z_The Hockey Page - Toronto Star

Paging Mr. Burke

If I'm the GM of the Leafs, I have a few things on my mind as I pull into the parking spot this morning.
The whip and the chair is the usual. The Visine, the anti-Peddie meds? Check.
And oh yes, don't forget to call Brian Burke in Anaheim.
As you probably have heard by now, Burke's Ducks shipped Sergei Fedorov over to Columbus yesterday. Everyone's talking about the speed and flow of this postmodern NHL, and this was another example: Six weeks in, and already a  big contract has flown over the side in exchange for a bag of pucks. If only the Ducks could dump and chase as effectively on the ice.
Fedorov has been nearly useless this season, with one assist and one groin injury for his $6 million salary. But with that underachiever gone, Burke's got a hole to fill, as the L.A. Times reports:

The move may also be a precursor to another deal by the aggressive Burke, in his first year with the Ducks. Since the lockout ended in July, he has signed Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne and traded forwards Steve Rucchin and Mike Leclerc. With Rucchin and Fedorov gone, the Ducks have put a greater burden at center, where they are left with Rob Niedermayer, Andy McDonald, Samuel Pahlsson and rookie Ryan Getzlaf. But Burke now has about $5 million more to bring in help.

So, as one possible Jason Allison suitor is crossed off (at least, according to Bob McKenzie, the Jackets were), another jumps into the speculative fray.
Oh, and last night: Leafs win 2-1 over the overachieving Rangers (the first time that adjective has snuggled up next to that noun in a long, long time). Allison, playing on a line with Ponikarovsky and Antropov -- the Trade Bait Line, Meatriarchy calls 'em over at Battle of Ontario; I'd go with the Bell Mobility line, the way they go out of the service area (how many times are you going to ruin good chances by telegraphing your passes, Alex?).

BERNARD WEIL/TORONTO STAR

Leafs made a leap forward last night defensively.

This one had a couple power play goals from Bryan McCabe, and good goaltending from Belfour, but it also had a switch on that usual recipe. Leafs took only four penalties. They muffled Jaromir Jagr, and were outshot by a mere 28-24. This qualified, then, as one of their tighter defensive displays of the season.
Other links this morning:
Steve Simmons over at the Sun looks at the strained relationship between Quinn and JFJ (There's a shocker).
Rosie DiManno ventures into a Leafs locker room that's uncharacteristically full of chattering players, and discovers, among other things, that one of them is pondering a snip-snip job (at least, I think he's saying that).
Paul Hunter has a look at Ed Belfour, still adjusting to the new puckhandling.
And thanks to Spencer for giving me yesterday morning off. I've taken my anti-Peddie meds, and feel much better.
(C.Y.)

Fortune .500

So we gave Chris the morning off. Really. You should see him. He needed it. I think he wanted some time to do some research after yesterday's JABS posting. So you're stuck with me. Let's do a quick state of the Leafs Nation and then I want to throw it back to you.

Mark Zwolinski has the latest on the ever-changing lines (maybe more on that later):

Antropov-Allison-Ponikarovsky
Domi-Stajan-Wellwood
Tucker-Lindros-Kilger
Steen-Sundin-O'Neill

Still waiting for a shot, and still looking like a huge bust, is Czerkawski. Over at the Sun, Al Strachan shoots down the Allison trade rumour, so let's just move on from that.

Regulars Denial and Gary (BTW, it's Nieuwendyk) started a good discussion yesterday in this space, with Gary kicking it off with a quick look at some of the changes from 2003-04 (O'Neill, Lindros, Allison, Khavanov in; Mogilny, Roberts, Nieuwendyk, Leetch out) and a question:

Overall I like the offseason moves. So why are the Buds just over .500?

They're 9-7-0-2. For 20 points in 18 games. In 2003-04, they were 45-24-10-3 for 103 points. So why are the Leafs barely above .500? And did we really expect them to be better this year?

Gary suggests that should the team defence improve, the results would too. And thanks, Gary, for leaving Berg out of it for once. It's not all his fault.

Should we blame this "new NHL"? Maybe the Leafs are just too slow.

