We'll do it for Johnny. We'll do it for Johnny!

Read this story.

Made me think of this movie. 

That's all I got. Leafs get 3 points out of a home and home with Pittsburgh. Some will argue we should have gotten four, but fuck it, be happy, we're actually trending* towards making Mr Bower one happy ACC customer. 

*Please understand that this is not a guarantee. Daniel Alfredsson once made a guarantee, and look how stupid Daniel Alfredsson looked? Do I want to look as stupid as Daniel Alfredsson? Hell no! Nobody wants to look as stupid as Daniel Alfredsson did when he said that. Not even Daniel Alfredsson would. If the present Daniel Alfredsson could get into a time machine and go back in time,  he would definitely grab the 2004 Daniel Alfredsson and say, "Daniel Alfredsson, don't say that, you will look really stupid". 

Trade Rumors...

It's been 5 days since a real hockey game has been played and I just can't help myself.  Bill Watters tweeted the following hockey trade rumor between the Jackets and the Leafs:

Jackets trade to Toronto: Rick Nash and Kristian Huselius 
Leafs trade to Columbus: Luke Schenn, Mikhail Grabovski, Mike Komisarek and Nazem Kadri.


What's interesting about this trade is that the salaries actually match up. Around $12M from each team, according to Mike Augello. At first glance, the Leafs get the best player in the deal in Rick Nash. That has been a trend in Burke's dealings, which gives this some chance of being credible. Toronto would lose two of their past four first round draft picks in Schenn and Kadri, and Grabovski who is on his way to his second 30 goal season. Komisarek and his $4.5M salary go the other way too.


My take: I love Rick Nash, and moving to Toronto would re-unite Nash with his favorite hockey team growing up, and give the Leafs the size and skill up front they are looking for. Huselius is injured reserve for a few more weeks, but he could be a valuable guy and at 6'2" also brings some size. 


Toronto give up a lot in Schenn and Kadri, as far as controllable and reasonably priced talent. Komisarek I don't think anybody would think about ever again, and if Grabovski is truly seeking the $5M salary that rumors say his agent has kicked off negotiations with, then he might be gone this June anyway. 


If Burke came to me and said "your call, you can make or not make the trade but you have to decide right now, I say make the deal. Rick Nash would look good in a Leafs jersey and he's 27 years old and locked up for 6 more seasons. 

Two months doesn't make a tenure...

In this writers opinion, Ottawa's GM and Coach still have work to do before being considered anything but a struggling franchise with a couple of wins lately.

Leafs ranked 8th and Ottawa 20th.

Thanks to the fine folks at PPP for the link, whom I agree with that the Leafs seem ranked a little high.

All star Battle

The All-Star festivities kick off tomorrow evening with the draft.  The Battle of Ontario has 7.5 participants in this year's edition.

On the undeserving side are Leaf Captain and the leagues most overrated player as voted by his peers, Dion Phaneuf and alleged distributor of hooker DNA Joffrey  Lupul.  There's also some short guy with a fancy car.

On the ridiculously under-represented side, we have:
Underappreciated Milan Michalek and his dashing good looks,
The guy who should have been picked after Jake Gardiner,
The number 1 active PPG centremen over 500 GPs  in Jason Spezza,
Rookie of the Year candidate Nazem Kadri Colin Greening.

In case you are doing the math, that list is missing one name.  But that's ok.  That all-star is Captain, he is omniprescent, he is around us, he is one with us, he is the leader of all things hockey, and hair, and moustaches.  He is what George Lucas based "The Force" upon.  You know who he is.

How will each of these players perform?  Well, amongst all of the other distractions and  political issues  likely to see some airtime, it will be interesting to see how Kessel and Lupul do on a team with more than just two average hockey players.

Lupul named* assistant captain at all-star game

*not via ballot stuffing or home rink politics. Actually rewarded for his play, which has been sensational.

Well done Joffrey.

Rookies

With Greening's two goals yesterday, he moves to a tie for 5th in rookie scoring. Cowen is 1pt behind Larsson for rookie D. Note that Cowen and Greening are 1st and 4th in Hits for rookies too - just another part of the reason the Sens are doing better than expected. Nobody pencilled in that kind of production from these two players.
Leaf fans, you can see Gardiner and Frattin lower down on the page on the NHL site - just ahead of Daugavins.

