The End of the Farce?

With goofy things happening all around the Maple Leafs, it was good for Ed Belfour to throw his two cents in.

He didn't have any time over the past few weeks until yesterday to tell Leaf fans, those who pay his salary, why he couldn't play any longer this season.

But he did notice that mean things were being said about him, and that mean things were being said about Mikael Tellqvist.

Not that he ever reads the paper or listens to TV or radio.

With Belfour, Eric Lindros, Jason Allison and Alexander Khavanov now all gone until the end of the season, it's now just a question of when the Leafs stop pretending that there is anything but a juicier draft lottery position to play for.

After all, it appears none of those above them in the Eastern Conference standings appears willing to fall quite enough.

Montreal, New Jersey and Tampa Bay all won Thursday evening, putting all three clubs nine points up on the Leafs, who have only 10 games remaining.

That's an uncomfortable number of games yet to play, wouldn't you say?

The official end to the season - unofficially, it ended last Saturday in Montreal - is going to be agonizingly slow for Pat Quinn and his squad, and, other than the final number of points this former 100 point squad accumulates, the issue appears only the timing of the post-season moves that all are expecting.

Based on history, the Leafs will screw that up, as well.

GM John Ferguson, you may remember, was hired late in the summer of 2003 after a painstaking search that amazingly turned up the most inexperienced candidate.

Former president Ken Dryden, if memory serves, once tried to hire a new GM, Bob Gainey, in training camp. Last summer, the Leafs made their free agent moves after most of the big names were gone.

Ideally, the Leafs will make their important organizational decisions sometime very soon after the season ends April 18th, but don't count on it.

Larry Tanenbaum is busy protecting his turf, as is Ferguson, as is Quinn, for that matter. Oh yes, and Richard Peddie, as well.

The likeliehood is this process will drag on for months, probably until Tanenbaum, assuming he stays as chairman, can figure out a way to affect change without anybody looking bad or appearing as though they were fired.

Apparently he wants Peddie, Ferguson and Quinn all to stay, which sends out a very peculiar message to Leaf patrons after such an unsuccessful season.

This season, the club's motto was "The Passion that Unites us All."

Next season, the best guess is that it will be "More of the Same."

Right now, this is a hockey club that needs somebody - anybody - to send out a strong, unequivocal message of change and bold leadership.

Instead, expect post-season meandering and politicking. Why get ready for next season now when you can wait for July. . .or August?

Inside the Blue Paint

What is the biggest Leaf question mark for next season?

Who will play goal?

What is the greatest area of strength in the Leaf organization?

Strangely enough, goal.

A worry and yet a comfort, all at the same time.

See, the Ed Belfour era is over, short though it was. That means some way, somehow, GM John Ferguson has to find a way to fill the net next season without having the net filled, if you know what I mean.

He can go for a big fix, like, say, trying to see if the Florida Panthers would be interested in trading Roberto Luongo rather than signing him.

Or, he can go for the short-term fix in hope one of the club's goaltending prospects comes through as a bona fide NHL star in two or three years.

What's interesting, however, is that the claim of goaltending consultant Steve McKichan  halfway through this season that the Leaf goalie depth chart ran seven masked men deep has proven to have more than a grain of truth to it.

Belfour, of course, was at the top of the pyramid, followed by his Swedish understudy Mikael Tellqvist. Tellqvist was pushed in training camp by J. F. Racine, who seemed third on the totem pole.

But not so quick. Jean Sebastien Aubin has emerged in the past three days to stake his own claim, winning for the big club twice on the road while allowing five goals on 69 shots.

Aubin came up from the Marlies, where Todd Ford has found some success this season. Finally, there are the two potential gems, Tuukka Rask of Finland and Canadian  national junior hero Justin Pogge.

Despite all the hype and hope, there's no guarantee either Pogge or Rask will turn out. Indeed, Pogge has struggled of late for the Calgary Hitmen and on Wednesday surrendered six goals in a 6-4 playoff lost to Lethbridge, a game in which coach Kelly Kisio considered pulling his star goalie several times.

Many goalies are quirky, and apparently Pogge is no exception. After wearing white pads and gloves all season, he ditched them in favor of an all-black, Johnny Cash look for the playoffs. But after the second period against Lethbridge, he dumped the black and went back to the white.

Hopes are high, of course, that one or both of Pogge and Rask will turn out, but finding goalies is an inexact science, moreso perhaps even than unearthing defencemen and forwards.