Or, consider Denial's angle:

The leafs are OVER ACHIEVING at the moment, and they can absolutely thank the new rules for the fact that they're over 500. In fact, I don't think that there is another team in the NHL who has benefitted from the new rules than Toronto. ... The leafs are riding their power play right now, that that power play is riding the new rules.

A good point. Leafs have the second best power play and we know that with the penalty parade most of the offence comes a man up.

So I throw some questions at you today. We're a quarter into the season. You've watched the games, read the stories, listened to the interviews:

Why are the Leafs are hovering at .500? Is this the best they can do? Is it Ed Belfour's glove's fault?

Send your top-3 ways the Leafs can improve, and I'll put together our shopping list throughout the day. Then we can check off the items during tonight's test against the Rangers. (SW)

Of Allison and quarter poles

With the Leafs nearly a quarter into their schedule -- usually referred to as the "quarter pole" by sportswriters or anyone else unfamiliar with the term (it's a quarter-mile remaining, but enough with digressions) -- they remain a maddening lot to watch.
Jason Allison has been far quicker to pop up in trade rumours than he has been on the ice, yet he scored one of the season's more important goals -- and perhaps its flukiest, in perhaps their most improbably W of the season -- in Montreal on Saturday.
The goaltending can be brilliant. It also goes bonehead.

CP PHOTO

On the move? It's Allison - things won't happen too quickly.

They don't handle the puck well and the veterans take the same dumb stick penalties they were being called for in game one. The defence is the one constant, and that is not a good thing.
Yet they continue with their heads barely above water, that goaltending, special teams , Mats Sundin's return and the spark provided by the likes of babyfaces Wellwood and Steen something new.
I claim no inside information, but can only say -- don't hold your breath on JFJ shipping Allison any time soon. One of the realities of a salary cap system is that trades have to be a match of salaries; your underachieving garbage for mine is the inevitable by-product in many cases. At 20 games into the season, it's still early for a GM to pull the chute on one of those kind of deals. Like Brandon Witt, this is way more talking point than something that might happen. (To say nothing of Tom Poti, another trade rumour with legs, as the Rangers roll in town).
Meantime, a couple of blog postings from the weekend, off Saturday's game: From a T.O. perspective, budblog called it "exciting hockey, but it was sure was painful to watch." And over at one of my fave Habs-oriented places, Unibrew laments, then  notes the  latest one-sided instalment of Ottawa and Buffalo: "The Sens are mightier than the swords."
And finally, Ken Campbell's checking in on The Hockey Page's favourite Leaf, going back to training camp. Yeah, if you're a regular, you know who we're talking about -- and don't you get the impression that whenever Quinn is quoted talking about this guy, you can almost picture his old-school teeth clenching?
(C.Y.)

 

Leafs top Forbes parade

The lead story this morning is about MLSE: The company, the myth, the bank vault. According to the annual sports franchise valuations done by Forbes magazine due out NOv. 28, the Leafs conglomerate is valued at $325 million US, and that leads the NHL.
That's pretty good, though evidently not quite good enough to afford a decent stay-at-home defenceman.
Leafs president Richard Peddie disputes the numbers -- there's a surprise -- telling The Star's Ken Campbell:

"If I were running a big Fortune 500 company, they would be giving me a lot of trouble for how low our bottom line is."

The truth is these numbers are fairly accurate, if not exact. It's down at the other end of the spectrum where they become indicators, as co-writer Michael Ozonian tells Campbell:

"The two places where I think there will not be teams in two years are Carolina and Atlanta. And I still need more convincing in Florida and Nashville."

Damien Cox suggests that, from a Leafs perspective, it means nothing on the ice. That, too, is no big surprise. To me, the Leafs in my lifetime have become something of the Chicago Cubs of hockey -- guaranteed of wild fan support, full houses and falling short of the championship year in and out.

Meantime, Leafs are in Buffalo tonight. Aki Berg is healthy, according to the hard-working Campbell, which means that Carlo Colaiacovo stays with the AHL Marlies. Be interesting to see how Berg plays, after Carlo's one-game callup this week went pretty well. Oh, and for the benefit of some of our posters, here's a patial explanation for the yo-yo of Carlo, a move we'll see a lot of this year with the Marlies just down the road:

There has been criticism the Leafs were pinching pennies by sending Colaiacovo back down and paying him a minor league salary, but saving money had nothing to do with the move. Saving cap space was the modus operandi with Colaiacovo. The Leafs have about $1.5 million (U.S.) in cap space left and, like other teams, want to have as much cap space as possible when the March 9 trade deadline hits.

