The Toronto Maple Leafs' woes on the penalty kill over the past few years has been a frequent topic of discussion here at Pension Plan Puppets and virtually everywhere else in Leaf fandom since Ron Wilson became head coach of the team, and probably before then too. While many ideas have been floated about what the reason(s) may be, I decided that I was going to try to collect a bunch of hard data and see if I could put together some kind of well-supported explanation as to what's been going wrong. The results took the form of a comparison between two teams that seemed like they should have had similar PK results, but didn't - the Leafs and the Minnesota Wild.

I decided to divide this into two parts to keep it readable. In Part 1, which I wrote about a week and a half ago, I took a look at the goalies to see if there were any noteworthy differences between the two teams in net. The conclusion that I came to was that the Leafs goalies seemed to be somewhat to blame for the team's poor results. In Part 2, I'm going to be looking at what the other 4 skaters on the PK are doing and see if my initial conclusion about the goalies holds up. If you haven't yet read Part 1, I'd definitely recommend it, since it will provide important context to Part 2 such as "What would drive a person to spend their free time watching video of old Minnesota Wild penalty kills?" Follow me past the jump, where I finally reach a solid conclusion about The Problem With The Leafs PK.

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With the Allstar break upon us, and the second half of the season looming, finding the Leafs on the playoff bubble...This is my Question: How many NHL teams can be Gustavsson'd or Prime Riem'd as the season progresses. The Answer? Your guess is as good as mine. All numbers aside, an NHL goalie is a strange and sometimes wonderful creature. They are on and off their game and are at best a gamble (even the established ones) for even the smartest of GM's

With the signing of Liles leaving a number of blueliners jostling for a spot on the roster, Burke should be poised to make a move. It is fair to say that he will do his tweaking up front. This will have Leaf fans watching the playoff race with resident netminders Gustavsson and Reimer.

Both of these goalies have faced their fair share of adversity and Leaf fans have cried out for a proven goalie between the pipes. What? These two individuals have battled their respective struggles with character and a spirit soaring high enough to blow the roof off of Air Canada Centre. All the while keeping the Leafs in the playoff hunt. I am sold!! With Wilson's recent statement about having six guys (yes SIX) on the ice being responsible for keeping the puck out of the net, and with Burke ready to make a move up front, I think we can all relax and watch the AllStar game. My feeling is that if Wilson continues to play the hot hand then the Leafs will find themselves with a goaltending tandem that will deliver.

Go AllStar Leafs Go !!!!!

Greetings, Pension Plan Puppets.

I recently started a community research project on Die By the Blade. We got off to a good start but I thought reaching out to other fan-bases would only help. Please follow the jump for details.

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There has been a great deal of angst and dismay regarding Tim Thomas and his decision to not show up at the White House to shake hands with the Commander in Chief. My take, who cares. Apparently a lot of people do however, since many have blasted/praised the move as selfish, honorable, cowardly, brave, mature or childish. Thomas is not the first athlete to refuse to go to the White House (http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/286853/20120124/tim-thomas-athletes-who-snubbed-white-house.htm) and he probably will not be the last. On a sidebar, try to ignore the absurdity for a minute of Mark Chmura refusing to attend a function at the White House because Bill Clinton fooled around with Lewinsky, and then getting busted a few years later for sexually assaulting his teenage babysitter. Let's assume that Thomas does not show up in a few years at some liberal rally or something.

So what was Thomas doing?

From his Facebook page: “I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People. This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government. Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.”

Well OK then.

I don't want to get into whether or not Thomas should have been there. After all, Presidents have a history of knowing nothing at all about hockey, just ask Steve Yzerman. Why sit and listen to a speech that is probably written by some intern from Minnesota or something, while mugging for photos and shaking hands with someone you can't stand (ask anyone whether they enjoyed being forced to shake Sean Avery’s hand after a playoff series if this is any fun. Well, don’t ask Marty Brodeur, he couldn’t tell you).

On the other hand, this is a team function and Thomas clearly is sucking all the fun out of it for his team. They stopped being the focus of a day that should have been truly memorable for them. But really, is this a big deal?