One need look no further than Cristobal Huet, the hottest goalie in the league with six shutouts in 30 games for the Montreal Canadiens. Glenn Healy, meanwhile, was never drafted at any level of hockey, from Jr. B to the NHL, yet played 16 years in the bigs.

Which brings us back to the central question for the Leafs going into the off-season. Clearly, the Leafs need to find a veteran goalie capable of playing at least 40 games, with the hope being that one of Tellqvist, Aubin or Racine emerges as the netminder who can handle the other half of the job.

Unless, of course, it's decided that, say, Tellqvist and Aubin could be a workable duo, with cap money spent elsewhere to buttress a thin lineup.

That said, after a year in which the absence of standout goaltending may well have cost the Leafs a playoff berth, the team can little afford to gamble.

Forget the decision about Bryan McCabe or whether Pat Quinn returns as coach.

Figuring out this net puzzle while laying the ground for future stars to emerge is the most fundamental and significant issue facing the club this summer.

The Triple Towers

We'll never know if it would have worked.

The concept last summer, when the Leafs came out of the lockout by adding big pivots Eric Lindros and Jason Allison to go with Mats Sundin, was that the threesome would provide size, muscle and scoring at the centre ice position.

With the indomitable Ed Belfour in net, the Leafs would, in theory, have the proverbial strength up the middle that would drive a strong season.

Don't listen to the way in which the team's higher ups are trying to spin this thing now. The plan was to ride the goalie and the Triple Towers into the post-season, not surrender with 12 games left to play.

The risk, of course, was that in Belfour, Lindros and Allison, the Leafs were betting a lot on three players with checkered pasts in terms of injuries.

Then Sundin got hurt as well, right in the very first game of the season back in October.

The captain returned in November but didn't really get his game going until February. Lindros suffered a wrist injury in mid-December and, while he played three more games, his season was essentially done before Christmas.

Allison, finally, missed five games along the way before his season ended Saturday night with a broken hand in a Montreal bareknuckles boxing exhibition.

And remember folks - nobody ever gets hurt in hockey fights.

There was never, really, an extended time when all three were healthy and playing at the same time, and probably that was a faint hope from the start, although all three centres went down with injuries that had nothing to do with previous health problems. By season's end, they will have missed 77 games, assuming Sundin plays the rest of the way, with Lindros accounting for 49 of those matches.

Belfour, of course, faded in, oh, about December, and ended his season earlier this month by essentially disappearing from sight with an apparent back injury.

Interesting, isn't it, how Leafs get hurt and then - poof! - disappear? It happened with Owen Nolan, and this season it happened with Belfour. Lindros, at least, was around for weeks trying to rehab his wrist, and that he tried to play at all before calling an end to his season was a tribute to the man's sense of team.

Nolan never said goodbye. Belfour hasn't had the courtesy to tell those who cheered for him what went wrong with his back.

But honest, folks, they were playing for you all along.

Not only will we never know if the Triple-Towers-plus-Belfour scenario might have worked for the benefit of the Leafs, we'll never get another opportunity.

Belfour is gone, a common-sense buyout this summer after peeling off with about $11 million from the beginning of the lockout until this season. Given his production for that cash, he might as well been wearing a balaclava and carrying a pistol when he signed the contract.

Lindros, 33, may not play again, and if he does, it's unclear whether the Leafs would give him another chance.

The 35-year-old Sundin will be back, of course, but what about Allison?

With 60 points in 66 games, he was, under NHL standards, fairly productive, although the bulk of those numbers were acquired on the power play. He ended a minus-18, was average to poor defensively all season and showed a maddening tendency to turn the puck over in high risk areas.

Allison, still only 30, will make about $3 million for his trouble, and would likely be looking for the same or more next season.

Given his lack of speed, he would appear to be a bad bet for a club that needs to move towards a younger, faster lineup that can be much more productive at even strength and generally more difficult to play against.

Time to Start Inviting Resumes

Barring a truly extraordinary turnaround, the Maple Leaf season won't include a playoff berth, and that has to mean the Pat Quinn era will be over.

'Course, with MLSE, you never know. Quinn might spend a little time at Larry Tanebaum's cottage this summer and - presto! - just like that he'll have a new five-year contract.

But let's assume two things. Let's assume John Ferguson is safe as Leaf GM, and all indications are that he is, and let's assume he'll finally want to hire his own coach.

Quinn gets bumped up to executive vice-president/special consultant/MLSE schmoozer, and on the show goes, with a 40th anniversary celebration scheduled for next spring to mark four decades since George Armstrong hoisted the Stanley Cup.