If the Leafs figured Carlo was a keeper, of course, they'd swallow those extra few thousands in cap space. Witness Staffan Kranwall. Over at the Sun, Terry Koshan tells the same story with a little twist -- Kranwall, who could've been a yo-yo but instead has become something of a fixture on that shaky Leafs defence.
(C.Y.)

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Got a few links for you today. First one's for the fans. We hear a lot about how the crowd at the ACC are too quiet, with the sushi jokes and too many suits. Well, if you need more proof that Leafs fans are some of the best, just check out a road game. Especially tonight in Buffalo.

"When Toronto comes down, they take over the building pretty much," Sabres center Derek Roy tells the Buffalo News.

Not sure why Toronto's record is a very lousy 20-43-6 record in Buffalo, as noted by Ken Campbell this morning. Campbell suggests it's because a game against Toronto in Buffalo is practically a road game for them.

"They respond well to it," Pat Quinn tells Campbell today. "Their teams have always played with heart."

Well, so do the fans that make the trip down the QEW.

"It's electrifying," goalie Martin Biron tells the News. "At any moment in the game people are standing up and cheering. There are 6,000 Leafs fans that are going to be as loud as 20,000 anywhere else. It keeps it very interesting. Our fans are saying, 'We gotta be louder than the Toronto fans because it's our building. So whenever they start yelling, we're going to yell louder and bury them.' "

Maybe that's why the Sabres play so hard when the Leafs come. Maybe the Leafs' poor record in Buffalo is all your fault.

"You want to give your fans something to cheer about, and you want to make sure at the end of the night they're the ones standing on their feet and cheering instead of the other way around," says Biron.

Some other business from last night:

Nathan Perrott is on an 82-goal pace with the Dallas Stars after his debut last night in Nashville.

"I scored 16 goals last year [in the AHL], so I can score," Perrott tells the Dallas Morning News.

Further analysis reveals the ex-Leaf had a whopping 3:16 of ice time in a loss to the Predators. Don't think he's headed to the NHL awards ceremony game any time soon.

Still in Nashville, where last night the real star was another ex-Leaf, Steve Sullivan. Three more goals. Here's how Tennessean writer John Glennon describes it:

Predators fans covered the ice with hats following Steve Sullivan's third goal last night. Dallas defenseman Sergei Zubov probably wished they'd thrown a shirt, shorts and shoes as well, since he'd just been undressed on the play.

Whenever I read something like that, I wish the Leafs still had Sullivan. But then I remember that Toronto has a newer, younger version of the Timmons Tornado playing right now: Kyle Wellwood.

Sabres tongiht. Habs tomorrow. Go Leafs Fans Go. (SW)

Linking up

A links blog on this quiet morning, all of 'em guaranteed good reads or listens, as the Leafs are in prep mode (and Carlo Colaiacovo in full yo-yo bounce) for road games in Buffalo tomorrow night and Montreal on Saturday:

Ken Campbell has a look at some stats, particularly on Toronto's power play and penalty killing, and notes how Nathan Perrott came to be traded to Dallas, instead of merely put out on waivers:

Ferguson had been told over the weekend by another GM that the Stars had a heated confrontation with coach Dave Tippett recently, in large part because the players felt the team didn't have enough toughness.

With six weeks to go till the roster is announced, The Star's Damien Cox looks at the many questions facing Team Canada, and over at ESPN Scott Burnside looks a little closer at the uncertainties surrounding goaltending.

Borje Salming on Mats Sundin, who's on the verge of passing him in the Leafs' all-time scoring parade.

The United Arab Emirates national hockey team is in town. Yes, they really have one, and Geoff Baker checks 'em out.

Finally, Off Wing Opinon's Eric McErlain, with the help of fellow blogger Joe Tasca, has launched a weekly radio show on hockey. Among the first instalment is a bit on the ongoing to-and-fro with the new rules (they're not so new anymore) and their enforcement:

"Last week I saw a referee drop a puck in a faceoff circle when there were no players in it. They'd all lollygagged their way to the faceoff circle and the ref said okay, fine, you're not going to be here? I'm dropping the puck anyway."

