player, just really overpaid. And really stupid. Who can forget his pre-lockout comments? Yeah Bry, I hope you're able to get by now that Toronto's paying you out the ass. Fucking 'tard.

I am still here!

I have not forgotten about this blog OR Nikolai Borschevsky.

Maybe the last title was a bit deceiving.

Haha, I guess we are absentee bloggers. Who knew?

But um, yeah. All three of us are working (Steve pretty much full-time, Jared at like eight hundred different places, and me for the first time ever), and there just isn't a whole lot going on in Leaf-land right now. Since we're using this as a Maple Leafs-only blog and not an NHL blog in general, well, there's not a lot for us to say. Unless you want to hear our thoughts on the Sundin and Antropov contracts, but frankly, I don't give two flying fucks about thinking about that.

The Stanley Cup playoffs are finally over, as the Anaheim Ducks beat the Ottawa Senators. I don't know about the other guys, but I only made one wrong prediction all playoffs (which would be taking the New York Rangers over Buffalo in round two). This, of course, means the OFFSEASON~! is here, which means we should finally have things to write about. Of course, even that won't last too long, and it's still three months before training camp (a time that has never had interest to me, personally, as a hockey fan) and four months before the start of the season, so things may be bare for a little while. I've talked to Steve about opening this up to Toronto sports in general, so that he can blog about the Blue Jays basically daily while I chime in every now and then with "what the fuck why doesn't this guy have a higher OBP trade him now". We'll see how things go on that. I'm open to it just to find more shit to write about here.

But we haven't forgotten (ok, maybe Jared has) about Bring Back Potvin, so if you continually check this blog in hopes that we'll finally write something to kill like ten minutes of your day, don't bail out just yet.

After all, Ottawa didn't win, now did they?

We are NOT absentee bloggers, I swear

Ok, so the truth of the matter is, all three of us are very busy with exams right now. Well, I'm not really, given that I've had the week off, but I have nothing to write about (be it here or my other blog) lately for whatever reason. I'm incredibly apathetic to the NHL playoffs right now anyway. Steve is wrapped up in the start of the MLB season, and Jared... well, I'm not entirely sure what Jared is up to right now. If you could look in some ditches or something so we can try to find him, that'd be great.

Anyway, I guess the point is that we don't want you to think that we've abandoned the cause. We're just a little sidetracked at the moment. So I've embedded this little clip of the glory days to help tide you over until we return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Playoffs: Round One

Surprisingly I wasn't ready to axe anything on Sunday, mainly because I'd been expecting the outcome since the Leafs lost on Thursday; I'm not sure if I posted that here though. Anyway, I can't say I was mad (I was heartbroken though), because it was the Leafs fault, they had numerous games in the last few weeks where they could have easily gained a point and ended up in the playoffs - as it was they didn't do that, and now I'm focused in on the Jays (and to some extent, I suppose my exams).

Anyway, as I usually do, I won't just make first round picks, I'll go all the way through.

First Round

Red Wings over Flames (in 6)
Wild over Ducks (in 7)
Canucks over Stars (in 6)
Sharks over Predators (in 7)

Sabres over Islanders (in 4)
Devils over Lightning (in 4)
Rangers over Thrashers (in 4)
Senators over Penguins (in 7)

Second Round

Red Wings over Wild (in 7)
Sharks over Canucks (in 7)

Sabres over Rangers (in 7)
Senators over Devils (in 7)

Conference Finals

Sharks over Red Wings (in 6)
Sabres over Senators (in 5)

Stanley Cup Finals

Sabres over Sharks (in 7)

The NHL Playoffs start tonight

and the Leafs aren't in them, which probably explains why none of us have posted lately. I think we're all pretty distraught and pissed off about Toronto's situation. On Sunday I was very surprised Steve didn't show up at my house with a fucking axe. Come to think of it, if Steve shows up to our exam tomorrow with an axe... I really won't be surprised.

Who is everyone taking for playoff picks? I've got Buffalo, New Jersey, New York, Ottawa, Detroit, Anaheim, Vancouver, and San Jose, in that order.

*BOWENISM* - Apr. 5/07 - Maple Leafs vs. Islanders

And tonight's BOWENISM is...

The Watchdogs of the Woven Warehouses

Top 10 Reasons Why We Will Win Tonight...