Hard to believe, but when I first started covering the Leafs, they were only 23 years removed from their last bit of glory.

Now we're almost at 40 with no Cup in sight.

So who's to be the next coach?

The assumption, and it's a reasonable one is, that Marlies coach Paul Maurice will get the job. That makes a lot of sense. He's got NHL experience, he's media savvy and most of the Marlies who have graduated to the big club this year have helped the team.

So he goes in as the No. 1 contender.

But given that MLSE, in hiring Bryan Colangelo, may have suddenly instituted this new policy of actually going out and finding the best candidate possible, it also seems reasonable that the Leafs should look around a bit.

Here's a few names. Feel free to give your thoughts on them or contribute any others.

BRENT SUTTER: Sure, he may be headed to the Islanders, and maybe he'll never leave Red Deer. But wouldn't you at least want to ask? Wouldn't a Sutter look good behind the bench in Toronto?

MARC HABSCHEID: Has worked at the elite levels of international hockey, has played in the NHL and coached successfully in junior. He is ready for an NHL shot.

DALE HUNTER: His situation in London is similar to that of Sutter in Red Deer. But he has been so successful with the Knights he'd certainly be worth talking to.

PATRICK ROY: Roy will end up coaching in the NHL. He's done a marvellous job as owner, president, GM and head coach of the Quebec Remparts this season.

GREG GILBERT: An associate of JFJ's from their St. Louis days. Coach of the Ice Dogs and Canada's under-18 team. Learned from his first, brief shot with the Flames a few years ago.

PETER LAVIOLETTE: He's with the Canes now, but has no contract beyond this season. He might be a free agent.

MARC CRAWFORD: This could be his last year with the Canucks, although two straight wins over Edmonton have improved his status. Formerly the coach of the Leafs' farm club.

RICK TOCCHET: Might be a bit of a gamble, but. . .okay, just having some fun.

On Ducks and Such

In the old days, a guy could call it a night not having to worry that the NHL scores he left would change much by morning.

Not so any more.

The latest tangible evidence that the NHL's season-long effort to remove various types of sport-killing fouls from the game is working came last night after the Colorado Avalanche put three quick goals past Jean-Sebastien Giguere in the Anaheim Mighty Ducks net in the opening 11 minutes at The Pond and drove Giguere out of the game.

With that score and the conclusion of back-to-back Seinfeld reruns, I packed it in only to rise today and find the Ducks had indeed stormed back to win, this time on a penalty shot off the stick of Jonathan Hedstrom in overtime.

Also last night, the Buffalo Sabres spotted the Carolina Hurricanes a four-goal lead almost came back to tie, falling one goal short. Dallas trailed Minny 2-1 in the second last night and scored three in the third to win. On Tuesday, meanwhile, Atlanta trailed Boston 3-1 and 4-2 before roaring back to win 5-4 in a shootout.

Comebacks, at least some of the time, are part of what make this game great and interesting. Teams are still playing the trap, but the inability to use hooking, holding and interference late in games and in OT is, at least to some degree, making that suffocating tactic less effective.

And the game's a lot better for it. Yet you still hear NHL players and hockey fans pining for the old days when the rules went out the window in the third period and, of course, for the entire playoffs. Unbelievable.

STALKING A PLAYOFF SPOT

The Florida Panthers are putting on the same late season push for a playoff berth as the Ducks, their former expansion cousins.

Since beating Ottawa on March 8 and then deciding to sign Olli Jokinen the next day rather than trade him, the Panthers have romped to six wins in seven games and, as of Thursday morning, sat one point behind the Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference standings and five points out of a playoff berth.

Thursday's 3-2 win over Washington was the Panthers' fourth triumph in a row, the first time they've pulled off that feat in more than five years.

Florida is a masterful 7-0 vs. the Caps this season, with five of the wins coming by a 3-2 score.

ABOUT THOSE RENEGADES

Why extend the misery?

The CFL's sad Ottawa franchise should be put to sleep sooner as opposed to later if only to avoid the embarrassment of having a horrific team on the field this season playing before a half-empty stadium.

Tom Wright wants to insist Ottawa is a great CFL market, and maybe it is. But the fact there isn't a local businessman willing to take this mess over tells you something about the size of the mess and also the lack of confidence that the city will ever embrace a team enough to stop it from losing tons of money.

Extending this drama over the next few months in the faint hope that a white night will step forward only exposes the league to more ridicule. And forget about moving Winnipeg back to the east. Go with one, eight-team league, work out a new playoff format and emphasize the best part of the league, which isn't the number of teams but the fact they play a terrific brand of football.