(C.Y.)

---

Thanks, Chris. I'll jump in today with a few more links - it would just kill me not to share this next one with you:

And I don't want to ruin your day, but Harry Sinden has a warning for us about the "new NHL": It's going to kill someone. Sinden notes that there have been more 5-on-3s so far this season that the past (we all know this already - thanks to the well-documented penalty parade). Take it away Harry:

"The defensemen are getting forever to wind up," Sinden tells the Boston Herald. "They’re going to kill someone standing in front with a shot. They’ve got forever to shoot, and they shoot it so hard and so high. Most shots are high. I’m telling you, I’m worried sick about it. I’m afraid it’s going to happen. Someone is going to get killed out there."

Yeah, we've all been watching Bryan McCabe blasting away on the right point this year, but come on, Harry. Lighten up.

Off to Dallas, where welcome addition Nathan Perrott plays his first game tonight. Stars are happy to have him, using words like "difference maker" (?) thanks to a combo of good speed, thoughness and a heavy shot. Fellow Stars tough guy Steve Ott, Perrott's new linemate, recalls facing the Leaf outcast in the AHL last season. Ott estimated that 80-90 of his penalty minutes last year came against Perrott alone.

"He's a good player, and he's definitely a heavyweight. He was killing me," Ott tells the Dallas Morning News.

This link comes a little late, but if you didn't see the stories about grumblings in Sweden about leaving Marcus Naslund off their Olympic team, well, the headline in the Vancouver Province says it all:

Nitch Naslund? Are they nuts?

And look out Wayne Gretzky, another NHL legend is turning out to be a pretty good coach. Patrick Roy has turned around the Quebec Remparts season since stepping behind the bench. (SW)

Alarms and celebration

(UPDATE: Leafs sent down Colaicovo this morning. No word yet from practice on what that means, if anything -- could be a mere housekeeping move to save a couple days' salary.)

If you, like me, were feeling a little jaded as the second period moved toward its midway point last night -- okay, perhaps you were feeling a little sleepy  -- then the rest of the way was a little jolt that reminded you life in this postmodern NHL can never be taken for granted. Or perhaps it's just a Leaf thing.
The Leafs redeemed what, up till that midpoint, looked like their most aimless effort since their last time out, against the same Caps, on Sunday night -- one that, as Paul Hunter notes, "triggers alarms instead of celebration" as it points to their strengths and weaknesses at once. You can put that down to typical Toronto angst if you want, but regardless, here's Mats Sundin's assessment:

"We have the talent to be one of the top teams in the league, but right now we're not good enough defensively."

They are what they are -- a half glass.
The one thing that gives hope for change is that, with youngsters on the blueline now as well as up front, there is some  chance for improvement as they mature and gain confidence.
Carlo Colaicovo played, and played well last night, scoring his first NHL goal, and Staffan Kranwall hasn't looked out of place since taking up a spot six games ago. This doesn't match the pure electricity of an Ovechkin, the Caps' super rookie, or a Crosby or any of the league's other more glittering young talents, but it will do.
Damien Cox notes it nicely:

"What is truly encouraging for Leaf Nation, meanwhile, is that for the first time in a long, long time the Leafs are very much a part of this transfer of influence to a new generation. Last night, fully one-quarter of the Toronto roster was populated by players 23 years of age or younger ... The presence of so many kids, of course, is also a contributing factor to the confounding way in which the Leafs continue to defy firm description with one-fifth of a  schedule having been played."

Not sure about that last bit. To me, the kids have been more consistent than the likes of Allison and O'Neill (the latter finally waking up with Sundin back) -- even top scorer Bryan McCabe, who for all his offence and power-play prowess (his pass to O'Neill to set up a goal just a beauty, wasn't it?) can still give the puck away too easily.
Sundin's right -- this is not a solid defensive team, and the way it's built currently it won't be. There's not enough team speed, the puckhandling overall in their own end is shaky and the goaltending has been streaky.
As for last night's new line combinations, the big loser was one of those kids, Matt Stajan reduced to fourth-line status and just 5:20 of playing time, less than half his usual this season.
Front and back, though, the future is in sight. Now comes the tricky business of getting there.
(C.Y.)

