Guest Post: The benefits of Finger waiving

Bargain Hunting In The New NHL

BY ALIN MATEESCU

The Maple Leafs waived Jeff Finger Tuesday, a move that can bring both short and long term benefits to the club.

With Finger's $3.5 million cap hit gone (as well as Matt Lashoff's $0.55 million cap hit, who has also been waived), the Leafs sit at around $4.85 million under the NHL's salary cap ceiling. (All figures U.S.)

This sets up a number of possible scenarios, both with current and immediate implications.

The Leafs now have the flexibility to acquire players at bargain prices from teams desperate to shed payroll. The New Jersey Devils come to mind. They've got serious cap issues and may be nearing the point where they have to make some major roster moves.

A number of Devils players could be made available for trade and some that may be of interest to the Leafs include Jamie Langenbrunner, Travis Zajac and David Clarkson.

Back on September 26, Leafs GM Brian Burke stated that he may have to fill the center position with players from outside of the organization. But with the inspired play of Tyler Bozak and Mikhail Grabovski, and the unexpectedly strong performances of both Tim Brent and Mike Zigomanis thus far, it's quite possible the Leafs aren't shopping for centers anymore.

Still, if/when players like Langenbrunner and Zajac become available at potentially reduced rates, it's hard to believe that Burke takes a pass on the opportunity to acquire them. A solid veteran presence like Langenbrunner's would go a long way in providing the young Leafs forwards with some leadership. As for Zajac, he is a points producing center who can immediately upgrade their offense.

Another potential trading partner may be the Anaheim Ducks. Their defense core is depleted due to injuries and lack of NHL-calibre blueliners. The Ducks desperately need some competent rearguards to help them stop the bleeding and all the goals they've been letting in. With their depth on the blue line, both at the NHL and prospect level, the Leafs may be the perfect match for the Ducks.

In addition to immediate cap relief, the Leafs could potentially save $3.5 million in cap space next year if Finger is kept in the minors or dealt to another team. The under-performing defenceman comes off the books at the end of the 2011-2012 season as an unrestricted free agent.

Thus, waiving Finger gives the Leafs flexibility next year when they will have to re-sign free agents Tomas Kaberle (unrestricted), Luke Schenn (restricted), and Carl Gunnarsson (restricted). Each are expected to garner raises, with Kaberle possibly requiring the most substantial pay increase of the three.

All in all, with the demotion of Finger the Leafs have created salary cap room that can be used to invest in the team now or in the future. It remains to be seen whether Burke and company will take full advantage of the situation.

 

 

Alin Mateescu, a long-time Leafs fan, is also the founder of
RumorMeThis, a blog dedicated to NHL trade rumours and player movement.

Game 4: Return of the Kessel

Well, that was a weird one.

But when the seesaw ride ended in overtime at 9:45 p.m., the Leafs were exactly where they were 2 hours and 28 minutes earlier: Undefeated.

With a 4-3 win over the Rangers, the Leafs are now 4-0. Four-and-oh. The letters T-O-R-O-N-T-O follow No. 1 on the NHL's official standings. The haters, suddenly less willing to mutter lame jokes about parades, have entered the witness protection program.

This team is at the threshold of something special. This team is as real as the hard liquor Leaf fans won't need to guzzle this winter during long stretches of despair.

On Friday night, in Madison Square Garden for the 85th home opener, the Rangers started on a tsunami of emotion and made the first splash when Michal Rozsival scored at 7:58.

But the tsunami was a mirage.

Despite the 1-0 lead after 20 minutes, a glance at the shot clock showed the Leafs with a 16-7 advantage. Meanwhile, a glance at John Tortorella's pained smirk showed a man who knew he had a problem on his hands.

In the second, this problem exploded into full-blown disaster as the Leafs scored three unanswered goals and turned a professional hockey game into a merciless game of keep-away.

At 2:04, seconds after a Rangers penalty expired, Clarke MacArthur banged in the puck after a frantic scramble in the goalmouth. Nikolai Kulemin and Luke Schenn picked up assists on MacArthur's fifth of the season.