So what do you think he was doing while his team mates were putting on their flashiest suits and schmoozing with the Pres? I couldn’t help but think of an old Simpsons episode when Homer decided he was going to stop going to church. Instead, he starts sleeping in extra-late, has the house all to himself, dances in his underwear and watches football games. I hope Thomas was sitting in his red, white and blue underwear, watching the Fox news network while thanking God for his freedom of choice as an INDIVIDUAL.

I actually hope deep down inside that this in some way derails the Bruins season. I don't think it will, but since the Leafs cannot beat this team, let's just hold out hope. I also hope that some apple-pie eating red blooded American player takes a run at him. That will teach him.

Tonight in late night drunk ramblings...

Welcome to the first of a randomly weekly/gamenightlyish series in which I, your host, Drunk Craig will provide you: The internet resident webby surfy guy with my chaotic and intoxicated thoughts from the mind of a Canadian Barbarian.

I believe that a disporportionately small size of the blame for the Leafs poor run of late has been allocated amoungst the deparpture of one John-Michael Liles. Everyone around Leafs Nation seems to be removing his/her respective hair from the aforementiioned individual's unfortunate scalp.

It is my contention that one JM Liles (@hoosierjm26) provides many tangible and intangible assets to this hockey club and recieves far too little of the credit. I come to this realization in an intoxicated state and without any fact checking whatsoever. I do, however read quite a lot of both the mainstream and alternative media sources. So I believe that I have a reasonable claim.

From watching him, he's the type of player to skate his way out of trouble and can make up for a weak partner with a simple play. Not only is he a good player, but he's the type of player, it almost doesn't matter who his partner is, that's a stable pairing. Jake Gardnier has that ability to make up for mistakes with his skating. That's why it makes sense that when we loose Liles, Gardnier should step in. If we were to loose Schenn or Komisarek (yes I think Komo has played well *for the most part*, get over it haters). Then Aulie is probably a better replacement.

I think Aulie could develop into a premier shutdown guy in the NHL. I think he's proven that he can play at this level but shutdown D men take time. Schenn is going through his own trials and tribulations, by the way so far I love the pairing of Schenn and Dion, I'd love to see a Franson Liles followed by a Gunnerson Komisarek pairing heading into a playoff run. Then, ideally we could trade someone, (I'm not going to bother speculating, that's for internet retards and it's pointless) for that big dominant-on-the-boards-forward that I think Burke is after and what I think this team needs to get into that playoff spot.

However, as I first stated, I really think we're going to see a much better team when Liles comes back, if, of course, he is what he was before the (concussion was it? dun dun dunnnnnnn) which, he might not be. But we have no reason to think that he won't. -Despite what Jason Portwando would have you believe. (Nothing personal Portwando but ya do have a funny name and you are reporter for the Sens so fuck you).

Anyway, I'm going to bed, fuck off internet.

After Chemmy's post for the Building The Narrative topic, it made me want to write something similar. I wrote this a couple days ago on my blog, and figured I should share it here. So here is my story for Building The Narrative, word for word from the original blog post.

As some of you may know, I wrote a post on Pension Plan Puppets about what it's like to be a gay Leaf fan (hockey fan in general). In that post I wrote a little about Brendan Burke, and how important he was. Well today over at PPP, Chemmy has written an article about a poignant moment in his life as a Leaf fan and started a section called "Building The Narrative". So I've decided to write my piece today with the same topic in mind. Building my own narrative. I wont start at the beginning of my Leaf fandom, but more so my validation of being one.

Being a Leaf fan isn't easy. Not only has the team been pretty bad for quite some time, everyone loves to hate them and their fans. So going through a school filled with bandwaggoners or football/basketball fans (the worst kind of human being) was pretty aggravating. Whenever I wanted to wear my Leaf jersey, or my Leaf hat, I was made fun of, or had people make smug remarks about how stupid I was. Never did my faith in the team waver, and I was always proud of being a Leaf fan. However, when I learned about Brendan Burke's story, his coming out to his hockey team, I was awestruck. A story like this rarely happens, and growing up in this kind of town, it gave me hope. So I watched the TSN interview with him and his father, Leafs GM Brian Burke. His father's vocal and staunch support of his son and the issue he was raising stuck me in a way I couldn't ever explain. It made me rethink why I was a Leaf fan. It wasn't them winning (they rarely did), or all their star players (they had one), or even the fact it was in Toronto. No, now it was for a legitimate reason. They were MY team. Their general manager and his son were fighting for me, and everyone like me. They were taking a stand against a serious issue in the world of sport.

