Friday Incompletions

My goodness, this Ryan Smyth story sure has some legs.

I have no problem with Kevin Lowe's decision. There just needed to be a slightly longer window between closing the door on the Smyth negotiations and the trade deadline so the entire matter seemed less rushed.

But if Smyth was looking at $5 million per season or more, you have to think the Leafs did a decent job getting Darcy Tucker under contract for $3 million a season.

If Smyth is the better player, Tucker is at least three-quarters as good, which makes the Leaf contract look pretty smart.

And while JFJ deserves all the criticism he's been getting over Bryan McCabe's inflated salary, he also did get Tomas Kaberle on board for $4.25 million per season, a bargain by NHL standards.

So if you believe McCabe got too much, you have to be willing to give the Leaf GM some marks for getting Kaberle and Tucker at good prices.

Other incomplete thoughts:

* After listening to McCabe get booed the other night at the ACC, you understand another level of smarts behind the Tucker deal. He'll never get criticized as overpaid, never get booed for not being worth the dough.

Moreover, people know Tucker could have got more elsewhere but wanted to stay in Toronto, and fans remember stuff like that.

* It's understandable that Jeff Garcia is a little cheesed off at the Eagles for letting him walk. But maybe Andy Reid just knows a one-time fluke when he sees one.

* It was fascinating to watch the Pittsburgh-Rangers game Wednesday night, the Pens first outing with Gary Roberts and Georges Laraque.

Roberts lasted about a period beside Sidney Crosby and Mark Recchi before being replaced by Evgeni Malkin and shunted to a line with Maxime Talbot and Colby Armstrong. That's a better fit.

Laraque, despite all the hype, looked terribly slow. Interestingly, while Crosby took an elbow in the head by Michal Roszival and Malkin was hit after the whistle by Colton Orr, Laraque was nowhere to be heard or seen. All this guy does is slow that team down.

* The 2007 NHL entry draft took a real slagging at the trade deadline when most of the teams seemed more interested in prying '08 draft choices out of the hands of opposition GMs than '07 picks.

* Damon Allen had to return to the Argos. He's still the best quarterback they have, and something tells me he'll be burning to bounce back in the fall. He's a solid bet for the Argos, particularly if his finger has been fixed properly this time.

* Curtis Joseph can't be the No. 1 goalie for the Leafs. But he'd be an ideal No. 2 man, and just might be the perfect player/coach/confidante understudy to Andrew Raycroft, particularly when it comes to playing in Toronto.

* You don't hear this much, but the reason the Oilers felt they didn't have enough to play Smyth was at least partially because they paid too much for Petr Sykora, Ales Hemsky and certainly oft-injured Fernando Pisani.

* Is it just me or are the Raptors a better team when Jose Calderon is in the game than T.J. Ford? That said, having two point guards who distribute the ball makes up for those years when the Raptors didn't have one.

* The tricky part for Paul Maurice about starting Andrew Raycroft in New Jersey on Friday and J.S. Aubin at home to Buffalo on Saturday is that if Aubin wins, wouldn't you have to go with the hot hand on Tuesday against Washington?

And then don't you have full-blown goalie controversy?

Comments

[Julian]

Do you think it would be a good idea for CuJo to come back to Toronto? Even if he is the backup how long until people in the media (wink wink) start clamoring for him to start?

Thankfully the Leafs won tonight so Aubin is just giving Raycroft some rest instead of coming in as some sort of messiah. It's not last year and Aubin hasn't been anywhere near that good.

[Marijan Kalman]

Janssen’s hit on Kaberle.

Referees Kelly Sutherland and Brad Watson didn’t call a penalty.

Both referres shold be hanged on the first tree after the game and Janssen should be out og this league forever.

All of the Toronto players are watching this and nobody has balls to chop of Janssens head.

But nobody in this NHL has guts to do that so let's wait until someone gets killed.

And people are paying to watch this kind of game!!
What a league and what a Joke.

Marijan Kalman
Toronto, Ontario

[ac]

your article today on policemen in the nhl you said Chris Neil & Cam Janssen are in the league only because of their fists. do some research or stop waving your Leafs flag.Janssen is a goon who plays 2-4 minutes a game you are right. Neil scored 16 goals,33 pts last year with 8 on the pp. He has 10 goals ,23 pts this yearinc 3 ppg.He plays 10 -15 min a game on the all different lines & is never a healthy scratch. Come on get your facts straught.