Less than three minutes later, Phil Kessel stormed down the left side, hit the brakes and doubled back through the high slot. He feathered a dainty pass to Mike Komisarek, who fired the vulcanized rubber through foggy gridlock.

About three minutes after that, during a four-on-four, Tyler Bozak gobbled up the puck outside his blue line and streaked down the left side, two-on-one. He held the puck for three steamboats and made a nifty move as a hapless Ranger skidded past. Then he fed the puck to Kessel, who redirected it into the gaping twine.

About eight minutes into the frame, the shots were 20-9 and the score was 3-1. The Leafs, guests at the party, were destroying the place.

To say they dominated the second is like saying Lindsay Lohan is troubled. It is an understatement. The Leafs looked like a different species altogether. They were faster, stronger, smarter. They carried the puck as if it was Krazy Glued to their stick blades.

Were those actual New York Rangers on the ice? Or were they robots powered by papaya juice and programmed to skate around in semi-circles without ever getting in the way of the team in white?

Frankly, it was impossible to tell.

So maybe the hockey gods sensed a bit of cockiness creeping into Leafs Nation. Maybe they wanted the Rangers home opener to be a closer affair. What happened exactly I can't be sure but things definitely got weird in the third.

At 2:10, Brian Boyle floated a long shot toward the Leaf net. At this precise moment, instead of goaltending, J.S. Giguere decided to do a non-singing impression of Stevie Wonder.

Hey, guys, what just sailed past me? Was that the puck? Did someone shoot a puck into my net? I’m just going to stand here and not move a muscle until someone tells me what just happened.

Then, incredibly, Boyle did it again four minutes later.

In living rooms and basements and bars across Toronto, fans likely thought: "Oh oh. Was it all a dream? Is this team going to go on a losing streak after blowing a two-goal lead in the third? And why is Sean Avery always carrying on like such an insufferable douchebag?"

But then a funny thing happened: The Leafs shrugged off the comeback.

The seesaw ride came to an abrupt end in overtime when Kessel, on the power play and looking for redemption after an off-night in Pittsburgh, scored his second of the game, wristing a shot past a faultless Henrik Lundqvist.

And just like that, the Leafs were nothing but wins after four games, the first time in 17 years.

Mike Komisarek, who scored his first goal as a Leaf, sent an email from New York about an hour after the game ended. It was laced with such sweet enthusiasm, I found myself smiling for several minutes after reading it:

Great team win! Feels good to get that first goal out of the way finally, but the start our team is off to feels way better. We haven't accomplished anything yet and still have a TON of work to do but boy we have a great group of guys and we are having fun!! All we are thinking about is playoffs!

As are we, sir. As are we.

PHOTO: MIKE SEGAR/REUTERS

The Boogie Man and the Bad Boys of the East

Friday night. Leafs versus Rangers. Original Six. Madison Square Garden.

Now I ask you: Does it get any better than this?

The Leafs, looking for a fourth consecutive win to start the season – a feat last accomplished in 1993 – will be venturing into a madhouse this evening.

MSG home openers are always freighted with runaway emotion. Tonight's game also marks the team's 85th anniversary. So even before the puck drops, the legendary building will crackle with enough energy to power a nuclear reactor.

Captain Chris Drury returns to the line-up after missing the first two games with a broken index finger. Even more significant for many Ranger fans: Derek "The Boogie Man" Boogaard will make his home debut as the newest sheriff in The Big Apple.

After spending five seasons in Minnesota, where he racked up 2 goals and 544 penalty minutes, the skyscraper-sized destroyer of jaws and orbital bones signed with the Rangers this summer.

As coach John Tortorella recently told the New York Daily News: "We all know what his biggest strength is. It's still in our game. Guys feel more comfortable when a guy like that is around."

And at 6-foot-7, 265 pounds, The Boogie Man is always around. Never mind the No. 94 on his back – this guy should have his own area code.