The next game, I pulled my Sundin jersey over my head, and I was never prouder of anything I enjoyed or loved as much as when I put on that jersey. That maple leaf in the center didn't only stand for the city of Toronto's team, it stood for equality and pride. I couldn't care less what anyone said anymore, my team stood up for me, could they say the same about their team? No, they couldn't.

On February 5th, 2010, at the age of 21 (Only a year older than I am as of this writing), Brendan died in a tragic car accident. It was an unbelievable loss, not only for me, but for everyone who was discriminated against for being different. We lost a brother, a comrade. Brian Burke proceeded to march in the Pride Parade because in his words "I promised to march with Brendan". This is a man who just lost his son, and he still gets out there and shows his support. It was a display of courage and loyalty to Brendan and his cause. It was the validation I needed. Regardless of how the team performs, I will always be emotionally invested and loyal to them, just as they've shown they were loyal to me.

The following is the text of an actual e-mail I sent off to the CBC during Saturday night's game against Montreal. Another in the long line of Saturday games this year I've been forced to watch on my laptop because the CBC believes the Atlanta Thrashers have a large, strong, and dedicated fanbase everywhere west of Ontario. To put it in context, I'd just gotten back from a trip to work that took ten hours longer than it should have because people higher up that make decisions seem to be making a habbit of making bad decisions these days so I wasn't in all that great a mood to begin with. I also got home just in time to see that the Leafs game wasn't on TV, fire up the computer, and see the Habs score what turned out to be the winning goal. So that didn't help matters.
Anyway, this is the e-mail I sent. I have yet to hear back from them and, frankly, I really doubt I will but it was a nice way to blow off steam. The only thing I regret is that I didn't mention how they should fire Glenn Healy for being a douche and terrible at his job. Next time, I guess.

Dear CBC: Fuck off with the goddamn Jets.

Seriously, no one cares about them. I know you and everybody else all went overboard celebrating “Canada's seventh team” when they relocated, but guess what? After the season started, everybody went back to not caring about them and went back to paying attention to their favourite team. It's almost as if nobody cared about the Atlanta Thrashers for the past ten years and that hasn't changed just because the name and the city have. Sure there might be people in Winnipeg that care about their new team, but that doesn't mean any of the rest of us in the west do. We've already got teams to cheer for and we're not going to simply switch our loyalty just because there's suddenly a team a bit closer. The people that do that are bandwagoners and should be shunned and ridiculed not rewarded with getting to watch “their team” on a weekly basis. Forcing all of us to watch Winnipeg games is like if you had forced everyone in Ontario and Quebec to watch Ottawa Senators games in the early 90s just because they were new and in that general area. Only this is worse because, unlike the Senators, these “Jets” aren't new at all, they're the goddamn Thrashers.

Looked at another way, do you remember when the real Jets were still in Winnipeg? It was a long time ago, but it's pretty much all anyone talks about when the Jets play anybody for the first time. Remember who you showed on Hockey Night In Canada for the whole country to see? Was it the Jets? No, you showed the Leafs game. And that was a Jets team that had Teamu Selanne. What do these Jets have, Nik Antropov? The two best parts of his trade away from Toronto was that a) he wasn't on the Leafs anymore, and b) that now we didn't have to watch him try to play hockey anymore. But seriously, even back in the “good ol' days” that these new Jets are supposed to make everybody remember, you didn't force us to watch them every Saturday, you showed the Leafs game like you're supposed to because that's what everyone wanted to see. Except maybe the people in Winnipeg but they're all dead inside anyway and maybe the few Montreal fans but they're both mentally deficient and have the French CBC channel to watch their games on.

So in conclusion, CBC: fuck off with the goddamn Jets and show the Leafs game like you're supposed to. If you really have to show the Jets on TV, do like you do with the Senators: show them in their specific city and nowhere else because, just like the Senators, no one outside their city cares.

