Vesa’s done a great job recently, and before Vesa, Jonas was making some big saves. And it’s huge....

Vesa’s done a great job recently, and before Vesa, Jonas was making some big saves. And it’s huge. You start to trust your goaltender, other things fall into place.

Emphasis mine, Ron Wilson's, Brian Burke's, and anyone's who has ever played in front of a shaky goalie.

It all begins in net and builds from there.

about 2 years ago PPP 17 comments 0 recs |

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My faith in Vesa Toskala has clearly paid off.

You’re welcome.

Sports And The City

A Toronto sports blog, where unabashed homerism is alive and well...

PLAYOFFS!!!!1

by eyebleaf on Dec 15, 2009 3:04 AM EST reply actions

But…you said Vesa was bad. What is going on?! Wins? Playoffs??? A strange land this Toronto Maple Leafs is taking me. I’m scared, but excited. I would ask someone to hold me, but I fear a Colton Orr-like body check instead. After all, that’s what this Leafs team was built to do and is paying off now.

Supporter of the Sergei Berezin "Give and Go" - You give me puck, then you go to hell

by bkblades on Dec 15, 2009 3:08 AM EST reply actions

He is still bad. He is having a very short good run which hopefully the team’s confidence in him will help parlay into a long good run.

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by David Danforth on Dec 15, 2009 11:11 AM EST up reply actions

I was giving Vesa tough love; what Wilson is doing to Schenn now.

I am rather #DocDrunk

Sports And The City

A Toronto sports blog, where unabashed homerism is alive and well...

PLAYOFFS!!!!1

by eyebleaf on Dec 15, 2009 3:13 AM EST reply actions

I do remember saying don’t throw Vesa under the bus and he would bounce back

40 years we've stayed loyal, waited, and pained. That is the honor of being a Leafs' fan.

by Kriv on Dec 15, 2009 3:37 AM EST reply actions

It also helps when your defence TRIES to trust him from the start. Beauchemain and Komisarek (who have never to my knowledge played with Vesa before the season started) played the first 10 or so games as though they were playing with the goalie from the timbits intermission game (minus trying to block shots well……..ok komi did that pretty well, everyone else on the team, not so much – refer to earlier posts by me to see what i’m talking about). In fact, some defence the Leafs employed seemed to be helping the other team (I still remember that Kaberle screen against Pitt 10/10/09).

And whether you trust your goalie or not, if you aren’t playing your defensive system properly, you aren’t going to be winning. I don’t see the Leafs going better than 3-5-1 to start the year with a really good goalie if you hold their defensive play constant.

But that’s all behind us now. Toskala is playing very well and the Leafs (when we don’t face Boston) seem to be able to play defence fairly effectively. If they could kill a bloody penalty they’d be in really good shape heading towards Christmas.

by Belligerent Burkie on Dec 15, 2009 8:26 AM EST reply actions

This is almost all due to Toskala’s improvement and you can see it with your eyes. Do you remember him making any big saves at all to start the season?

No. He let in good chances, he let in a few stinkers on top of that and it was a total shit show.

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by Chemmy on Dec 15, 2009 9:53 AM EST up reply actions

Toskala’s still pretty crappy but he’s at least not legendarily bad he’s just “kinda crummy” and that’s enough to give the Leafs a chance to win.

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by Chemmy on Dec 15, 2009 9:54 AM EST up reply actions

i’m curious as to where Vesa has been hiding that glove hand for the past year or so. His purse?

The book has been out on shooting high, glove side, for some time. Then, I’m pretty sure it was against Atlanta, I saw an early shot go to that very spot, and Toskala caught it. He’s been doing that ever since.

I am still, for lack of a better word, flummoxed.

I have nothing interesting to say.

by blurr1974 on Dec 15, 2009 11:33 AM EST up reply actions

I have a theory that it’s conditioning in part… harder to get your hand up when you’re out of shape, kind of thing?
It’s all I can come up with.

"The only way out is in a body bag. Go Leafs Go." - Blinky

by Karina on Dec 15, 2009 11:40 AM EST up reply actions

i was thinking that maybe, after Gustavsson went out again, and couldn’t even practice, it forced Allaire to spend time with Toskala…?

I have nothing interesting to say.

by blurr1974 on Dec 15, 2009 11:43 AM EST up reply actions

maybe… I really have no idea. But I’ll take the strong play.

"The only way out is in a body bag. Go Leafs Go." - Blinky

by Karina on Dec 15, 2009 12:24 PM EST up reply actions

Actually

The theory I came up with was that his hip and groin injuries were forcing him to play further to his right (because he couldn’t push over because of his bad left groin). He also had to keep his glove low because his bad right hip wouldn’t let him get down to cover properly.

But I have no idea which side was operated on for either one.

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by David Danforth on Dec 15, 2009 4:40 PM EST up reply actions

Ron of the Dead?

“I’ve mentioned Phil Kessel before and he makes a huge difference on our team… The difference from the first month is we have a difference-maker, a pure sniper … we were a group that worked hard but might not finish. More importantly, Vesa has found his game, he’s playing great and he’s a big reason why we’ve got ourselves back to within a couple of games of .500.”

- Zwolinski

by general borschevsky on Dec 15, 2009 10:01 AM EST reply actions