RealGM

vs.


4 - 3 - 0 ----------------- 3 - 3 - 2


Oct. 20
7:00PM
CBC (HD)
AM640
HNIC Stream

Lines
(probable)




Williams - Lang - Kane
Ruutu - Toews - Samsonov
Sharp - Perreault - Burrish
Richmond - Adams - Lapointe

Zyuzin - Seabrook
Keith - Wisniewski
Johansson - Sopel

Lalime
Khabibulin

Hawks Notes:

[color=red]Chicago arrives at the ACC after an emotional 5-3 victory over the Avs on Friday night. It was a fairly physical, yet fast paced game, so they are likely to be somewhat tired in comparison to the Leafs. The Hawks built a 3-0 lead in the first and held it until late in the second before the cracks started to show in the Bulin Wall. The Chicago netminder faced a 40-shot barrage of rubber, pointing to the greatest current weakness of the team: defence. After 3 unanswered Avs goals, it was only thanks to a last minute goal and an empty-netter that the home team prevailed.

It is likely that Lalime will get his 2nd start of the season tonight when the team faces the Leafs. In his previous start he turned aside 17 of 18 shots for the win. The Hawks

Go Leafs Go!

we must be desperate if big nikki is our superman

hmmm, Chicago played yesterday.... Who thinks Lalime gets the start tonight for Chicago?

It might be 5 games in a row that the back up starts against us

The Leafs collapsed again in the 3rd period tonight. My only hope for the season now is we get a good draft pick and do not trade it. Have we traded any of our picks for this year yet?

I've said this countless times, but the Leafs lack a great checking line and a faceoff man. They could've had it with Peca, but decided against it. This Leaf team must stay outta the penalty box to win, but yet again, the Hawks have a 7 to 2 advantage for PP...and the end result was a loss for the Leafs.

This team cannot continually allow 4-6 goals a game and hope to win....it's a disgrace IMO.

Embarassing.

I'm really sick of this...

Maurice and Ferguson both need to go.

Highest paid defence in the league and quit possibly the worst defensively.

BlueJay_ wrote:Maurice and Ferguson both need to go.
Highest paid defence in the league and quit possibly the worst defensively.

I'm finding it more and more difficult to watch the Leaf's play, they continue to play fair hockey for segments of a game, then become confused, flustered and penalty prone and eventually lose because of these mind cramps...

I'm beginning to think it may be the coaching...

BlueJay_ wrote:Maurice and Ferguson both need to go.

Highest paid defence in the league and quit possibly the worst defensively.

Couldn't have put it better myself. The whole hockey side of the operation needs an overhaul and the team needs to be blown up.

They show at various points they could be decent, but I don't see anything beyond that. What's the point of hanging on to this team if the best case scenario is decent.

Blow the whole thing up, you could rebuild within a year.

Let Antropov, Stajan, Steen play big minutes this year and acquire some picks and create cap space for the offseason. And don't blow that capspace on players that aren't worth it, if you don't see some relatively young players with some good upside on the market, hold the capspace for another year.

Tor-Rap-Tor wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



I'm finding it more and more difficult to watch the Leaf's play, they continue to play fair hockey for segments of a game, then become confused, flustered and penalty prone and eventually lose because of these mind cramps...

I'm beginning to think it may be the coaching...

JFJ fires Quinn and replaces him with Maurice. So if Maurice cant get this team to play defence with the highest paid blueline in the NHL then he needs to be canned. The problem I see with Maurice is that he is so media frendly that I think people just assume he's a good coach because he's personable and sells himself as someone who knows alot. Second this team is more built for the old NHL where you could survive with a big slow defence due to the clutch and grab but this is no longer the case and Kubina and Gill are majorly strugglin 5 on 5. Never seen a defence so horrible at turning in the neutral zone and screwing up defensive zone assignments.

JFJ also needs to go, this team has not seen the playoffs in 2 seasons and his current team doesnt look that much different then the one who wasnt good enough the previous seasons and we've given up a **** of picks and are locked into a few big contracts and cant move them because JFJ gives out no trades clause's like its going out of style. Too many offensive defencemen and not enough quality mobile guys who can play responsible in there own end. He miscalculated the offseason in thinking all he needed to do was upgrade in goal and the teams defence would improve but even if we had Brodeur or Luongo in net they would still look bad considering this team gives up the most shots in the league. To think this blueline is the highest paid in the league makes me ill.