Last year I was made aware of the "I'm 1 in 5" campaign by my oldest brother. There is a fellow by the name of Paulie O'Byrne who has made the decision to roller blade from the Pacific ocean in B.C all the way across Canada to Newfoundland in order to raise money for the cause. What is the cause you may ask? What's the purpose? What's the point of all this? Sadly it's something that one in five males will learn about before they are even 18 years old

The "1 in 5" movement is to raise awareness about sexual abuse in our society. 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 5 boys will be sexually abused before they can even vote. I'm not going to get in to the who's and what's because that's not the point of the post. The post is to raise awareness and let people know about "The Tour" that will be starting July 1st at 9:00 and is gonna go till it ends. In order to raise money and opposed to just soliciting money for donations, lots of of things are available for sale. The eventual total that Paulie is aiming for is $1,000,000. I don't know where they're at and to be honest I don't care. I just want to spread the word.

These are the "Stick stickers" that are available. They have been donated to the London Knights for in game use but I don't know if they've used them as of yet. These are available for $5 a piece

More information after the jump.

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A lot of Leafs fans seem to be awfully disappointed with the team's performance over the past month or two. I think most people knew that the fast start which saw the Leafs leading the Northeast division early in the sesason was a bit of a mirage, but we were all hoping that maybe that fast start would hold up somewhat and give the team a bit of an edge as the season wore on against other teams battling it out in the Eastern Conference for the final few berths. As of this moment, the Leafs have given up that early advantage and are currently one game back of the final playoff spot in the East. Lots of people are bummed out about this, and I can't say that I entirely blame them. At the same time, I wonder if a lot of the fanbase is being kind of impatient right now.

I think people should keep in mind that this is a young, rebuilding team, and that Brian Burke completely gutted the roster a couple of years ago. At the end of Brian Burke's first full season here, with the rebuild in full swing, the Leafs finished 2nd last in the NHL. Only a year and a half later, the Leafs are in a tight battle for the last couple of playoff spots in the conference. That seemed like pretty decent progress to me, but I wanted to know if there was any way to see whether or not that was actually true. So I decided to compare the Leafs to the other bottom-dwellers in the NHL the year they bottomed out and see if their progression was any better than that of other teams that weren't all that good. After the jump, a whole bunch of tables and charts!

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I can't believe they lost that game.... I mean.... wow. The Sens. COMEON!!! On the second night of a back to back, after they get shutout by the Jets at home, they walk into the ACC, kick a puck in, Nick Foligno goes low on Dion Phaneuf. The Battle of Ontario is back on.

The good news is that the last time the Leafs and Sens were playing meaningful games, the Sens dominated in the regular season, but we always got em in the playoffs. Let's hope that history is repeating itself.

You can't convince me that Ottawa is good. Yes the Walrus is a good coach, god knows I'd back check for that moustache. But that doesn't change the fact that the Sens are just no fucking good at hockey!

I won't be surprised if Burke pulls the trigger before I wake up tomorrow, he's probably calling Anaheim threating to rent a barn unless Ryan Getzlaf is on a plane to Toronto.

Why is Matthew Lombardi playing over Nazem Kadri? Sure he's got great wheels but that's about it. Hell I'd rathar see Matt Frattin out there, either way! What I saw tonight, Lombardi did a good job skating with the puck, but took shots from far out, with little to no traffic often resulting in the play going the other way, with his speed he has oppourtunites to make plays, and I know he scored but that was a brutal goal that just doesn't go in very often in the NHL.

That loss really sucks, don't blame James Reimer, hopefully he gets a few starts, this team just needs to get better, that game was a should win.

Other trade targets: I wouldn't mind if Travis Moen came to town, good bottom 4/5 player with some size and toughness.

Tim Gleason would be nice, especially if we end up dealing Luke Schenn, which I'm in favour of, if of course, the value is there. I wouldn't be upset if Mike Komisarek never suited up in the Blue and White again. Not that I think he's that terrible but there are a lot of other guys that can do a better job out there for a lot less than 4.5.

Would Carolina part ways with Eric Staal? That'd be great, obviously not cheap, I don't even know what it would take or if Carolina would even consider dealing him.

Obviously JVR or Bobby Ryan would be awesome but I'm not sure what the likeyhood on either of them is.

Other trade candidates? Who would you like to see?