Tinkering

Here's some news: Line combinations.
Leafs go into tonight's rematch with the Capitals fully retooled, with Antropov back in the lineup and this new look up front from yesterday's practice, listing each trio left-centre-right:

Steen-Sundin-O'Neill
Tucker-Lindros-Antropov
Ponikarovsky-Wellwood-Allison
Kilger-Stajan-Domi

(Inactive: Wilm, Czerkawski)

Couple of things to note here. As Paul Hunter reports, Pat Quinn has reversed course as Jason Allison moves to the wing for the first time since he was a young'un:

Allison said his confidence has been lagging and his request to Quinn, made in a conversation more than a week ago, was to get more into the flow of games as opposed to direct appeal for more playing time.

So moving out to the wing is going to do that? He's already getting power play time, so I'm a little unsure of this as a p.t. issue, which Quinn says it is, and Allison says it isn't. Regardless, putting him with Wellwood means there's two players there who like to dominate the puck (even if Wellwood is a different package otherwise). Here's Allison his own self:

"When we talked it was not an issue of going in there and whining and making excuses, it's just more along the lines of just trying to get the best out of myself. I want to make it a good signing for them."

And for himself, of course. Allison's contract carries incentives based on points scored, as Hunter notes -- an extra $1 million to the $1.5 million base, for instance, with a 70-point season (with 12 points in 15 games, he's just a tad behind that pace), and $2 million more for 75 games played.
Worrisome element: Whenever they say it's not about money or numbers -- it is.
Meantime, Steen moves up to the top line, Stajan drops down to the fourth, and so much for all that Kid Line talk.
This means too that there are changes on defence, with Aki Berg hurting and perhaps out for a couple of weeks. Wade Belak has moved back to the blueline the last couple days of practice, Quinn says that Carlo Colaicovo may get the call-up today. All in all, lots to talk about.
(C.Y.)

UPDATE: Forgot this one earlier from Alan Adams at Sportsnet.ca: Jason Spezza or Eric Staal are playing well, yes, but good enought to make Canada's Olympic team? No, suggests Wayne Gretzky.

Alibis

It was sometime in the third period last night, the Leafs were down by two and Greg Millen was excitedly pointing out how they have to be aware that every team in the league gets extra pumped up to play them. "They're the Toronto Maple Leafs!" he exclaimed.
Besides wondering how anyone ever survived without Leafs TV and this sort of penetrating analysis before, it got me thinking about excuses.
Let's throw this one out there today. Send in your favourite excuse story -- your own doggy-ate-my-homework howler, or someone else's, or perhaps even one to explain this, a 5-4 loss to a Washington side that outskated the Leafs, outshot them (but of course), outhustled them, outchecked them, outfinished them ...
Let's call the roll of blue and white alibis. Right off the top of my head:
Upset at Nathan Perrott's trade to Dallas.
Outlucked.
It was a back to back.
The referees stink.
Backup goalie was in net.
Eric Lindros has cooled off.
Mats isn't back up to speed yet.
Aki Berg is injured (and Wade Belak may go back to defence because of it).
They don't shoot enough.
They're inconsistent.
Quinn's a terrible coach.
Did we tell you Eddie Belfour wasn't playing?.
You can certainly do better than these, every one of them playing catch up with Millen. (All this time, I've been trying to figure out why the Senators put eight goals past the Leafs, why the Leafs have such trouble playing 5-on-5, why they're so careless with the puck, and have such trouble covering opponents -- of course! How could I have missed it?)
We are into the Sargasso Sea of the NHL season. The next two, three months, it'll be like this -- same water, different day.
In his latest epistle, Denial pointed out the other day, "this is what they are. They're a mediocre team who will get outshot and outchanced every game."
That's not good enough for me -- it's too real, for one thing. I want excuses, a good stock of them to trot out during the days of doldrums to come.
While you're mulling that one over, remember this is Hockey Hall of Fame night. Ken Campbell has a good one on inductee Murray Costello.
And have you seen Darcy Tucker lately? "(He's) starting to look like Frankenstein's monster," says Budblog's Mike Robinson. "My face is a road map of my life," says Tucker.
(C.Y.)

