Toskala Stellar in Leafs Victory over Habs

Vesa Toskala looked like regained some of his old confidence as he led the Toronto Maple Leafs to victory over a beleaguered Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens last night.

Toskala has been the subject of much controversy in Toronto, the self-proclaimed “hub of the hockey world”. Not only were the fickle Toronto fans loudly questioning Toskala’s netminding skills, Coach Ron Wilson and GM Brian Burke also called out their goalie earlier in the week. But last night Toskala was the best Leaf on the ice. He stymied the Habs on a couple of “five on three power plays” proving once again that a hot goalie is the best penalty killer a team can have.

Three other Leafs played prominent roles behind Toskala’s brilliant performance. Jason Blake notched a couple of key goals and Dominic Moore won some key face-offs as well as providing some great checking and passing to get the puck to Blake on several occasions.

But a major surprise for me was the play of Matt Stajan who played a feisty game adding some much needed sandpaper to an otherwise soft Leaf line-up.

On the other side of the ledger, Montreal’s Carey Price looked bewildered at times in the Montreal nets. In the third period I thought he was getting back into a groove with a couple of key saves and then just when I thought he was back to normal he allowed a couple of soft “glove side” goals to sink any thoughts of a Habs comeback.

The Montreal Canadiens now head out on a tough six-game road trip. Perhaps a few games away from the boo-birds in Montreal will allow Price he opportunity to re-gain his confidence as the team heads down the home stretch and on into the play-offs.

Luke Schenn, Toronto highly-hyped rookie defenseman, opened the scoring with his first NHL goal.




Ice Chips: Bobby Ryan (the NHL Rookie of the Month in January) scored a nice goal in the Ducks victory over the Flames. Another ex-Owen Sound Attack player Dan Lacosta recorded his first NHL victory as he led the Columbus Blue Jackets past the high-flying Sharks 3-2 in overtime. Meanwhile in Ottawa, former Owen Sound junior star Adam Mair settled an old score with Jarkko Ruutu and then scored a nice goal for the Sabres.

All Star News

Good for the NHLPA!! With little fanfare the players agreed not to reopen the Collective Bargaining Agreement, instead allowing things to remain the same until 2011.

While the NHLPA were showing class and concern for the game of hockey Emperor Bettman failed to show the same good sense when he announced that Detroit Red Wing and perhaps the best defenseman in hockey Nicklas Lidstrom would be suspended for one game for failing to show up for the All Star events in Montreal.

Lidstrom has attended about nine All Star games, never complaining. Now, he wants to miss the game with good reason probably and Bettman with his "what have you done for me lately attitude" shows what a shallow man he is by acting in such callous manner to one of the truly good guys in professional sport.

WAKE UP GARY!! Use some common sense!

Northern Hockey Card Show

February 1, 2009

One of the best sports card shows in Northern Ontario will be held in Sudbury.

Where?

Moose Lodge
212 Frood Road
Sudbury, Ontario
10:00 AM to 3:00 PM

And,

Best of all,

Admission is FREE!

Five Times Gold!!

Five times gold! Canada's junior hockey team destroyed Sweden 5-1 to capture their fifth gold medal in as many years.

Cody Hodgson, John Tavares and just about every Canadian junior player made a contribution to this historic victory.

Tampa Lightning brass must be beaming this morning as it was their draft pick, Dustin Tokarski, who faced 39 shots to back stop the Canadian victory. Tokarski's stellar play included denying Sweden's vaunted scorers on four straight power plays in the 2nd period.

Angelo Esposito (who I have blasted in previous posts for soft play) was one of the Canadians who set the tone for the night. The future Atlanta Thrasher skated furiously all night hounding the Swedish puck carriers and getting in the face of the Swedish netminder. His chippy and aggressive style unsettled the Swedes and led to at least a couple of Canadian goals.

Speaking of the Swedish goalie, Jacob Markstr0m, appeared to be demonstrating his ballet skills for an upcoming career with the Swedish Ballet or auditioning for a role as a "fish out of water". When he wasn't writhing on the ice he was flopping around like a fish out of water. His dramatics did little to help his club. They say his is a great goalie but his histrionics last night leave me wondering about that.

So it on to Saskatchewan for next year's World Junior Hockey Championships. If it is going to be half as good as this year's I can't wait!

Canada Beats Russia - Face Sweden For Gold Monday

Three times the Canadian juniors took the lead, only to have the Russians bounce back to tie the game and then ultimately go ahead.

I was about ready to turn off the television, when with only a few seconds left, John Tavares grabbed the puck along the boards and fired the puck towards the Russian net. A Russian defenseman blocked the shot but instead of smothering the puck he allowed Jordan Eberle the opportunity to get the puck free, take a couple of skating strides and score the biggest goal of his young career! There was only 5.4 seconds left on the clock.

Boy, am I ever glad that I had not turned off the TV.

Ten minutes of nail-biting overtime resolved nothing and then the dreaded shoot-out.

I hate shoot-outs.

Canada's Jordan Eberle shot first and scored on a great backhander past the Russian netminder.

Canadian goalie, and Tampa draft pick, Dustin Tokarski then thwarted Russia's Dimitri Kugryshev.

Canada's next shooter was none other than John Tavares who fired a great wrist shot to score Canada's second shoot-out goal.

Pavel Chernov, representing Russia's last hope of keeping Russia's shoot-out hopes alive was turned aside by Tokarski to give Canada a 6-5 decision.

Monday Canada faces Sweden for the gold medal.

Canada Roars Back to Defeat U.S.A. in World Jr. Action

A shaky first period by the Canadian Junior squad allowed their rivals from below the border to jump out to a 3-0 lead. But before the teams could go their dressing rooms for the first intermission the Canadians had roared back, scoring three goals to tie the game.

It was John Tavares who led the Canadians’ comeback and before the game was over the budding superstar, and probable first over-all selection in next summer’s amateur draft, had notched a hat trick (the final goal went into an empty net).

Although the final score 7-4 indicates a solid Canadian victory, this is far from reality. Canada’s final two goals were dumped into an empty net as the Americans had pulled their goalie for an extra attacker in a desperate attempt to score the equalizer and force overtime.

The game, although not a sudden-death affair, still had a lot of significance as the winner received a bye to the semi-finals on Saturday and loser had to play an extra game on Friday to advance to the semis.

Although Dustin Tokarski had a shaky first period he made some saves late in the game. Some of those stops will have hockey fans talking for a long time. The biggest save, and one for highlight reels for sure, occurred when U.S.A.’s Colin Wilson was left alone in front of the Canadian net for what must have seemed like an eternity.

As the American star tried to baffle the Canadian netminder with a series of moves, not one Canadian skater could be found in the vicinity. Finally, with Tokarski down, Wilson fired a hard shot towards the wide open Canadian net. But, equally as fast the Canadian goalie flashed the leather and made a fantastic catch to rob the Americans of a sure goal.

The save and others by the Watson Saskatchewan native no doubt had the Tampa Lightning brass drooling over the thoughts of this youngster playing for them in the next few years.

Note: On other occasions I have lamented the lack of good officiating in international hockey and last night’s game does not change my mind. Although there were questionable calls in both directions I thought (and I bet Team USA’s coaching staff agrees) that the Americans were the victims of some calls that probably had an impact on the final score.

On a final note: In a previous post I criticized Angelo Esposito for his lack toughness with the puck. Last night the youngster exhibited a much stronger work ethic and hockey toughness. Keep up it up Angelo you are capable of being a very good hockey player.