Belfour Plays Jekyll and Hyde In Leaf Victory

The Leafs saw two different versions of Ed Belfour in last night’s game against the Bruins. The first version which lasted for the first two periods and a good portion of the third was the shaky, aged looking Belfour that we have seen more often than not to begin this season. The second version we saw was the Belfour of old and then some as the Leaf netminder found a new level of determination late in the third when he simply refused to let the Bruins score any additional goals. The game was the first of eight matches between the two teams this season and the first half of a home and home series with the second portion coming Thursday in Boston.

After a fine start to last night’s game in which he made several major league saves to preserve the Leafs 2-0 lead at the end of twenty minutes of play, Belfour seemed to lose focus in the second period and resorted back to his concerning trends he has shown to begin this season. At the eleven minute mark of the second period, Glen Murray, an often dangerous sniper, took a one timed rather lethargic wrist shot for his standards from the top of the circle and it beat Belfour who seemed to be almost surprised by the shot. Caught off his angle, Belfour only managed to get a piece of the shot as it trickled past him to give the Bruins the lead in the game at that point.

Later in the third period, Eric Lindros inexplicably played the puck back over his blueline in the direction of Wade Belak. After being unable to collect the pass, both Belak and Belfour gave pursuit as the puck rolled off into the corner. However with the new restrictions on goaltenders’ ability to play the puck, Belfour realized he could not, without taking a minor penalty, play it up to Belak who had positioned himself on the sideboards for a pass. Instead Belfour attempted to retreat in a hurry but was unable to get back in position before former Leaf first round pick Brad Boyes tucked the puck into the empty net.

Perhaps shaken by this mental error, Belfour raced out of his crease after the Boyes goal to get to a few shoot ins before allowing them into the restricted area that otherwise would have gone for icings. Yet again, more mental errors. Just when it seemed the Leafs were about to disintegrate by taking two late penalties that put them down two men for forty eight seconds to close out the third period and, should they manage to get the game to overtime, would see them shorthanded for all but one minute and forty eight seconds of the extra frame, the Eagle of old began lurking in the Toronto crease.

Almost single handedly, Belfour killed off the remaining forty eight seconds of the third period and bailed the Leafs out of the overtime period as well giving his team the opportunity to win the game in the shootout. Inevitably, the Leafs would win the shootout on the strength of a goal by Eric Lindros and three more timely saves from Belfour. In total, Belfour would turn aside forty nine shots.

With so much new about the game, it is the goalies that are required to make the most difficult adjustments. The larger offensive zones and less room behind the net throw off the angles that netminders rely on so heavily to be successful now in a league where every player can shoot the puck hard. Players shoot too hard to rely on reflexes alone, so for veteran goaltenders like Belfour with so many games under their belt, it is almost as though they are fish out of water until they can readjust themselves.

If this is not enough, the equipment size has been reduced leaving goalies with another adjustment to be made. Many will say what difference does an inch of width on pads make? For goaltenders as precise as Belfour is, it makes all the difference in the world.

The smaller equipment combined with the larger zones and the hard shots mean the goalies now have to move faster to cover the same distance they would have covered the last time the NHL played. Essentially, it is the same as enlarging the nets. If the league had of implemented that proposed change instead, the goalies would have had to move faster to cover a larger area. The changes to the zone size and equipment size, in essence enlarge the net without physically enlarging the net, but many simply do not understand this fact. Fans will only watch, see what they perceive to be weak goaltending, then go out and criticize a suddenly useless Ed Belfour. Folks, Belfour is not going to just get bad over night.

It is time we all cut Belfour and the other netminders around the league a bit of slack. It is a simple reality and any casual hockey fan should be able to see it: everything done to improve the game impacts the goalies in a negative fashion. Whether all the members of the goaltending fraternity can adjust remains to be seen but with the performance Belfour turned in last night, there is little doubt in my mind that the Eagle will once again be the guy to lead the Leafs deep into the postseason.

Leafs Thrash The Thrashers

Any concerns about the Leafs’ offensive ability, goaltending, power play, penalty killing or team character after a 9-1 shellacking of the Atlanta Thrashers should now be non issues. A game, that was a good one for about thirty minutes, turned into a disgrace for the Atlanta Thrashers, both because of the outcome on the scoreboard and the way in which they conducted themselves as the game fell far out of reach in the third period.