[mimmo70]

Your article about "arresting the policemen" is right on the money. I couldn't agree more. I too remember, and often remind my friends, of that cheap elbow Domi gave Neidermeyer in the '03 playoffs. It was late in the game, we were just about to go 1 game up in the series, the crowd was giving the team a standing ovation and then Domi, in one stupid, selfish, cowardly move, ended all of that.

Now we have Cam Jannsen. I too am sick of the excuses that I hear from Don Cherry and Nick Kypreos and the like. During the intermission of a Leaf game this week, Nick and Bill Waters commented on the Neil hit on Drury and called it clean. I couldn't believe it! Darren Milard just stood there and said nothing. Did he think it was clean? It was dirty, it was cheap and it was gutless. The ironic thing about these guys is they always talk about facing a guy one on one, mano a mano and yet they blindside guys time and time again with ugly, cheap shots to the head. And don't even get me started on Bertuzzi. The NHL needs to wake up and start throwing the book at these thug cowards.

[polaroidsofpolarbears]

Laraque slow? Really? I mean, he's not the fleetest of foot but I was rather impressed by his effort.. I thought he worked hard, controlled the puck well down slow and used his size to cleanly rub guys out all evening long.. I thought he actually was more effective than Roberts in the first game.. I think you've got it into your head that all Laraque does is fight and that clearly isn't the case.. He scored some big goals for Phoenix this year and for Edmonton in playoffs past.. Give the guy his due for being more than just a goon..

[Bill Needle]

In regards to your article, 'It's time for the NHL to arrest policemen', you're way off base. In fact, the Janssen incident counters your argument for eliminating enforcers instead of supporting it.

The reality is, last night, Bates Battaglia tried to take up the role as 'policeman' after the cheap shot on Sundin by Colin White.

However, instead of the officials assessing a boarding call to Collin White, Bataglia was assessed a penalty and New Jersey scored on the ensuing power play.

Therefore, the message sent to Janssen and the Devils by the league via the officials, was cheap shots on star players are fair game. In fact, the same message was sent during the Buffalo game. What action was taken on Neil?

Nothing.

The only true retribution was dealt out by Buffalo themselves and after the message was sent, hockey resumed and no one else got hurt.

In the case of the hit on Sundin, because the Leafs were prevented from sending a message and New Jersey was rewarded for a cheap shot, the 'policemen factor' was eliminated and Kaberle was subsequently targeted by Janssen and hurt.

The actions of Janssen were more reminiscent of a Claude Lemieux, Ulf Samuelson, or a Darius Kasparaitis and the league has consistently shown that they don't know how to deal with that factor of the game.

Therefore, before you try to eliminate the policemen, you better get the crooks off the street and right now, after last nights cheap shop, Janssen's status resides more in the Samuelson camp than with the pugilists.

[norm depalma]

I am sick of everyone skating around the major issue concerning the Leafs over the past 6-7 years: specialty teams. Leafs Penalty killing is perenially awful-giving up lots of chances, lots of goals, lots of key goals and rarely if ever scoring short handed. The power play scores few key goals out of their unbelievably predicatable set offense

Both units reflect remarkably poor strategic thinking. The PKers dont chase the points enough and defensemen dont box out men in front. The power play is too static, relies too much on long shots from the point and the occasional pass through the crease.

The result of these pathetically coached specialty units: all good teams know they can bully the Leafs and be penalized without getting scored on. And when the Leafs inevitably reply and get penalized, they get scored on. Add that to the epidemic of idiotic penalties taken by McCabe, Sundin etc (some a result of compensating for slowness afoot) and the Leafs have a 1 goal discrepancy per game against good teams. No matter how good the 5 on 5 play is, the Leafs are always too far behind.

All the other stories: ie. kaberle injury, Tucker return, goalie shenanigans pale in comparison.

THIS IS THE ROOT OF ALL LEAF PROBLEMS!
It shocks and saddens me that no commentator or fan picks up on this obvious tragic flaw. And it is disheartening that even the Maurice replacement for Quinn did not lead to any changes.

-Norm DePalma

[Derek]

The Leafs overpaid for Darcy Tucker, like they overpaid for McCabe and Kubina. Tucker is only valued because he plays in Toronto and is nothing more than a third line winger. To even compare him with Ryan Smyth is a joke. Smyth is ten times the player Tucker is and if you had watched the Oilers and the Leafs play on a regular basis instead of just the Leafs you would realize this. I agree that Kevin Lowe probably made the right move in moving Smyth as the price tag was too high but I can't agree with the Leafs making a good signing by locking up Tucker for four years. They will continue to have no cap room and continue to battle for a playoff spot.