The Eastern Conference was already a menacing, bruising place before Boogaard's arrival. Last season, players in the East accounted for 8 of the Top 10 spots in total penalty minutes and all of the Top 5 spots for majors.

Boogaard may not drop the gloves as often as he once did (the 105 minutes he spent in the sin box last year ranked 45 in the league). And his ice time may seem relatively inconsequential (he's played 7:37 minutes over 11 shifts in two games this season).

But make no mistake: His hulking presence adds a new dimension to the Conference that other teams do not take lightly.

During several conversations with Brian Burke this summer, he must have mentioned Boogaard four different times. The Bruins, meanwhile, recently inked a one-year deal with Brian McGrattan, despite already having a noted pugilist by the name of Shawn Thornton.

Or consider this: Less than 24 hours after Boogaard signed his $6.5 million contract with the Rangers, their biggest rival, the Islanders, signed Zenon Konopka as an unrestricted free agent.

Konopka, as you may recall, led the league in penalties last year.

What does all of this mean for tonight?

Well, already there is great anticipation for a main event between The Boogie Man and Colton Orr, who played four seasons as a Blueshirt and was a fan favourite. But that's assuming Orr is not too woozy from the devastating roundhouse right he took Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, courtesy of Deryk Engelland. (That was a frightening blow. Watching it in slow-motion, I was reminded of another time a beloved and usually unbeatable Leafs’ enforcer was rocked into next week.)

If the Orr-Boogaard fight is postponed, there could be an undercard match between Mike Brown and Brandon Prust. And if either team runs up the score, let's not underestimate the crap-disturbing presence of Sean Avery, a man who is unlikely to receive a Christmas card from Dion Phaneuf even if they both live to be 200.

Of course, the fact we're even talking about all of this is somewhat ironic.

Despite the clarion call for "pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence," when you analyze the Leafs strong start, fighting has been the least of it. In fact, of the team's four scraps, an objective observer would have to give three of those decisions to enemy opponents.

So the Leafs are 3-0 in the win-loss department. And they are 1-3 on the fight card.

Is it possible the Leafs do not have to throw as many punches as they seem to believe? Is it possible their real toughness – forechecking along the boards, clearing the front of their net, heat-seeking hits in open ice – will have nothing to do with left uppercuts and right crosses? Is it possible the fights, when they happen, will only serve to interrupt the momentum created by the biggest surprise this season, which is team speed?

There's no question the Leafs are bigger, meaner and tougher than before. The same holds true for the conference they inhabit. So the real question becomes a philosophical one: When a team is playing so well, does fighting just get in the way?

PHOTO: BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES

Game 3: The winning continues

Okay, look. I know this can't last forever. Eventually, the Leafs will lose a game. They have to lose a game, right? Right?

But here we are. Three games, three wins, many new reasons to believe.

What's most amazing about the latest victory, 4-3 in Pittsburgh last night, is what did not happen:

        * The Leafs did not register 15 shots on net.

        * Phil Kessel did not score a goal.

        * The Leafs did not keep Sidney Crosby off the score sheet.

        * Tyler Bozak and Kris Versteeg did not get an assist.

        * J.S. Giguere did not start.

        * Evgeni Malkin did not score on a penalty shot.

        * The Leafs did not entirely shut down Pittsburgh's PP.

        * The Leafs did not blow a lead.

This team – rebuilt over the past 12 months with an infusion of grit, speed, character and, apparently, a sprinkling of magical pixie dust – is doing the exact opposite of what previous editions used to do.

They are finding ways to win. And everybody is contributing.

Colton Orr, who left the game after his face made contact with Deryk Engelland’s right fist, deflected a shot from Luke Schenn to open the scoring. Then after the Pens bagged two quick ones to close the first, Clarke MacArthur tied the game in the second, one-timing a gorgeous cross-ice pass from Mr. Renaissance, Tomas Kaberle.