Wright, meanwhile, is in huge trouble. Unless he can convince Paul Tagliabue to buy the Gades or pull another Bob Young out of his, er, hat, Wright is probably in his last year on the job.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Interesting to hear Kings president Tim Leiweke rip Jeremy Roenick by name in the wake of the firing of head coach Andy Murray. Hall of Fame writer Helene Elliott's take in the Los Angeles Times is an interesting read. . .With the Devils unable to score, you have to wonder if Alexander Mogilny could help if the remainder of this year's contract would still fit under the Jersey cap number. Sadly, Mogilny has only four goals in 19 games with the Albany River Rats. . .given that wearing helmets and shields is such an inconvenience to manly NHLers, why is it that not once has a player taken off his bonnet in a shootout this season?

Not So Fast

It's no surprise, really, that a few warts are showing up on the resumes of Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin these days.

Last week, Daniel Alfredsson became the latest NHLer to take issue with Crosby's penchant for whining and crying on the ice, something you might even see in the Canadian newspaper that covers him on a daily basis some day.

Ovechkin, meanwhile, was benched Monday night against Washington for unspecified reasons, but if you guessed either a) an unwillingness to pass or b) an unwillingness to backcheck, you'd probably be close to the truth. Moreover, there's a few veteran NHLers out there who are saying simple solid team play can silence Ovechkin, as the Finns proved at the Olympics.

But here's the interesting story. Without saying nary a negative word about either Crosby or Ovechkin, you can make a compelling case that neither should walk away with the Calder Trophy this spring.

In what effectively amounts to a double cohort year for NHL rookies because of the lockout, it's no surprise there's is tons of freshman talent out there. Calgary defenceman Dion Phaneuf was mentioned in the Crosby-Ovechkin stratosphere for a while, but it would be near-to-impossible for a defenceman to make enough of a splash to compete with those sensational attackers.

Now a goaltender, that's a different thing.

Even in the "new" NHL, one in which the 50-goal scorer has been brought back to life, the masked men remain the most dominant figures.

So to have a Calder discussion without giving very, very serious consideration to netminder Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers would render the entire process flawed and perhaps facile.

We can make this all about stats, and Lundqvist has some solid ones, if perhaps not as marvellous as Ovechkin's 44-goal total.

But here's why Lundqvist, to my mind, can't be worse than No. 2 in this race.

His impact on the Rangers has been far, far greater than that of Crosby on the Penguins and Ovechkin on the Caps.

Before you quickly argue that the Rangers have a better team, cast your mind back to the fall. The Rangers were widely seen as a nightmare-in-waiting, a team without a present or a future, plus a sulking, disinterested superstar in Jaromir Jagr who preferred to play in Russia.

The Caps were expected to finish in the lower rungs of the Eastern Conference, while a great many prognosticators - including Mario Lemieux - saw the Penguins as a sure-fire playoff team and possibly a Stanley Cup contender.

Now where are we today?

The Caps are about where they expected to be, on pace for 62 points after managing 59 in their last pre-Ovechkin season.

The Pens are the NHL's worst team, worse with Crosby than they were without him in the 2003-04 season.

With Lundqvist having gradually taken over the No. 1 goaltending chores from a very capable veteran in Kevin Weekes, meanwhile, the Rangers have soared and are on pace for 106 points.

Remember, they had missed the playoffs seven years in a row, had registered 69 points in the season before the lockout and went into this campaign seen as an also-ran.

After winning the Swedish elite title for Vastra Frolunda last year and Olympic gold this year, it's pretty clear Lundqvist is no flash in the pan. He has had played few games less than the likes of Marty Turco or Mikka Kiprusoff, but he has faced a heavy shot workload of about 26.5 shots per 60 minutes played.

That's more than Turco, Kiprusoff and Martin Brodeur. His save percentage is brilliant, as is his goals-against number.

But the most important fact is Lundqvist has had a greater impact on the success of his team than either Ovechkin or Crosby.

That's a fact. And it's gotta mean something.

Panic Meter

Let's see. What is a greater North American TV ratings draw?

Sweden-Finland in the Olympic men's hockey final?

Or Cuba-Japan in the final of the World Baseball Classic?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Otherwise, what a perfect morning to check the panic meter in hockey cities across Canada at the most important time of the year.

Remember, 1 is relative calm, 5 is getting jumpy and 10 is total, complete, Lonie-Glieberman-has-just-been-hired-to-run-your-favorite-team panic.