THM Addition
(sorry Don - didn't want to over-post so I figured it'd be kosher to add to your youngin' post)

In another thread, Muppet commented that Kadri has a higher PPG than Turris.  Over several seasons Turris is running at 0.385 (.39).  Kadri is at 0.4.

What about this season, though, the only one that presently counts?  Let's have a look at a category-by-category breakdown (Phoenix numbers removed for Turris):

SJ perspective

SJ Mercury:

Michalek has helped the Senators to a 26-16-6 record and will be playing in the All-Star game on Jan. 29. And thanks to his development, it sure looks as if Ottawa ultimately got the better of the blockbuster trade for Dany Heatley in 2009.

Hat-tip to SensTown tweet.

Condensed game highlights

All you need to watch is the first 22 seconds to understand how soft the Leafs are.  Z.Smith wasn't even aware someone ran into him.

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

Is Dion Phaneuf the Worst Captain in Maple Leaf History?

Yes.

Okay, worst in the last 40 years or so? Don't know much about Jimmy Thomson or Sid Smith.

Hey, Ronnie:

Big BoO

Or as it will be known - the BBOO.

Lineups from Mirtle:
Leafs projected lineup
Lupul - Bozak - Kessel
MacArthur - Grabovski - Kulemin
Lombardi - Connolly - Crabb
Rosehill - Steckel - Brown
Aulie - Phaneuf
Gunnarsson - Schenn
Gardiner - Franson
Reimer

Sens projected lineup
Michalek - Spezza - Greening
Condra - Turris - Alfredsson
Foligno - Smith - Neil
Butler - Konopka - Daugavins
Kuba - Karlsson
Cowen - Gonchar
Phillips - Carkner
Anderson

The Leafs dumped Kadri for this game for Rosehill - a guy that last played Dec 19 - a whole 3:33 of ice on that agaim (again from Mirtle).
Scared about getting pushed around in their own building?

I'm thinking the first goal is an important one in this game - especially if the Sens get one early and get Reimer off to a questionable start.

Man - should just have copied Mirtle's whole Leafs Beat column...
There was a ton of talk about the revival of the Battle of Ontario at the rink, with both teams potentially set to make the playoffs in the same year for the first time since they met in Round 1 of 2004.
No Leafs players are left from those days, while the Sens have Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, Chris Phillips and Chris Neil. Only Sens coach Paul MacLean seemed to feel the rivalry was still going strong. (Joffrey Lupul said he didn't even remember watching any of their previous playoff meetings.)
Doesn't seem right! Bring back Darcy!!

Jets overlooked?

With tomorrow's BoO in Toronto looming, the Sens come home from a very successful road trip playing a beat up Jets team on a slump.

Anderson gets the start again tonight with a few questions popping up on whether the Sens will go to Auld tomorrow against Toronto's pop-gun offense. The Leafs are expecting to start the 2nd leading All-star Goalie vote getter - he must be having a great year!

Just because it's fun

Ottawa takes advantage of soft schedule

First step is defeating the league #1 New York Rangers in a 3-0 shutout with all goals from the non-worthy All Star selections and assists from not-as-good-as-Jake-Gardiner, a.k.a. Karlsson.

But Ottawa's not a good team right Muppet?

If you were a pre-season gambler and bet on the Senator's midseason rank...

...then you could possibly be very rich off a $5 bet.

Ottawa has joined the top 10 power rankings of SB Nation while Toronto sits in 14th.

TSN has Toronto and Ottawa at 13th and 14th place, up from 18th and 17th, respectively.

Finally, Sportsnet ranks the BoO participants closer to SBN with Ottawa rising 6 spots to take 10th and Toronto jumping from 21 to 17th. 

Ladies, gentlemen and Leaf fans....

Introducing your SportsIllustrated/CNN most overrated player in the NHL according to active NHL players, for the 2nd year running, it's Mister......

Welcome to the top 30, Monster.

Normally this wouldn't be cause for celebration, but his 2nd shutout in a week deserves a glove tap. The best BoO save %: Jonus Gustavsson. Who would have thunk it?