At 5:31 of that frame, Francois Beauchemin gave the Leafs a 3-2 lead with a blistering slap shot from the point. Assisting on the goal were Schenn and Mike Zigomanis, the former Penguin who continues to win face-offs so cleanly it looks like he’s lining up against mannequins.

About five minutes later, MacArthur scored his second goal of the game, converting a pass from Mikhail Grabovski, who was backwards and behind the Pittsburgh net.

And just like that, 10 different Leafs – none of whom play on the first line – got their names in the box score. It was, as Brian Burke had envisioned, "scoring by committee."

After a hubbub in Leafs Nation yesterday over Ron Wilson's decision to start Jonas Gustavsson, the young goaltender proved up to the task.

With the exception of Crosby's final-minute goal in the second, in which he wasn't airtight with the left post, The Monster was solid when he had to be, including several clutch saves late in the game when it was all Pittsburgh.

And he was lucky when he didn't have to be.

At 18:03 of the second, Malkin was awarded a penalty shot after he was tripped by a sprawling, sliding Dion Phaneuf. This could have been a pivotal moment for The Monster. But instead of getting tested, he could only watch with disbelief as Malkin gave a textbook demonstration in how not to take a penalty shot.

First, Malkin swooped to the outside, as if he was getting ready to jump over the glass and deke an usher. Then he turned toward the net with the velocity of a sea turtle. As he rolled through the slot like a lump of tumbleweed, he looked up, shot and missed the net by about 114 feet.

Basically, that was that.

Leaf fans, who may still suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder when it comes to protecting one-goal leads in the third, likely watched the final 20 minutes with one eye closed and a bottle of antacid at the ready.

But there was no need to panic because the Leafs did not panic. Instead, as the Penguins pinched and pressed, the Leafs seemed to slip into some kind of bizarre Zen state, hanging on for dear life with no real sense of imminent danger.

This team believes in itself and, after only three games, it shows. This team looks like the kind of team we're going to fondly remember years from now.

Me, I spent most of the third period on my feet, getting ready to toss my baseball cap at the TV in the event of another MacArthur goal. I applauded the team's work ethic, speed, passing, hitting and ability to steal pucks with the stealthy skill of veteran pickpockets in a tourist area.

And when the final buzzer sounded, I sat down and thought: This season is going to be a lot of fun.

 PHOTO: GENE J. PUSKAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

Road Test No. 1: Can the Leafs disarm these two snipers?

The Leafs are in Pittsburgh tonight for their first road test.

As tests go, this one promises to be as difficult as taking an advanced calculus exam while reciting Shakespeare under water. Put it this way: Last season against Pittsburgh, the Leafs leading scorer was a Swedish fellow by the name of Rickard Wallin (4 points).

The Pens, coming off a 3-1 win against Jersey on Monday, rested yesterday, their first break since Sept. 29. After losing their first two games at home, the team is anxious to christen the brand new Consol Energy Center with an inaugural win.

If history is a reliable guide, Pittsburgh's big guns, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, will be armed and dangerous.

Toronto won 1 of 4 games against Pittsburgh last season. In those 4 games, Crosby recorded a lethal 7 points (6 goals, 1 assist) while Malkin chipped in 6 helpers in the three games he played.

In 15 career games against the Leafs, Malkin has established himself as something of a pesticide: 7 goals and 27 assists for a 2.27 points-per-game average.

Toronto, still basking in the afterglow of a strong start, will need a dramatic turnaround on the road this season if postseason action is the ultimate goal. On Thursday, after the opening night victory against Montreal, coach Ron Wilson did not mince words while delivering his post-game sermon to the assembled media.

"We're not going to make the playoffs unless we play better than we did last year on the road," he said. "That's the area we have to improve on the most."

Wilson then unveiled a target projection: His team will need to be .500 on the road and win 65 per cent of games at home if Toronto is to experience hockey this spring.

This won't be easy.

Since the NHL lockout in 2004-2005, the Leafs have played 205 regular season road games. They have won only 82 times and, during this period, by no coincidence, they have failed to advance to the big show.