The Thrashers began taking liberties with the Leafs halfway through the third period. Lindros was felled by a flying elbow along the side boards leaving him unhappy but otherwise seemingly alright. The hit sparked a full scale brawl which saw each player on the ice involved and ended after a linesman was thrown to the ice by a slightly too agitated Thrasher. Next, Tucker was run headfirst at full speed into the end boards leaving him with a large gash above his left eye. Jason Allison jumped in and engaged in a fight in Tucker’s defense. Andy Sutton was issued a match penalty for intent to injure which carries with it an automatic suspension for his role in the hit. Finally, Nik Antropov was the victim of a shot to the head from Patrick Stefan leaving him with a cut under his left eye.

Coach Pat Quinn was incensed after the conclusion of the game suggesting Atlanta coach Bob Hartley is responsible for his team’s conduct because of his reputation as a headhunting coach. The fact is though there is absolutely no place in the game for the kind of behaviour Atlanta displayed. For a league trying to rebuild its image in the wake of the lockout, the NHL should come down hard on the Thrasher players responsible for this nonsense because it was frankly a disgrace.

The Leafs offense found another gear and with the help of phenomenal performances by Darcy Tucker, Jason Allison, Jeff O’Neill and Bryan McCabe were very effective both at even strength and with the man advantage. After starting slowly to begin the year, the Leafs power play has come to life. Once all the NHL statistics are updated to include Friday’s games, the Leafs’ power play, with seven power player markers alone against the Thrashers, will undoubtedly be among the more efficient in the league.

Ed Belfour recorded his first win of the season with a fine performance, overshadowed by the issues later in the game. After a few subpar efforts to begin the season, Belfour showed his competitive nature by bouncing back and holding the Leafs in the game until they were able to pull away midway through the second period.

The Leafs take on the Montreal Canadiens tonight at Air Canada Centre. The lineup may look quite different than the one that started last night in Atlanta due to the injuries to Tucker, Antropov, and Kilger, all which will likely be game time decisions. Wade Belak and Tie Domi face possible suspensions stemming from their actions in last night’s altercation. Nevertheless, it is a crucial game for the Leafs with Montreal sitting only two points ahead going into tonight’s match up.

Leafs Right The Ship Against The Flyers

As the Leafs had again played their opponent into a deadlock after two periods of play, the Leafs were not about to let another game get away from them in the third period. The Leafs came out strong in the third and played arguably their strongest period of this young season, scoring two goals and shutting the Flyers down to register their first win of the season. Again, there were many positives, aside from the win itself to grow on, and that is paramount for the Leafs as they continue to make their way through the schedule without Mats Sundin.

Sundin had some good news come his way today after the fracture he suffered to his orbital bone last week was said to be not displaced upon further examination. That means Sundin will be able to avoid surgery to fix the injury however an outlook for his return still remains somewhat murky.

Mikael Tellqvist received his first action of the season tonight as he took care of the goaltending in the second game of the Leafs’ back to back contests to begin the week. Along with his brand new equipment, Tellqvist had a sensational debut tonight looking like a grizzled veteran for a team desperately in need of a strong net minding performance. During a stretch of about ten minutes during the second period, the Leafs were dominated by the Flyers but with several big stops and consistent play, Tellqvist managed to hold the Leafs in the game.

Jason Allison and Eric Lindros had outstanding performances tonight as they continue to fill the void in Sundin’s absence. Playing all night against Primeau and Forsberg, Allison and Lindros shut down the Flyers top two lines while providing an offensive contribution of their own.

Up next, the Leafs face the newly bolstered lineup of the Atlanta Thrashers this coming Friday. After a contract dispute, Ilya Kovalchuk and the Thrashers agreed to terms which should see the sniper in the lineup.

Third Try, Same Result

For the third game in a row, the Maple Leafs held a third period lead but again, they were not able to find a way to maintain that lead until the end of the game. Instead, the Leafs gave up the tying goal on a bad angle shot, a shot which Ed Belfour saves more often than not, and as like the result on opening day, the Leafs succumb to the Senators in a shootout. Now three games into the season without a victory, the Leafs are up against three more difficult opponents to close out the week with games against Philadelphia, Atlanta and Montreal this coming Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Ed Belfour, essentially the cornerstone to any success this Leafs team may have this season, looked shaky for the second game in a row tonight allowing three questionable goals. Uncharacteristically, Belfour seemed to be fighting the puck although the Leafs’ defense has certainly been anything but effective in the past two games. Backup Mikael Tellqvist may see his first action of the season tomorrow night in the second game of the Leafs’ back to back games.

