Resuming Action

It's been a while.

I've been away from this site for quite a long time, I know. I've been focusing on school, for the most part - I've mentioned that I'm a student in the past, but this time it's actually true.

Now, however, I'm happy to announce that I'm back on the horse. I plan on providing my own unique insight into Leafs news and moves starting very soon.

Good to be back.

Let's see how long I stick with it this time.

The Quiet Months

Giving my phone a try at posting to my blog. Let's just see how well this works.

This is generally a rather dull time of year for me - I'm a student, so the summers are basically a lengthy waiting period for classes to begin once again. It's also made longer by the utter absence of hockey.

Sure, there's the world junior development camp going on right now in St. John's, but the only major Leafs prospect present there (Brad Ross, a second round pick) is taking it easy this week with a groin pull. Methinks that may affect his chances of making the team.

Sadly, there's just not much to report in Leafland. I could rehash old rumors and discussions about where Kaberle would end up, but that's already been done plenty of times elsewhere. Nothing new I could say on that front.

So, we'll wait. At this point, what else is there to do?

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Looking Less Likely

Lovely as all the fantasizing may be about the Leafs getting out of the bottom two places in the league, the odds of it happening are getting awfully low. Yes, Toronto is only one win away from tying Tampa, but even if they manage that, they'll still be in the same place in the standings (based on overall wins by the end of the year). So they need to take the lead, which means they need to win at least two of the next three games, and for either Tampa Bay or Florida to lose every single last game for the rest of the year. And looking at their schedules, it's literally impossible for both of those teams to lose every last game.

Florida
Tue, Apr 06 Ott 7:30 PM ET
Thur, Apr 08 NJ 7:30 PM ET
Sat, Apr 10 @ TB 7:30 PM ET
Sun, Apr 11 TB 5:00 PM ET

Tampa Bay
Tue, Apr 06 Car 7:30 PM ET
Thur, Apr 08 Ott 7:30 PM ET
Sat, Apr 10 Fla 7:30 PM ET
Sun, Apr 11 @ Fla 5:00 PM ET

Game Day - Buffalo at Toronto

Borrowed from the NHL.

Leafs
Kulemin-Grabovski-Kessel
Stalberg-Bozak-Hanson
Caputi-Irwin-Mitchell
Sjostrom-Wallin-Orr

Beauchemin - Phaneuf
Kaberle - Schenn
Finger - Gunnarsson


Giguere
Gustavsson

Injuries
Mike Van Ryn (season)
Komisarek (season)
__________________________________________________ _____________________

Sabres
Tyler Ennis - Jochen Hecht - Jason Pominville
Tim Kennedy - Derek Roy - Drew Stafford
Nathan Gerbe - Paul Gaustad - Mike Grier
Raffi Torres - Matt Ellis - Adam Mair


Tyler Myers - Henrik Tallinder
Toni Lydman - Steve Montador
Craig Rivet - Chris Butler


Ryan Miller
Patrick Lalime

Injuries
Tim Connolly (day to day)
Patrick Kaleta (2 weeks)
Thomas Vanek (week to week)

Game Day: Atlanta Thrashers at Toronto Maple Leafs

Borrowed again from mapleleafs.nhl.com. It really does look much cleaner than my effort. Perhaps I should reconsider my design.

Now, then, to the lineups.

TORONTO

Forwards

Kulemin Bozak Kessel

Caputi Grabovski Mitchell

Stalberg Hanson Sjostrom

Lundmark Wallin Orr

Primeau

Defense

Beauchemin Phaneuf

Kaberle Schenn

Exelby Finger

*Gunnarsson

Goalie

Gustavsson

Giguere

ATLANTA

Forwards

Bergfors - Antropov - Afinogenov

MacArthur - Peverley - Little

Kane - Reasoner - Armstrong

Slater - Stapleton - Thorburn

Artyukhin

Defense

Enstrom - Kubina

Hainsey - Oduya

Popovic - Bogosian

Chelios

Goalie 

Hedberg

Pavelec

Apparently, Gunnarson is feeling a bit under the weather, which is why he's penciled in as the seventh defenseman. He'll be a game time decision.

These are projected lineups, as I can't find a source for Atlanta's lineup. Defensive pairings for Atlanta are a complete guess - I'm just going off whether they're right or left handed and their place on the depth chart. I might be way off - if you have a more accurate source, please let me know.

Next Season

Not to start off on a negative note, but it is absolutely impossible for the Leafs to make the playoffs this year. This is not a startling announcement - in fact, many people were boldly making this claim before the season even started.

Accurately, as it turns out, which is not so much an example of their psychic ability as it is an accurate assessment of the team's capabilities. Also, there might be a bit of the bizarre hatred that the Maple Leafs seem to consistently inspire in fans of other teams.

However, discussing that hatred is not the topic of this post - no, this post is inspired by a recent column by Damien Cox. In it, he raises a fair point:

Based on the quality of teams that will make the Stanley Cup playoffs out of the Eastern Conference, the Leafs will have only to improve from lousy to mediocre next season to find themselves in the thick of the hunt.

The Eastern Conference is weaker than the West - one only has to look at the standings to prove that. How much of an improvement would the Leafs have to make for next season to have a happier ending?

Game Day: New York Rangers at Toronto Maple Leafs

Borrowed the above image from the Maple Leafs website, and by extension from the NHL. Did so because I'm far from Ottawa, and as such do not have access to my resources for this site. Going to have to look into methods of resolving that particular issue.

Projected Lines

 

Nikolai Kulemin - Tyler Bozak - Phil Kessel
Luca Caputi - Mikhail Grabovski - Viktor Stalberg
John Mitchell - Christian Hanson - Freddie Sjostrom
Jamie Lundmark - Rickard Wallin - Colton Orr

Luke Schenn - Tomas Kaberle (A)
Dion Phaneuf (A) - Francois Beauchemin (A)
Jeff Finger - Carl Gunnarsson

Jonas Gustavsson
JS Giguere

*Healthy Scratches: Exelby, Primeau

 Injuries

Mike Van Ryn - OUT: Knee Injury
Mike Komisarek - IR: Upper Body Injury



Brandon Dubinsky - Erik Christensen - Marian Gaborik
Sean Avery - Chris Drury (C) - Olli Jokinen
Enver Lisin - Vinny Prospal (A) - P.A. Parenteau
Jody Shelley - Artem Anisimov - Brandon Prust

Marc Staal - Michal Rozsival
Michael Del Zotto - Dan Girardi
Wade Redden - Anders Eriksson

Henrik Lundqvist
Alex Auld

*Healthy Scratches: Voros, Gilroy