I seriously wouldnt mind trading away Sundin, attempting to deal Kubina to shed salary and pull a tank job like Philly did last year. Look how fast the Flyers turned around that horrible situation with a few slick trades and some cap space. **** they traded away a 2nd round pick for aquired Biron while we traded away a 2nd round pick in a stacked draft next season for a useless rental in Perrault.

Im on the tank for Steve Stamkos bandwagon and think Sundin deserves better then this and a legit shot at the cup, so hopefully they can JFJ and Maurice and bring in someone legit and let the stripdown begin.

BlueJay_ wrote:
Highest paid defence in the league and quit possibly the worst defensively.

I stated this in the Sabers game thread. I'm glad this is being brought up. We've had on and off issues with our defense for years but never thought it would come to this... and considering the amount of cash we are investing in this core is just degrading.

This team doesn't appear to have any confidence. This isn't a slow start - this is just how they are. They simply are too easy to play against. The opposition knows it - maybe I was just a little slow to see it.

I think I was way too high on them before and at this pace they will miss the playoffs - not just because of their play, but also because of the play of the other teams in the East. NHL Center Ice exposes me to a lot of good hockey and then there's the Leafs.... it just isn't there.

I doubt we'll ever get Toskola going because of this ridiculous platoon arrangement. I can say most assuredly that it

vc_dunkchamp wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Couldn't have put it better myself. The whole hockey side of the operation needs an overhaul and the team needs to be blown up.

They show at various points they could be decent, but I don't see anything beyond that. What's the point of hanging on to this team if the best case scenario is decent.

Blow the whole thing up, you could rebuild within a year.

Let Antropov, Stajan, Steen play big minutes this year and acquire some picks and create cap space for the offseason. And don't blow that capspace on players that aren't worth it, if you don't see some relatively young players with some good upside on the market, hold the capspace for another year.

Yep the hockey side of the management is horrible, how they could hire a rookie GM like Ferguson to run a huge team like this and right on the birth of the new CBA I dont understand. He has tied his hands and even the eventual replacements in handing out huge contracts with no movement clause's and I gurantee this isnt a appealing situation for a potential free agent GM seeing he will have trouble moving the high priced assets.

The best case scenario for this team is a 6th-8th seed playoff bid and most certainly a first round exit and thats disgusting when you figure how were right at the cap, have traded away a boatload of picks for current players and have no cant miss prospects in the pipeline. Amost 85%- 90 percent of teams are either a.)a good team with a realistic shot at a run or B.)has either a already proven young stud or cant miss prospect in there system and the leafs are neither of the two.

I mean what does a Leaf fan have to be excited about at this time? A marginal team and hoping they squeeze into the playoffs and pull off some pipedream playoff run like Edmonton? Yes it happened with the Oil but this was more of a rare exception then the norm or even something that happens often. We have a bunch of decent young players but none that will ever be a top 30 player in the league and really noone to take over for when Mats retires and the best prospect that was in the system is now playing in Bostons system.

Im serious, I hope we trade Sundin and others like Tucker, Kubina and gain some cap space in the process and go into a full out tank mode ala the Flyers last year and hope to pick up a player like Stamkos, Doughty or Pietrangelo in the draft and look to sign a decent free agent with the money.

-waits for the Leafs fan optimists to come in and say give it time, this team will make the playoffs and we have guys like Tlusty, Kulemin and Stralman in the system and make it seem like I should be excited about there potential.

I think you are right but knowing this team and having followed them for the last 15 year's, I believe that they won't realize that they arent' good enough and by the time they decide to blow it up, the good deals will have already been made with other team's and we'll be left with the scraps.

You have to assess early and fast and become pro-active in blowing things up.

Over the year's I've seen so many trades where I've been left wondering how did we not put together a similar package and get a nice young prospect and then we make a deal and it's just not as good.