The return of Mats

A couple of days ago, Ken Campbell noted in The Star that the Leafs have fared better without Mats Sundin than with him.
The numbers are interesting, but apart from a few voices out there posting to message boards, or TSN last week during one of their more halfhearted intermission yakfests, I didn't hear anyone arguing that the Leafs might be better off without him. Sports are full of instances where teams perform well short-term without their best players, but in the long run does it ever really work that way? At least I don't think so.
This morning, Damien Cox is making the case for Sundin, with the captain due back this weekend, as Paul Hunter notes.
Sundin's absence has had one beneficial effect -- it's shown the Leafs, perhaps even hardheaded coach Pat Quinn, that the youngsters Stajan, Steen and Wellwood belong at this level, and not just as bit players. Each night out, they look a little better -- last night they were the three best players in blue and white on the ice, although Stajan's giveaway leading to the late winning goal blew his game up -- and the rest of the team sans Sundin, including a power play that went 0-for-6 last night, looks a little worse:

"With three losses in four nights, the Leafs are a team giving up more goals than they are scoring and a team relying more and more on young forwards Stajan and Steen for important offence and even game-saving defence rather than its cast of experienced veteran forwards."

The only thing I'd add is Wellwood's play (again. I know. I like the way this guy plays, have since back in September, and it'd be a real rotten shame and a dumb, dumb move if he's sent back to Marlies). He tracked back last night to save a goal, covering off Brind'Amour in front of an open net and preventing a sure goal (I think it was him -- my notes don't show it, so correct me if I'm wrong). If you go all the way back to that training camp, the one thing he's added to his game besides confidence is backchecking -- I even saw him throw a bodycheck last night.
Oh yes, about last night: a 4-3 loss to Eric Staal, Erik Cole and the Hurricanes in which the Leafs blew a third-period lead. Those guys are good, Staal looking like -- well, like an Olympian, actually, even if he may well end up as this year's Joe Thornton. He had two goals, would've had a third were it not for a weird late penalty call that denied him an empty-netter (and read on for more on that). But I'll let someone else read the entrails, including Paul Hunter, who lists the no-shows:

Notable amongst those absentees, even more so because it was his return to Raleigh after seven seasons here, was Jeff O'Neill who managed only one shot on net, a harmless blast from a bad angle in the third. Eric Lindros and Darcy Tucker, also among the top scorers on the team, generated little.

What struck me, though, had little to do with the Leafs, the Canes, or what was a fast, flowing game with plenty of thunder -- everything this postmodern NHL is supposed to be: Hands up everyone who thinks this week's memo from the NHL police headquarters mentioned what they call in soccer "embellishment", what's known here as "diving" and what amounts everywhere to "cheating".
Only a referee who'd been reminded recently would've called that last-minute trip on Erik Cole a case of diving. It cost Staal his third goal, and it was a terrible call from Kerry Fraser. But in the big picture -- the same one that shows the Leafs in crying need of their leader Sundin -- if this means the zebras are looking for dives, it's not such a bad thing at all.
(C.Y.)

---

Too bad for me. I missed the game last night -- but it's really gotten to the point where you just pick up the paper and go, "yup, three more points for Staal, no surprises there."

And what's all this about diving? Wish the players would show some guts and stop it already. Gotta feel for the referees so far. Lots of criticism, and so much of this "new" game falls on them. So...

Today's referee rant comes to us from lovely Phoenix, where it's a pleasant 27C today. The Great One says the stripes are doing a good job:

"I really, truly believe that the finesse and the smarts and the intelligence of hockey players now, both offensively and defensively, is a factor," Gretzky tells the Arizona Republic. "If you're not a good skater and you can't handle the puck or you're not a smart defenseman, you no longer can play in the National Hockey League and you'll be an American Hockey League player. And that's the way it should be."

Mr. Berg, Ya heard.

Sticking with the desert dogs, much was written on Gretzky becoming a coach. After a slow start, Coyotes are showing signs of bite (Cujo with the shutout last night). Here's how Gretzky's influence is paying off.

To follow up on the kissing of Havlat's butt yesterday, he scored again last night but the Sens only managed four in a win. Off night, I guess. But they were playing Tampa Bay. Here's how coach Bryan Murray has been taking advantage of one of the new rules to get his matchups.