As I sit here on my porcelain recliner, ideas are going through my head of why the Leafs are going to win tonight against the New York Islanders. Here's the top 10 reasons I could think of why the Leafs are going to win....

10. Nobody on our team pretends they have a DH contract in the MLB where the other players face is the baseball.

9. Have you ever seen a plane fly into a building in Toronto?

8. Sure, we may overpay some of our players - but we still don't sign them past 5 year deals.

7. I think anybody in the league could spell our goalies names...ask someone to spell Wade DoubleBubble, and I bet the choke.

6. Our jerseys have never made people want to go out and eat an entire box of Captain Highliner Fish Sticks.

5. Yeah, Wendel Clark played for both teams, but how often do you see him on the Island watching a game?

4. Wendel's moustache was FAR better in Toronto as well.

3. Our owner doesn't run a corner store in his spare time.

2. Our owner manager also doesn't disguise himself as one of the players on the ice (haven't you always wondered why Charles Wang is never around when Richard Park is?).

1. Our coach doesn't live in a WigWam.

That's just fantastic

So much for that. Steve pretty much covers my sentiments over the loss in the post below (though I don't share the feelings regarding baseball), and I don't have much to add. Way to kick me in the nuts though guys. I mean, I've been hyping this team up as sixth-place potential all week and hey... I guess now I know why I don't get hyped about this team often.

It's going to come down to the last game against Montreal, plain and simple. I hope we're sitting ahead of them going into that game but either way we'll need a clean victory there to get in. Dammit. I'm not happy with hockey this weekend.

Losing 7-2 is Sweeeeeeet!

So you're going after one of the final playoff spots available. You're fighting with numerous teams for it. You've got a game in hand on some of these teams. So what do you do? You go out and lose 7-2 to the Rangers ... just to make the next week even more interesting/difficult than it already was. SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!

Oh well, who gives a fuck. My real love came back tonight. It gave me something to be excited about. Let's go Blue Jays.

This is a really, really important day

At this point of the season it probably goes without saying, but still. Tonight probably makes or breaks our playoff hopes. Let's look at what we need to happen tonight:

Philadelphia has to beat the Rangers, one way or another.

It'd be nice for the Rangers to pick up a clean (regulation) loss, but it's not essential. If the Rangers are kept to 87 or 88 points, that sets up a massive game tomorrow night. If they pull off what would seem to be the easy win and get to 89, well, I won't be very happy, because it doesn't give the Leafs the chance to pass the Rangers tomorrow.

Tampa Bay needs to take a clean loss to Washington.

I should also note that it would be convenient for Atlanta to lose to Boston, too, but since someone has to win that division, I suppose they can win. However, Tampa needs to lose, and they need to not get any points while doing it. If they can stay at 88 points, they're still within reach for my end of the weekend sixth place scenario, which would be fantastic.

Buffalo and Ottawa need to take care of business once again.

Buffalo had the Islanders last night, Ottawa had Montreal. Tonight they switch. They got wins last night and they need to pick up two more. As an interesting side note, if Buffalo wins, they clinch first place in the conference. It's weird cheering for Ottawa, but it's important to keep the teams beneath us down, so I'm fine with them winning (although if everything else falls into place, I suppose the Islanders may have a win here). If New York and Carolina don't get back into it soon, they're going to be left behind.

Montreal obviously needs to lose because they stand directly in front of Toronto. If they lose and the Maple Leafs win, we sit one point ahead of them with a game in hand, which is a great position to be in after they seemed so far ahead of us (and had that terrible five game winning streak to boot).

Toronto needs to keep Crosby off the scoresheet.

Aside from the fact that this would help towards my dream of seeing Thornton catch and pass Crosby for the Art Ross, it's the key to winning against the Penguins tonight. If Crosby doesn't get anything, we can take them. If gets a point, maybe. If gets a couple, we're probably fucked. If we win this game and sit in the playoffs at the end of the night, I will go ahead and say we will stay there.

Also, if we win, we have the Rangers tomorrow in a game that COULD see us end up in sixth place (it's looking unlikely after Tampa's win, but that's ok).

I guess that the most important things for this weekend are Montreal losing again, Toronto getting two wins, and the Rangers getting two losses. If nothing else on this list happens, these are the ones that probably mean the most. We should be fine if that happens.