By contrast, the four Leaf teams that thrilled fans with appearances in the Conference Finals over the past two decades, all shared one characteristic: They were fiercely competitive on the road.

Three of those teams boasted away records that were 5 games or more above .500: 1993-1994 (20-14-8), 1998-1999 (22-17-2) and 2001-2002 (19-14-4-4). Even the losses were close and hard-fought affairs.

But even before tonight's first road test, there is reason for optimism:

1. In their first two games, special teams show no sign of replicating the hellish futility from last season. The Leafs are perfect on the PK (0 goals in 7 opposition tries). The power play, meanwhile, has registered only 1 goal in 10 tries (and that came during a two-man advantage against Ottawa). But this stat belies a PP that is functioning at a very different level with Kessel, Kaberle, Phaneuf, Versteeg, Bozak, et al. zigging and zagging.

There is offensive alchemy. The team has looked threatening on every extra-man chance. The first and second units are controlling the puck in the zone. Attackers look impervious to the opposition box formation, especially down low. The Leafs are getting real scoring chances.

2. The Leafs are doing all of the smaller things – winning face-offs, winning foot races, moving the puck out of the defensive zone quickly, not surrendering neutral zone turnovers, forechecking aggressively but not stupidly, pinching with admirable timing, using the glass – that become even more pronounced on the road when the visiting team doesn't trap and the home team gets the last change.

3. In J.S. Giguere, a Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe winner, the Leafs finally have a goaltender who does not seem inclined to blow late-game leads, the bane of their existence for most of this millennium. Jiggy has a .935 save percentage and 1.51 GAA in his two wins. But, again, in ways stats can't measure, he is giving this team – especially the young defencemen – a very important psychological lift: They know he's back there and ready to play saviour in the event of a gaffe or lapse in coverage.

Win, lose or shoot-out, the game tonight should be thrilling, especially for the Leafs who once played for Pittsburgh (Colby Armstrong, Michael Zigomanis and Tim Brent). And moments after the national anthems are played, Leaf fans will get a real sense of what this new-look team is capable of achieving this year.

UPDATE (1:01 p.m.): The Monster will get his first start tonight. He faced the Penguins once last season and lost 4-1 at the ACC on Jan. 9.

PHOTO: GENE J. PUSKAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Get your money for nothing

Jeff Finger was placed on waivers today.

If he clears – and by "if," I mean "when" – the pricey defenceman will be sent to the Marlies, where he'll undoubtedly spend a considerable amount of time teaching the youngsters about the importance of finding a brilliant agent.

The deal he signed with the Leafs in 2008, $14 million over four years, remains as inexplicable as Stonehenge. Here was a 28-year-old with one full season of NHL hockey under his belt, a player who only dressed for half of Colorado's 10 postseason games before coming to Toronto.

Or consider this: Finger played 39 games for the Leafs last season and was a healthy scratch 38 times. Somewhere, even Tom Kurvers must be shaking his head.

So by demoting Finger to the AHL, is the team freeing up salary room in advance of a possible deal? Or as Ron Wilson said today, is this simply a case of Finger being the odd-man-out on a squad that currently has seven defencemen? And if that's the case, will he be called up at some point this season?

Finger says his favourite movie is The Shawshank Redemption. When his agent sent the contract offer from then interim GM Cliff Fletcher, Finger must have felt just like Morgan Freeman after the ex-con dug up that envelope of cash Tim Robbins buried in the middle of nowhere: The luckiest man alive.

But these are strange times and yesterday's luck can start to feel like tomorrow's albatross when it comes to NHL contracts.

I think Finger, Sheldon Souray and Wade Redden should go on some kind of cross-continent speaking tour, where they talk about the possible downside of signing wildly inflated deals under a cap-system. How can the richest contract always be seen as the best deal if you eventually price yourself out of the league and shorten your career?

PHOTO: RICK EGLINTON/TORONTO STAR

 

Giving thanks on Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, Leafs Nation!