"You can get your matchups, especially with the new icing rule," he tells the Ottawa Sun.

When your opponent ices the puck, they can't change players. So that's how Murray gets Spezza, Heatley and Alfredsson on the ice against some of Tampa's more lead-footed players. Ottawa had a couple goals last night thanks to some simple but clever coaching.

Quick hits:

Ray Bourque's officially back in Boston, chipping in to help their young defence.

Marty Turco took a few days off to get his game back on track. Stars hope it worked.

The Red Wings, 12-1-1, have the most points in the NHL right now. Their secret? Fresh legs.

Hey look, the Predators are falling, falling, falling, falling back to earth.

Did the St. Louis Blues trade Chris Pronger to make themselves a better, younger hockey team? Or did they trade their franchise player to make the team more attractive to a prospective buyer? Discuss.

Leafs play Saturday and Sunday. Giddy up. (SW)

Staal-ing for time

Couple of things about tonight's game:
It's the return of Jeff O'Neill to Carolina, and Ken Campbell takes a look, noting the role of Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford in trading O'Neill to "really the only place for Jeff based on the circumstances." A real good read, this one. O'Neill's been mostly invisible for the past half dozen game nights. This might light his fuse.
For Toronto observers, emerging star Eric Staal is also in the picture. This guy's smoother than a tall glass of sweet tea. We've seen how the Leafs measure up against the best young speed team in the league -- Ottawa, of course, and off the evidence thus far, the latest coming last night in Buffalo, I have a feeling there will be a few more 8-0's, maybe even a 12-0, in the Sens' future -- and now this Staal kid, tied with Spezza for the league scoring lead.
The southern fans are already ga-ga over him -- check out our regular From the Blogs feature over at The Game page for a sampling.  Yesterday in the Globe, Tim Wharnsby featured Staal. On HNIC Saturday, Don Cherry noted the similarities between Staal and the likes of stud youngsters Joe Thornton and Rick Nash. After dropping in on a Canes broadcast last week, Staal looks to me like he's got a lot of Beliveau elegance in him. And that's not bad.
Oh, yeah. Mats Sundin. If you haven't done so yet, check out yesterday's late posting from our visiting Grade 9'ers, out of yesterday's practice. And as hockey jockey Campbell noted in his missive, it appears that Kyle Wellwood is safe with Sundin almost certainly suiting up Saturday against Tampa Bay:

What the Leafs will likely do to create a spot on the roster is place Nik Antropov on the short-term injury list. Once he and Mariusz Czerkawski are healthy and if the Leafs face a roster decision, the most likely candidate for demotion will be right winger Nathan Perrott, who has played in only three games and is minus-5.

As for Pat Quinn, grumpily harrumphing about Wellwood's "tomfoolery", even he might be coming around, as Dave Shoalts notes in what the Globe is calling a "blog" (that's their story, anyway, and they're stickin' to it): "Kyle's done very well.  He's much improved in his overall play.  It's going to be a hard call."
Hard call? Stop it Coach, you're killin' me.
(C.Y.)

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A quick post so I can eat some words today. Okay, eating just one word. Thanks to this zinger from poster SensOwn in yesterday's comments.

CP PHOTO

Stupid Alfredsson.

Apparently my post yesterday hinted that Martin Havlat was foolish or something? (Okay, it was stupid - I'm still chewing on that one -- it was Havlat's word, by the way):

Yah, that was a pretty "stupid" performace by Marty last night. Or is the word Stupendous?

Ummm, yeah. Stupendous is definitely the word. Like Chris says above, there's a few more football scores in the Senators future. Wow.

Hey Senators, you may be scoring goals like crazy, but you still don't have the best clutch player in the league. That would be Eric Lindros, according to USA Today's "clutch rankings". They rank players using a formula based based on a 'when you score the goal and what it means in the context of the game' system. Check the list here and the explanation here. Alexei Yashin is their second-ranked player which says a lot about how flawed the idea is. Nicolai Khabibulin is the lowest-ranked clutch goalie. ... I repeat: the guy who won the last Stanley Cup is the lowest-ranked clutch goalie.

Leafs-Canes tonight. Go Jeff O'Neill.  (SW)