Despite another disappointing result, there were some positives to draw on from tonight’s game. Eric Lindros continued his strong play of late showing a physical presence throughout the game. Tomas Kaberle easily had his best game of the year registering three assists and a plus one rating. Chad Kilger, Clarke Wilm, and Tie Domi also made strong contributions.

Tomorrow night, the Leafs will face no easy task as the Philadelphia Flyers will attempt to prevent them from picking up that elusive first win.

Leafs Let Third Period Lead Slip Away

For the second game in a row, the Toronto Maple Leafs held a third period lead, tonight against the Montreal Canadiens, but were unable to seal the deal on a victory. The Canadiens, on the strength of a performance worthy of the game’s first star from Captain Saku Koivu, scored two late goals giving the Habs the win and sending Leaf fans home with a bitter taste in their collective mouths. That is two times now that the Leafs have been right there with victories staring them in the face but have ultimately squandered these late leads, a trend that Coach Pat Quinn will undoubtedly do his best to ensure does not continue.

A good start for Quinn would see him break up the pairing of Aki Berg and Wade Belak on defense, a tandem that was on the ice for four of the Canadiens’ goals. As the game wore on, Quinn began using the aforementioned pair more sparingly in favour of Kaberle and McCabe. In the end, McCabe and Kaberle played close to thirty minutes each and with back to back games coming up for the Leafs on Monday and Tuesday, McCabe and Kaberle could start to wear out themselves.

Toronto’s young guns had another strong showing with both Matt Stajan and Alex Steen registering their first goals of the season. It seemed like every time they were on the ice, they were making something happen. They were effective on the on penalty kill and Stajan’s goal came on the power play. For their effective play, Quinn rewarded them by putting them on the ice with a minute left in an attempt to tie the game.

The Leafs have no easy games on the horizon as they take on the Senators and Flyers this coming Monday and Tuesday in back to back matchups. Rest assured that if the Leafs do not manage a win in either of their next two upcoming games, the collective fingers of the Leaf Nation will surely be pressing the panic button.

Alfredsson Lead Sens Past Leafs

At long last, a conspicuous absence at Air Canada Centre for well over five hundred days vanished tonight as the Toronto Maple Leafs finally returned to action in the season opener against their archrival, the Ottawa Senators. Before a capacity crowd and a playoff-like atmosphere, the two teams played a very tight, competitive game: a typical Leafs vs. Senators matchup. In the end, it was the Senators taking the win in historic fashion as they defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first shootout in NHL history. The fact that Toronto and Ottawa played in the first NHL shootout is somewhat fitting as in 1922, the two teams competed in the game that saw the NHL’s first tie, the aspect of the game the shootout has replaced.

The Leafs showed they were a competitive team capable of battling teams with a methodical approach to the game. With the loss of Mats Sundin early in the first period to an injury, which has been reported as a laceration to the area around the eye, the Leafs did a good job of staying in the game with sound defensive play and a noticeable focus on taking care of the defensive zone first. However, against a team as offensively gifted as the Ottawa Senators, it is difficult to shut them down for an entire game. The Senators two goals, both scored by Daniel Alfredsson, came on defensive breakdowns by the Leafs which will certainly be addressed by Pat Quinn before Saturday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens.

Jason Allison and Eric Lindros, two of the Leafs’ major off season acquisitions, played well in their Leafs debut and will have to keep up their strong play over the next few weeks in the absence of Mats Sundin. Allison looked comfortable on the power play and will undoubtedly bring much success to that aspect of the game as the season wears on. Lindros, who seemed to improve as the game went on, was a major physical presence and scored the Leafs second goal.

It was a very comforting outcome for a legion of fans unsure about the type of team they were getting out of the 2005-2006 edition of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Despite the loss, the Leafs showed they can certainly compete against a team that many predict to be the representative of the Eastern Conference in this year’s Stanley Cup Final. Not to worry Leafs fans, our boys will be in good shape this year.