If you want to join me for dinner tonight at the in-laws' abode, do not hesitate to ask. Seriously. I will provide transportation and even let you have the chair that doesn't tip over. Wine, turkey, stuffing, a mashed starch and an unlimited supply of awkward banter – what more could you possibly want?

No, thanks? You already have plans? Fine. Before we go our separate ways, let us bow our heads and give thanks:

1. Now in his 12th season with the Leafs, he's skating like a kid again. He has re-attached the laser-guide to his blade and is making cross-ice, long-distance passes with an accuracy that would startle military commanders. He's quarterbacking the PP with Dion Phaneuf. When 5-on-5 with Luke Schenn, he's enjoying the kind of chemistry you usually find in a buddy cop film. Thank you, Tomas Kaberle, for showing real class as you travel the high road this season.

2. For Colby Armstrong (1982), Tyler Bozak (1986) and Luke Schenn (1989), a big Hogtown thanks to you, Saskatchewan!

3. Since entering the league in 2005, Dion Phaneuf leads all NHL defencemen in goals (77), power-play goals (48), game winning goals (22) and shots (1,237). Thank you, Dion, for this firepower and for your lead-by-example in the room. (But, please, re-record that "Let's get LOUD!" video message they play at the ACC during TV commercial breaks. You sound like someone from tech support.)

4. This makes perfect sense: Colton Orr's favourite movie is Gladiator. Thank you, Colton, for thriving in one of the game's toughest and least appreciated roles: Enforcer. (A pre-Leafs tribute to this blue-and-white gladiator.)

5. Brian Burke once told me Jean-Sebastien Giguere is the hardest working goaltender he's ever known. Thanks to Jiggy and all the Leafs for embracing the words printed in big, bold letters in the dressing room: "THE PRICE OF SUCCESS IS HARD WORK."

6. Yes, we're only two games into the season. But thank you, Clarke MacArthur, for being only one point away from the NHL scoring leader! Come on, man, you can do this!

7. Thank you, Phil Kessel, for suffering from a near pathological obsession with scoring goals. Keep banging your stick on the ice and demanding the puck. Keep roaring up and down the wing like a runaway locomotive. When you are within a snap shot radius of the opposition net, Leaf fans are getting conditioned to do this.

8. I don't know why Mikhail Grabovski's faovurite actor is Leonardo DiCaprio. But thank you, Mikhail, for forechecking, backchecking and setting up plays with Nikolai Kulemin in a way that gives newfound hope to fans who once viewed this franchise as the Titanic.

9. Thank you to Kris Versteeg for the memorable quotes he will undoubtedly supply to reporters this season. It's nice to hear a player reject most of this and say something other than, "We all gave 100 per cent" or "Our backs were up against the wall."

10. Last season, the Leafs lost 177 man games to injury. So touch something wooden before reading this: Thanks to the hockey gods for keeping this team healthy in the weeks and months ahead.

PHOTO: BERNARD WEIL/TORONTO STAR

Game 2: Things are definitely looking up

Total domination.

This is what happened last night. Minute after minute, the Leafs stormed the offensive zone, buzzed around the Ottawa net like killer bees, forechecked with kamikaze abandon, created turnovers, jumped on rebounds and pummeled their provincial rivals with unrelenting intensity.

If this had been a boxing match, the referee would have called the fight at 2:44 in the third, just after the home team staggered their opponents with a fourth consecutive goal.

The latest skirmish in the Battle of Ontario was a massacre: The Leafs outscored the Sens 5-1. They outshot them 38-18. They outhit them 37-30. They shut down all four of Ottawa’s extra-man chances. They planted their first power play goal of the season and could have potted another half-dozen.

Nikolai Kulemin, Phil Kessel, Clarke MacArthur, Kris Versteeg and Tim Brent scored in that order. The offensive threat, spread out across three periods, came from three lines. It was one of those nights in which nothing went wrong and a million small things paid big dividends.

The game seemed to take place entirely in the Ottawa end. J.S. Giguere, who recorded his second win of the season, probably wished he had brought his iPod on the ice to help break up the monotony.

