Analysis

On the surface, most Leaf fans would argue Phil Kessel. He leads the team with 5 goals and 7 points, and he's definitely the team's most highly skilled offensive forward. Tyler Bozak is the Leaf's nominal top centre ice man, and Kris Versteegthe team&

So far the Leafs are 4-0-0 on the season, and Leafs nation is frothing itself up into a ball of wonderous joy.  I don't really find this to be upsetting, and lord knows we deserve a dose of fun at the expense of the rest of the NHL,

In our collective obsession with the Leafs, we may have lost sight a tad of the rest of the NHL (in our rear-view! HIGH FIVE!).  We still fixate a bit on Ottawa and Montreal, and revel in their weakness, but frankly the rest of the East is nothing to overlook.

There has been and will continue to be a lot of articles talking about ranking players and teams by how well do they on the ice; goals, points, wins, etc... That's boring. Nobody cares about those kind of stats. What people really want to know is stuff like

So as of today the Leafs will likely have over $5 million in cap space, assuming Jeff Finger clears waivers and is successfully demoted to the AHL's Toronto Marlies. While it is entirely possible the brain-trust at MLSE is happy to have Finger waiting in the wings as

So looking forward to tonight's resumption of the battle of Ontario, I thought I'd provide the viewing public with a few statistical areas to keep an eye on in case the game doesn't keep them interested enough.  I'm putting the info in

October is high on the minds of many Leafs fans for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the drop of the puck for the 2010-11 NHL regular season.  It also includes the first 10 game stretch of the NHL season, which is what basically sank the

Tomas Kaberle makes a cross ice pass like you wouldn't believe

Video review of how the Toronto Maple Leafs managed to score a goal.

Phil Kessel scores! But how did he do it?

For those of you that don't know, I'm the head coach a squirt hockey team in Connecticut. We're not the greatest hockey team there is, and we may very well be the worst but the kids are coachable and you really see drastic improvement

The other day I posted about Delta SOT scores for the Leafs forwards based on the previous 3 seasons in the NHL.  The stat (an invention of Puck Prospectus' Tom Awad) serves to measure the +/- rating on scoring chance generation or allowance while a given player is on

Tom Awad at Puck Prospectus has been making a habit out of adding interesting statistics to the tool kit with which NHL fans can assess their respective clubs.  GVT is a useful counting stat that gives us an idea of a player's value and contribution to the team

So earlier today I was surfing through some of the fan-posts, and struck upon the one regarding Phil Kessel's production expectations for next year.  The summary basically concluded he'll produce goals, and all will be fine... go Phil.  It was a decent piece of work, but

Between long weekends, the end of the school year, my wedding, the start of summer school, and the general hustle and bustle of life, I haven't had much time to sit down and reflect upon what the Leafs have done over the past week and a bit.  Since

Last off-season I posted an analysis of the Leafs individual players based on Zone Shift.  The concept draws on the information from Gabe Desjardins' behindthenet.ca site, specifically Zone Start and Zone Finish locations, with a couple of modifications. The way that Gabe tabulates Zone Starts is self explanatory

According to a report I read earlier today, the main issue Brian Burke has with paying Nikolai Kulemin $3 million dollars a year is he believes it's too high a dollar mark to commit to for a player of his limited NHL experience. Is that really the way

Much attention has been devoted over the past half season to the UFA market this year.  Names like Kovalchuk, Marleau, and Plekanec have all been tossed around as possible scoring forwards to aid what ails the Leafs - a lack of offensive production. The Leafs do also have some RFAs

Last week our attention was piqued by the story coming out of Chicago that Marian Hossa and his agent, Rich Winter, had selected Chicago on the basis of a regression algorithm that had allowed them to winnow down the respective teams in the NHL that would attain 100 points in

On day three of the IIHF World Championships three games featuring Leaf players took place.  Belarus defeated Kazakhstan 5-2, Russia defeated Slovakia 3-1, and Sweden defeated Norway 5-2.  Leafs featured on the score sheet in all three games so let's check out how they did shall we? Belarus:

Here's some more info/background on the Leafs players and prospects playing at the World Championships.  I will post more as the tournament progresses, so stay tuned. Christian Hanson - USA: So far in 1 game, Hanson fired the shot that was put in by Ryan Carter for

The LG Hockey Games are currently underway and they do a good job of acting as a tune up for the IIHF World Hockey Championships as they conclude 5 days before the larger World Championship begins in Germany.  Participation in the LG games is limited to Sweden, Finland, Russia, and

If you were to ask my opinion, I'd say no... he shouldn't.  Here is my logic: 1) The Leafs lack for scoring depth as things are, and Grabovski is actually one of their most polished offensive players. 2) Despite a lack of size, he is easily

In the words of Freddy Mercury: "another one's gone, another one bites the dust."  The 2009-10 season ended on a partially high note and the Leafs concluded things the way they couldn't begin them by defeating Montreal in OT.  While the game itself didn&

Reports have begun to surface regarding players being asked to join the Canadian contingent at the IIHF World Hockey Championships.  The tournament begins on May 8th in Germany and the Canadian team is being managed by Mark Messier and coached by his ex-Oiler teammate Craig MacTavish. According to a report