VANCOUVER, B.C.: (10) Hiring Ol' Lonie would be good news right now. Canucks have slipped out of a playoff berth and Marc Crawford's getting his resume ready.

EDMONTON, Alta.: (6) Sergei Samsonov and Dwayne Roloson may not have been the answer. Feeling the hot breath of the Sharks and Ducks. Hey, that sounds weird.

In good news, Alberta Golden Bears men's team is No. 1 heading into this weekend's university championships, held in Edmonton.

CALGARY, Alta:(5) Giving up the nine-spot to the Preds on Saturday was a bit unnerving. Generally speaking, to be a Flames fan is to learn to live with a one-goal lead every night.

MEDICINE HAT, Alta: (1) The junior Tigers have finished first in the WHL with only one scorer in the top 40, Detroit draft Darren Helm. Play pretty good defence, though, with junior nats Cam Barker and Kris Russell on the back end.

CHURCHILL, Man.: (4) Favorite son Jordin Tootoo hasn't played much in the NHL this season and has only three goals with Nashville. Two, however, have come in the past three games.

TORONTO, Ont.: (9) Like a spurned lover, Leafs are counting on the Habs coming back to them.

LONDON, Ont.: (0)  Uh, what Memorial Cup hangover? Knights are the No. 1 ranked junior team in the country. Ho-hum.

MOOSE FACTORY, Ont.: (2) Local son Jonathan Cheechoo is tearing it up in the bigs. Has 42 goals, shooting for 50. But it was still minus-8 on the shores of the Moose River this morning.

OTTAWA, Ont.: (4) Should be no panic at all, given the Sens' superb record. But when is that Hasek guy coming back, anyway, and is another Battle of Ontario in the first round really possible?

CORNWALL, Ont.: (1) No junior team to fret about, and homegrown talent Chad Kilger was the penalty shot hero for the Leafs Sunday night.

MONTREAL, Que.: (10) And the CBC dissed Boom-Boom, too!

RIMOUSKI, Que.: (10) Opposite of London. Oceanic, last year's MemCup finalists, are 10-57-2, dead last in the "Q." Gave up seven goals and 11 points to Alexander Radulov of the Quebec Remparts in one game on the weekend.

MONCTON, N.B.: (2) Wildcats finished first in the Q, locals don't have to feel so bad about Halifax hosting Touchdown Atlantic and having leg up to be the CFL's 10th team.

Renegades, after all, may yet kill that game. Which brings us back to Lonie Glieberman. . . .

The Point of it All

One of the most common barbed comments you often get from readers is the following:

"What game were you watching?" Or, "Were you even watching the game?"

Well, thank goodness The Star's beat writer Ken Campbell was watching the game Thursday night in Buffalo between the Leafs and Sabres and was able to detect the real story out of that game.

Too much focus, you see, was placed on a power play opportunity for Darcy Tucker that, if successful, would have tied the game late in the third period. It's so much nicer to emphasize a great save by the opposition goalie, after all.

Campbell, on the other hand, correctly focussed on the winning goal by the Sabres on which Leaf head coach Pat Quinn indentified Tucker and Jason Allison as players who "quit skating" to create the opportunity for Mike Grier to score the goal. Quinn could probably have thrown in Nik Antropov's name, as well.

Well, thank goodness. The coach, as his tenure behind the Leaf bench likely winds down, has decided to get honest and let the public know what he thinks of the play of a number of his veteran players.

He has, after all, benched Jeff O'Neill, possibly permanently. He sat out Tie Domi, and at least Domi has responded with some spirited play.

And as far as what Tucker and Allison did on the winner Thursday night, that stuff has been going on all year. Both have put together strong offensive seasons, but, as Campbell pointed out, there's a reason Tucker is minus-10 this season and Allison is minus-15.

"We were in good shape, but both Allison and Tucker quit skating coming back," said Quinn, referring to Grier's winner. "It's why we're not a playoff team right now. That's the kind of play we're getting."

Exactly. Thank goodness the coach has finally said it.

Captain Mats Sundin, on the other hand, looked at the game in a very different way.

"I thought we played as well as we played in this rink for a long time," he said.

But that didn't quite cut it, did it? Isn't it about time somebody on this team understood that effort isn't optional. It's the least anybody can bring to the party, and then more is required after that.

See, the way out of this jungle for the Leafs is to start being honest with themselves, and wouldn't it be interesting if Quinn decides to lead the way?