By sharp contrast, it was hard not to pity Ottawa goalie Pascal Leclaire. Playing his second game in as many nights, and coming off a 2-1 loss to Buffalo in which he was pepper-sprayed with 36 shots, the poor bastard was left to fend for himself as the Leafs launched wave after wave of rolling attack.

At 5:39 of the third, Leclaire looked shell-shocked.

Tim Brent had just celebrated his second goal of the season. But before this one would count, the play went upstairs for review. For the next seven minutes – that video review was longer than a Lady Gaga video – off-ice officials scrutinized the tape. As AC/DC thumped from the ACC speakers, as fans entered a state of suspended jubilation and the moustache belonging to referee Bill McCreary turned three new shades of grey, Leclaire barely moved from his crease.

He looked like he wanted to go home. And who could blame him? The team in front of him, which had only managed 2 shots halfway through the first, had already left.

The Leafs, to a man, sported one expression last night.

Waiting for the video call, Brent joked with his teammates and beamed. After Versteeg's goal, Tomas Kaberle patted him on the head and laughed. On the bench, the ear-to-ear grinning was epidemic. After dropping Matt Carkner in a fight at 8:59 of the third – their fifth scrap in two seasons – even Colton Orr couldn't stop smiling as he skated to the box. (What was Carkner yapping about for most of the next five minutes? After the game, standing in a sleeveless T-shirt, his bulging arms covered with labyrinthine tattoos, Orr would only say his sparring partner was "just talking" to "set up the next one.")

You know it's a good night when the biggest debate on the radio call-in shows is the 3 Stars. Or to quote the first five words out of Ron Wilson's mouth during his post-game remarks: "It was fun to watch."

The coach wasn't smiling but he came awfully close.

Critics of this new-look Leafs team, who keep saying "the team is only better on paper," must be rather baffled by last night's game. Yes, Ottawa looked drained from the get-go. And, yes, it's tough to play back-to-back games in early October.

But the Leafs were so busy kicking the Sens in the face, they never gave them a chance to find their legs. This was a brutally decisive victory and, perhaps, the start of something special in this young season.

PHOTO: MARK BLINCH/REUTERS

 

Guest Post: When a Leafs fan moves to Ottawa

Don't Fear The Reaper

BY CHRIS CARTER

When I moved to Ottawa nearly fours ago, it was with the implicit understanding I would remain true to the Blue and White.

Behind enemy lines in the Battle of Ontario, I made no secret of my allegiance. When conversations with new neighbours invariably turned to hockey, within minutes I was uttering phrases like "Leafs Nation" and "the blood runs blue" – usually to baffled howls of laughter.

My wife tolerated my open affair with the Leafs until one day she pointed out that, as our children were growing up and attending school in Ottawa with hundreds of other little Sens fans, it wasn't fair of me to diminish their participation in the collective experience by creating confusion over loyalties.

So I grudgingly agreed to go underground.

Now, I've never really been too exercised with hatred for the Senators. It's hard to hate a team that so generously rolled over for the Leafs in the playoffs year after year.

But the blood still runs blue.

And I had to watch as a team fashioned after the Romans enjoyed playoff success, even reaching the Stanley Cup finals, while the Leafs spiralled downward in a decadent malaise resembling a dying empire's last days.

It's not like the Sens haven't had their their own troubles – contract issues, the loss of key players, unreliable goaltending and their own no-trade clause outrage with Dany Heatley. How did they overcome this while the Leafs burned?

Their formula for (moderate) success seems rather simple when you boil it down:

1. A coach, first Bryan Murray and now Cory Clouston, with a system and the trust of the players to make it work.

2. A captain who rises to the occasion. Daniel Alfredsson is the target of so much Leafs Nation scorn for a reason: He's good. Few players combine heart, ability and character like him.

3. Truculent players, like Chris Neil, who are tough but – here's a novel idea – talented enough to provide some secondary scoring.

