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We all know that Vesa Toskala had a bad season last year and is having an even worse season this year, but how bad is Toskala historically? The short answer is he is probably having the worse season by any goalie in recent history. It is generally believed that the best simple statistic for evaluating [...]

It seems everyone believes that the Leafs newest goalie, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, is being brought in to help ease Gustavsson’s transition into a starting NHL goalie and act as a veteran mentor and tutor for the remainder of this season and next. But should we really assume that both Giguere and Gustavsson will be Leafs next [...]

Ok, let’s have a little speculative fun. The Leafs, Hurricanes and Oilers are the only teams in definitive selling mode as we approach the Olympic break and subsequent trade deadline and with the way things are going there may not be all that many other sellers out there. So for now, let’s stick with these [...]

I have been picking on Howard Berger a lot recently, but I won’t say much here. I think his words speak for themselves. September 30th, 2009

My own sense is that the Leafs will improve, but not quite enough to sneak into the playoffs. … TORONTO… 90 pts (9th)

November 2nd, 2009

Exactly one month of the 2009-10 National [...]

I think it is time that I come out and express my opinion on the Leafs season so far. The Leafs are currently sitting in 14th spot in the east with 44 points in 52 games thanks to a dismal 17-25-10 record. Now I know that many of you are loving that my prediction of the [...]

One of the reasons I started this blog 4+ years ago was to dispel some of the myths and utter nonsense that the main stream media, and subsequently hockey fans, spew. Most specifically about the Maple Leafs, but about hockey in general as well. There are a number of other good bloggers that from time [...]

Fist off, I was recently interviewed by Robin Keith Thompson of Chiller Instinct (and also a long time contributor to and friend of HockeyAnalysis.com, currently in the Phoenix blog ). In the interview we discuss mostly the Blackhawks and the value of their quality third line of Madden, Brouwer and Ladd. Check it out. Now on to the Leafs. [...]

It has been a pretty dismal season for Maple Leaf fans so far. At times they have played downright awful, and lost, and at times they have played quite well, and still lost. They probably deserve to have a better record than they do, but not a lot has gone right for them this season. [...]

Back in the summer the NHL presented the names of Toronto Argonaut co-owners Howard Sokolowski and David Cynamon as an interested group in purchasing the Phoenix Coyotes. Later it was rumoured that these two potentially joined up with the Ice Edge Holdings Inc. group which would purchase the Coyotes. Today we hear that the two [...]

The NHL has never backed away from talking itself up and it recently issued a press release that did just that. Much of the press release highlighted the increase in television ratings and increased traffic to NHL.com but there was some discussion on NHL attendance levels.

-Through Oct. 21, attendance increased or remained even for 18 [...]

Yesterday the NHL, Moyes, and the other creditors were in court before bankruptcy judge Redfield T. Baum and they have apparently come to an arrangement that will see the NHL purchase the Coyotes.  The intention of the NHL is to secure the Coyotes and then quickly flip them to another potential owner interested in keeping [...]

So the word out of Phoenix last night was that the announced attendance for the Coyotes game was 6,899 but that probably more like 5000 people actually showed up. Clearly attendance in Phoenix is going to be a major issue this year, but it won’t just be Phoenix if early attendance numbers are any indication. [...]

Last week I wrote on the worst team money can buy and in honour of Canadian Thanksgiving I figured I would write up a similar article this time discussing all the players we can be thankful are on our team because they provide good value for their salary. The NHL salary floor is $40.8 million so [...]

While reading Greg Wyshynski’s article on CapGeek.com, it got me thinking, what are the most over paid players in the NHL? I later refined that question to be, what is the worst team money can buy? By that I mean, if one built a team out using current players and their salary cap hits, what is the [...]

Here are my eastern conference predictions: 1. Washington, 109pts – This is a bit of a gamble that the Capitals are going to get good enough goaltending from Theodore and Varlamov, but if they do, 109 points is easily within their reach. They had the pure offensive stars last season and I think that the singing [...]

Here are my western conference predictions. Eastern conference predictions to come later this afternoon. 1. San Jose, 113pts – They have lost some depth but added a big time scorer in Dany Heatley. I am not sure if they will be a better team, or most importantly for San Jose fans, a better team in the [...]

I am sure you have all heard by now that Judge Baum has issued a ruling in the Phoenix bankruptcy case. In short his ruling states that he cannot award Balsillie the team and allow it to relocate to Hamilton because over ruling the NHL’s ability to choose its owners and the locations of the franchises [...]

I am going to come out with complete 2009-10 season predictions for the eastern and western conferences later today or tomorrow but for now let me focus on my favourite team, the Maple Leafs. Coming out of training camp there is a lot to be optimistic about the Leafs future. Nazem Kadri showed very well [...]