Hey guys,

If you get a minute.

http://www.blogesalming.com/2009/11/gongshow.html

Apparantly, DiDomenico should be close to skating with the Voltigeurs again. I got curious about him after reading Steve’s article, and found this story, which was posted on October 5th.

Cheers for the link blurr. Updated this morning: I forgot about Primeau. Can you imagine? How could Wayne Primeau’s contribution go unnoticed?

This is just a rumour, but Brian Burke is using the extra revenue he has at his disposal to create the first cloning department in world-sports. Coming to an Arena near you: Khil Pessel.

Steve Stamkos is red hot, with 31 goals since Feb. 17, most in the NHL over that span.

Makes me very happy. Thanks for letting me start the day off great blurr.

It barely explained anything about the Leafs’ problem on the penalty-kill, other than saying who the perpetrators are. I feel it’s a little thin on the analysis, and overly critical of players like Mayers who barely plays to begin with. I’ll try and summarize my feelings about the Leafs’ penalty-kills by basing it off my observations.

By ignoring the perpetrators who put the team down a man or two, it’s better to focus on the team’s reluctance to absorb shots and put their body in shooting lanes. Part of the problem is that it’s an unquantifiable mechanic to analyze; those who write or talk about it are relying on the observations of others who can authenticate the truth behind an analysis. Numbers, while concrete, don’t tell the story, and only serve to try and contextualize the superficial aspects of the game. So with that out of the way, here I go:

While watching the Islanders, Hawks, and Red Wings, I’ve noticed striking similarities in how they attack the points; all these teams encourage their forwards to take away space at the point. The logic, and it’s almost unfailing, is that shots that get through the tangled mess of bodies in front of the net will result in a chaotic mess of sticks and skates trying to control the puck while the goaltender is disoriented. A point shot usually results in a goaltender going on his knees to find/absorb the puck. It’s purely reflective and a product of self-defense. To see is to know. Should the puck get to the point, and get through to the net, the opportunity to score rises; there’s a higher visual degree of the net, and the confusion usually results in a miscommunication or misinterpretation of what a player sees. To wit, the Hawks and Leafs are polar opposites; Toronto forwards stay back just below the hash marks to try and take away passing lanes. Our forwards rarely, if not the majority of the time on the PK, take away the point shots. They simply take away the passing lanes to prevent a “pretty play.” Now, I may be wrong; I may simply be looking too much into this, but I don’t think I’ve seen more than a handful of goals scored on the PP against the Leafs that looked pretty.

I equate this to a team trying their best not to be embarrassed. I see this as a product of a team’s faltering confidence in their own skills and the skills of the player next to them. I equate this to a coach unable to turn players like Hagman or Kulemin into courageous sacrificial lambs. For a team to succeed in the PK, a complete cohesion of both the forwards and the defense must be able to attack the points and keep players off the half-boards. While impossible to enforce every instance, it’s easy to adjust for what the team may try to do. Part of the problem at the beginning of the season was that our main penalty-killings on the back-end, Komisarek, Schenn, Finger, and Beauchemin were running all over the place to make up for the forwards’ lack of bravery. Now, our defense has settled down a bit and begun to dig in, directing our forwards where to go and what lanes to take. Other than Stajan, I can’t think of another Toronto forward who’s consistently good on the PK. Stajan is usually willing to sacrifice his body, but lacks the foot-speed and strength to handle forwards, or bigger defensemen on the boards. He’s more of the roving forward that tries to clog up shooting lanes.

Since I’m criticizing the forwards, I’ll just mention there’s one guy I have a huge man-crush on; Primeau, who’s a beast on the PK. He’s big, fast, and tough. He’s willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the team. He’s strong enough to handle anyone. He puts himself into shooting lanes and has the reach to take away passing lanes. He’s our best option on the PK, in my opinion. Our second best option is Ponikarovsky. But how many times has anyone seen him put himself in front of a shot? I haven’t seen it since maybe last year. He’s big, fast, and strong. But rarely do I see him show any heart. It’s frustrating and drives me up the walls.

Here are the rest of the positives:
- Gustavsson’s huge frame covers the majority of the net, making it imperative to get him down on the ice for an easy tap-in from the mouth of the net. With our defense, easier said then done.
- Unfortunately for the rest of the league, the Leafs have four defensemen willing to hand out punishment if you get within 10 feet of the crease. Komisarek’s presence has reinvigorated and stabilized the defense, as well as making teams think twice about going into the corners with him. Komisarek’s presence has just effectively killed off most of the cycles that happened last year because we didn’t have anyone other than Schenn, White, and Finger willing to sacrifice himself. Be reminded that while Schenn, White, and Finger will willing to sacrifice themselves, it was rarely effective.
- Until Komisarek was injured, there was a renewed emphasis on shot-blocking. Shots from the point were rarely effective; especially with Gustavsson back there. Teams are forced to use their speed to try and get around the defense. The most remarkable difference is that our defense rarely chase the puck in our own zone anymore. Their confidence in Gustavsson to stop the easy shots is apparent in this aspect.

All told, it’s pretty obvious that the engines driving our defense and PK are Gustavsson and Komisarek. At the end of the season, if Komisarek continues to play like this, I’m probably going to suggest that he’s our team’s MVP.

forget the chemo, Kessel beat testicular cancer because of his wrist shot. i voted “cures cancer”.

Thoughts on our Lines

Don’t know how many people are reading it, but I think this Vintage Leaf Memories blog is excellent.

click.