See, the Leaf organization has never been big on honesty since the day Mike Murphy was canned. It prefers to pretend, to promote and market itself in a specific way, rather than deal with the issues that have held it back from being a real winner.

In a matter of weeks, Quinn has, in effect, taken on O'Neill, Domi, Tucker and Allison, all very prominent veterans. By installing Marlie grad Ben Ondrus in the lineup and playing him regularly, he has shown his exasperation with the work ethic of others.

Good for Quinn. A little honesty probably won't get the team to the playoffs, but it could be of major service to the team down the line.

Now this is a Feud

It's as good a day as any to veer out of the hockey realm for a few moments.

Yes, I know watching the Leafs scratch and claw for a playoff berth is supposed to be the story gripping us all these days. Some are entranced by this global baseball tournament, which is fine, and the NFL free agent scramble is already very, very interesting.

But the best story of the North American sports world, at least if you like 'em nasty, is unfolding in New York between the coach of the Knicks, Larry Brown, and his newest whipping boy, Stephon Marbury. Otherwise known as Starbury.

This thing has been heating up for a while know, and I've only been watching closely for a few days. But these two guys are duking it out in the open, passing their insults through newspapers and other media outlets, and it is getting personal and mean.

Check out today's missiles in the New York Post, as the coach of the NBA's worst squad and the supposed star of the team unload on each other. Think Starbury's afraid of the legendary coach? Think again.

Here's part of Marbury's rant yesterday:

"If coach is comparing his career to my career, he's got a 20-year edge on me," Marbury said. "That sounds like a lot of insecurity going on.

"He's speaking on things that he's done. People in New York want to know, what is he gonna do as far as us winning? What happened in the past is in the past. New Yorkers relate to what's happening now. They live more in the present."

Nice. And Brown thought he had a handful with Allen Iverson once upon a time. The man brought this all upon himself by buying into Isiah Thomas' "plan" and bolting stability and success in Detroit.

Still, as mentioned, it's interesting to watch two big names actually say exactly what they mean, without platitudes or pretending to be nice.

It's bloodsport. But at least it's bloody honest.

Flipping Out

Goalies, and former goalies, have had ample reason this season to believe NHL authorities are out to get them, or at the very least, don't have their best interests at heart.

From smaller equipment to restrictions on playing the puck, the impact of the NHL goaltender has been reduced this season, and the numbers prove it.

But if there was one area in which goalies got their way, it was, after many years of complaining loudly the were able to influence the league to stop treating them differently from skaters when it came to lifting the puck out of play, intentionally or otherwise.

Netminders chafed for years over this one, questioning why they received a minor penalty for errant clears while forwards and defenceman would only be penalized in the most egregious of circumstances.

They had a point.

Instead of taking away the goalie penalty, however, the league chose to give the skaters one for the same infraction. Actually it was the competition committee that made the recommendation, and, interestingly, there wasn't even a goalie on the committee at the time.

Even if you like this rule, as I do, it's not hard to see it will be the most talked about regulation this spring at playoff time.

There seems to be little question it will decide a playoff game. Just like the "toe in the crease" playoff year of 1999 when Dallas won the Cup with Brett Hull's skate in the blue, this otherwise minor rule is going to play a major role.

In the Leafs-Bruins game Tuesday night, each team was penalized once, and the B's scored a goal. With 1:12 left in last Friday's game between the Devils and Capitals, Jersey forward Jay Pandolfo was sent off for the "delay of game" call and Dainius Zubrus scored to send the game into overtime.

Often, it seems, teams are getting two-man advantages through this rule because penalty killers under pressure are making errors trying to clear the zone. Last Sunday, the Rangers were leading Atlanta 2-1 with less than seven minutes to play when Blair Betts took a cross-checking minor and five seconds later Darius Kasaparitis was sent off for flipping the puck out.

Less than two minutes later after intense pressure, Atlanta tied the game on Ilya Kovalchuk's goal, then won it in overtime.

You can imagine this rule playing a huge role in the post-season, and that there will be an enormous hue and cry suggesting it is a rule that needs to be repealed. The league is already examining the issue.

One thought on the problem. It seems pretty clear at least half the players on the ice during an NHL game at any given are using an illegal stick, which is why you're seeing such a scramble before shootouts these days as the officials measure each and every piece of lumber before it's used.

Crazy curves might help shooters fool goalies, but it may also be that they are proving to be notoriously unreliable at key moments when a simple attempt to flip the puck off the glass from the defensive zone is turning into a huge setback for their teams.