4. One rock-solid, if not flashy, player who anchors the blueline year after year even as other players come and go. Like Chris Phillips, who's merely +108 for his career in Ottawa. Plus one-hundred-and-eight!

Sure the Sens are blessed with a couple of high scoring centremen and have drafted decently enough to bring along replacements as burgeoning stars priced themselves off the roster – but those four elements are the keys, the supporting columns in their coliseum, as far as I can see.

And after four years I can't help but at least admire them, while exchanging secret signals with the fellow travelers hiding amidst the Sens army, hoping the Leafs have finally found a way to stop the bleeding.

 

Chris Carter is an online editor with thestar.com and a helpless enabler of
Leaf and Raptor MaLaiSE. Follow him on Twitter at: @carter_c

 

 MAIN PHOTO: JONATHAN HAYWARD/CANADIAN PRESS

Game 1: Winning is winning

The Leafs are in first place! The Leafs are undefeated!

Just kidding, Ron Wilson. Please don't get angry.

Yes, it was just One Game. And, yes, in the grand scheme of 82 games, it does Not Mean Anything. But let's not forget, it took the Leafs nine tries last season to do what they did on opening night 2010: Win.

Was it a spectacular victory? No. Was it decisive? No. Was the game a work of art? No.

But as Vin Diesel says in The Fast and The Furious: "Winning is winning."

After so much build-up, after so much chatter about this rebuilt team, the Leafs started the game looking like toddlers on a sugar high. On the bench, they rocked back and forth, anxious to get on the ice. On the ice, they darted around, chasing the puck like a pack of hunting dogs.

The first goal is always important. But when the weight of a disastrous season is on your shoulders and high expectations are tethered to your neck, the first goal is as crucial as oxygen.

Tim Brent, who starred at training camp in the role of Cinderella, took care of this crucial business. At 6:42 of the first, he deflected a shot from Dion Phaneuf, who got the only official assist. (Give Colton Orr an unofficial assist for creating the turnover with a monstrous check that made Tomas Plekanec panic.)

As Phil Kessel goes, so shall the Leafs this season.

And Thursday night, Kessel was going at MACH-4. His puck control is astonishing, even when he's spinning like a top or moving backwards. And about two minutes after Brent triggered a mass exhale inside the ACC, Kessel gobbled up the puck at the blue line and rocketed toward the net with a clear mission.

He deked. The puck seemed to vanish for 2 steamboats. But then it slipped past Montreal goalie Carey Price, who may have accidentally swallowed pills that cause drowsiness to deal with a recent bout of the flu.

Anyway, it was 2-0 Leafs.

When Montreal's Dustin Boyd scored at 12:19, to cut the Leafs lead in half, you could feel anxiety creep into the building. But that was mostly in the stands, where Leaf fans are conditioned to watch games with grimacing smiles, always expecting the worst.

On the bench, it was calm and rather business-like.

The second period was an exercise in psychological exhaustion. The Leafs, having crashed from their sugar high, didn't create many chances or even moments of sustained pressure.

They did take three penalties, including one for too many men on the ice. Last year, statistically speaking, these three penalties would have translated into 1.4866 Montreal goals. But last night, the penalty killers were killing penalties instead of tickling them.

Early in the third, Clarke MacArthur gave the Leafs a 3-1 lead on a nifty move that seemed to surprise everybody, including Nikolai Kulemin and Mikhail Grabovski, who got the assists. After Montreal's Jeff Halpern scored less than a minute later, it was time for the overarching storyline: J.S. Giguere exorcises the ghost of Vesa Toskala.

Jiggy closed the door for the next 17 minutes. Then in the last minute, he slammed the door. Really loudly. Twice. And when the final buzzer sounded, when citizens inside Leafs Nation pumped their fists and high-fived each other, the score was 3-2.

So the Leafs awake this morning with their first win. More important, as they look ahead to Game 2 at home against Ottawa tomorrow, they can take comfort in a small but not insignificant development: They are ahead of where they were a year ago.

PHOTO: RICHARD LAUTENS/TORONTO STAR