*BOWENISM* - Mar. 29/07 - Maple Leafs vs. Thrashers

Well, just the fact that Joe Bowen opened up tonight's broadcast with the words, "Welcome to HOTLANTA!" made me know that tonight's Bowenism would be a good one...and here it is:

The Superheroes of the String Saunas

Remaining Schedule of 7 Eastern Teams; Realistic Results?

I am in class, as Dave just mentioned. I'm not even going to look at the Leafs running boxscore on yahoo tonight; simply because I'm taping the game and will watch it later. So instead I am going to entertain, well maybe not entertain, but keep myself busy, with this blog. Yay. Here's what it is going to be ... a look at each of the schedules for the teams we are fighting with. I'm only looking at 7 teams though, Atlanta, New York Rangers, Tampa Bay, Montreal, Us, New York Islanders and Carolina. Fuck the Panthers. I'm not including Buffalo, New Jersey, Ottawa and Pittsburgh for obvious reasons (they've clinched a spot, and they are too far ahead anyway). Here goes nothing.

Atlanta Thrashers - 5 Games Remaining - 89 Points - 1st in Southeast Division - 3rd in the Eastern Conference

Tonight - vs Toronto Maple Leafs
Sat. Mar 31 at Boston Bruins
Wed. Apr 4 vs Washington Capitals
Fri Apr 6 at Carolina Hurricanes
Sat Apr 7 vs Tampa Bay Lightning

Realistically ... the Leafs are playing better than the Thrashers, and should win this game (0 Points). Should beat the Bruins (2 Points). Should beat the Capitals (2 Points). Hopefully will beat the Canes and Islanders with no overtime so the Leafs can benefit (4 Points). This gives the Thrashers 8 more points, finishing the season with 97.

New York Rangers - 5 Games Remaining - 87 Points - 3rd in Atlantic Division - 6th in Eastern Conference

Sat Mar 31 at Philadelphia Flyers
Sun Apr 1 vs Toronto Maple Leafs
Tues Apr 3 at New York Islanders
Thurs Apr 5 vs Montreal Canadiens
Sat Apr 7 at Pittsburgh Penguins

Realistically ... should beat the Flyers (2 Points). Beat the Leafs in OT (2 Points). Beat the Islanders and Canadiens, once again to help the Leafs (4 Points), but lose to the Pens (0 Points). Finishing with 8 more points, and a total of 95 Points.

Tampa Bay Lightning - 5 Games Remaining - 86 Points - 2nd in Southeast Division - 7th in Eastern Conference

Fri Mar 30 at Carolina Hurricanes
Sat Mar 31 vs Washington Capitals
Tues Apr 3 vs Carolina Hurricanes
Fri Apr 6 vs Florida Panthers
Sat Apr 7 at Atlanta Thrashers

Realistically ... Two games against the Canes? Eww. Split these two games, one win, one loss, with no overtime (2 Points). Beat the Caps and Panthers (4 Points), lose to the Thrashers (0 Points). 6 Points more, finish with 92.

Montreal Canadiens - 5 Games Remaining - 86 Points - 3rd in Northeast Division - 8th in Eastern Conference

Fri Mar 30 at Ottawa Senators
Sat Mar 31 vs Buffalo Sabres
Tues Apr 3 vs Boston Bruins
Thurs Apr 5 at New York Rangers
Sat Apr 7 vs Toronto Maple Leafs

Realistically ... lose to the Sens and Sabres, but with as well as they are playing, let's assume they get two points, one way or another (2 Points). Beat the Bruins (2 Points). An overtime loss to the Rangers (1 point). Can't give them anything against the Leafs (0 Points). 5 points, finishing with 91.

Toronto Maple Leafs - 6 Games Remaining - 84 Points - 4th in Northeast Division - 9th in Eastern Conference

Tonight at Atlanta Thrashers
Sat Mar 31 vs Pittsburgh Penguins
Sun Apr 1 at New York Rangers
Tues Apr 3 vs Philadelphia Flyers
Thurs Apr 5 at New York Islanders
Sat Apr 7 vs Montreal Canadiens

Realistically ... a win over the Thrashers (2 Points), some how getting a point over the Pens (1 Point). Same with the Rangers (1 Point). Beat the Flyers (2 Points). Beat the Islanders (2 Points). Beat the Canadiens, probably in overtime (2 Points). 10 points, finishing the year with 92.

New York Islanders - 6 Games Remaining - 84 Points- 4th in Atlantic Division - 10th in Eastern Conference

Fri Mar 30 at Buffalo Sabres
Sat Mar 31 vs Ottawa Senators
Tues Apr 3 vs New York Rangers
Thurs Apr 5 vs Toronto Maple Leafs
Sat Apr 7 at Philadelphia Flyers
Sun Apr 8 at New Jersey Devils

Realistically ... losses to all the teams, minus the Flyers. Without DiPietro, give them 3 points just for fun. Finishing with 87 on the year.

Carolina Hurricanes - 5 Games Remaining - 84 Points - 3rd in Southeast Division - 11th in Eastern Conference

Fri Mar 30 vs Tampa Bay Lightning
Sun Apr 1 at Florida Panthers
Tues Apr 3 at Tampa Bay Lightning
Fri Apr 6 vs Atlanta Thrashers
Sat Apr 7 vs Florida Panthers

Realistically ... again fuck the two games between teams we are fighting with. Split them (2 Points). Lose to the Thrashers (0 Points). Panthers ... they're playing decently ... I can wish can't I? (3 Points). Gives them 5 points, and a total of 89.

Realistically - or maybe hopefully on my part - here's what the standings would look like come April 8th at roughly 11:59pm.

East
1. Sabres
2. Devils/Pens
3. Thrashers ... 97 Points
4. Sens
5. Devils/Pens
6. Rangers ... 96 Points
7. Lightning ... 92 Points
8. Leafs ... 92 Points

9. Canadiens ... 91 Points
10. Hurricanes ... 89 Points
11. Islanders ... 87 Points

Tampa would have more wins, and therefore would get the tiebreaker with us. I'm not going to lie though, this is a very plauisble situation ... especially for the Leafs. I don't think I'm asking for too much here ... am I? Let me know.

Live game blog tonight!

Just kidding. Me and Steve are in class, and Jared is drunk in a ditch somewhere. So you'll have to watch the game for yourself. One or more of us will probably have things to say about the game afterwards.

Go Leafs Go!

Killing two or more birds with one stone

The week has gone magnificently thus far, as covered by the team here at BBP and you know, having your eyes open. The Maple Leafs have moved up to ninth, two points back of Montreal and Tampa for the seventh and eighth spots and three back of the Rangers for sixth. We sit tied with the Islanders and the Hurricanes at 84 points, although we sit on top due to more wins over New York and less games played than Carolina. That's another big advantage for us over the three teams in front of us, all of whom are within three points: we've got a game in hand over everyone.

Tonight Toronto spends that extra game, and we go up against the Atlanta Thrashers. Earlier in the week I was pretty scared of them, but now Atlanta has lost three straight and only sits five points ahead of Toronto (and once again, the Leafs have a game in hand). Obviously, Toronto can't end up in third, but hurting the Thrashers only helps us, as having all three of the Southeast teams being forced to take only one spot (the division title, giving them third) leaves more spots for us. If Carolina, Tampa, and Atlanta keep losing, it's not likely all three will get in. Which is good news.

Technically, we can't actually move up in the standings tonight, given that Toronto is involved in the only Eastern game of the evening. Even if we pick up the win, we'll still sit in ninth. We'll be tied with Tampa/Montreal, but we won't have the game in hand anymore and we have less wins than both of those teams.

Still, we need the win once again. I'll call it a must-win situation, and that's because we're giving up the precious extra game. We NEED the two points to continue the drive. If we win tonight, and all three of the big games tomorrow night go our way (Tampa and Carolina NOT going to overtime, preferably with a Tampa win I suppose; Ottawa beating Montreal in regulation and Buffalo beating the DiPietro-less Islanders in regulation), and we get a little bit of luck combined with a win on Saturday, we could conceivably be battling the Rangers for sixth place on Sunday. With us possibly walking in with the lead in that race. I don't know about you guys, but I'm damn excited.

The *SECOND* best thing to ever happen at MAPLE LEAF GARDENS...

OOOOOOOOH YEAH!