Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Making a case for Finger.

Let me first preface this post by stating that due to Jeff Finger`s salary and cap issues, the AHL seems to be his destination this year.  If you remove the salary from the evaluation process, Jeff Finger is an asset to the Maple Leaf defense.  Jeff Finger brings an element to his game that is not easy to find and hard to teach, shot blocking.

Three Montreal defenders were in the top 30 of shot blocking defenseman for 2009-10.  Lead by Josh Gorges, Roman Hamarlik and Hal Gil these players made life difficult for the opposition team to score. Boston`s Dennis Seidenberg was the leader in shot blocking with 215 spanning 79 regular season games (BkS/GP = 2.72).

Toronto has some quality shot blockers this year with Mike Komisarek and Francois Beauchemin.  A lesser know shot blocker is Jeff Finger.  Like Komisarek, Jeff Finger played a reduced number of games so you will not see his name in the top 30.  Last season, the blocked shots per game played (BkS/GP) statistics had Jeff Finger as the leader at 2.15, followed by Francois Beauchemin at 1.89, Komisarek with 1.82 and Carl Gunnarson at 1.79 block shots per game.

In 2008-09 the league leader was Zbynek Michalek with 271 (BkS/GP = 3.30) blocked shots.  Mike Komisarek was fourth blocking 207 (BkS/GP = 3.14) and Jeff Finger was eighteenth with 158 (BkS/GP = 2.39).  Beauchemin was injured and played a very small number of games.

If Schenn can learn from Komisarek and Beauchemin, he could easily start to solidify his role as a shut down defenseman in the NHL.  Carl Gunnarson has a head start over Schenn in shot blocking.  Komisarek had lower numbers in shot blocking last year and Leaf fans can hope to see Komisarek return to higher shot blocking totals from previous years.  The Maple Leafs defense have the players that can perform well in the shot blocking and need to execute better once the season starts.  Having three top 30 shot blockers did wonders for Montreal and if Toronto could get four defensemen in the top 30, that could be magical.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Kadri, a work in progress.

Not every first round selection makes it to the NHL and some do not even start playing until years after they are drafted.  Good management knows rushing prospects too early will only hurt the player and not give them a chance to develop to full potential or even succeed at the NHL level.

Take for example Ryan Geztlaf, drafted 1st round, 19th overall in 2003 NHL entry draft.  After being drafted, his next two seasons in the WHL showed steady improvement  that eventually helped Ryan into a successful AHL playoffs.  He started the next year in the AHL playing only 17 games before being called up by Anaheim and playing 57 games in the NHL.  The same could be said for Bozak who despite having a good pre-season was sent to the AHL Marlies and played extremely well in 32 games.  This eventually lead to a late season call to the NHL and 37 successful games later.  To ask Kadri to excel in his first year right out of the OHL is not only unrealistic, but could hurt his development.  A proven path would be to let Kadri audition with the Marlies and then call him up to the NHL towards the end of the season.  For anyone to call Kadri a failure or bust for not having a successful pre-season is wrong and grossly misinformed.  Remember how Stamkos received the same treatment of being heavily criticized in the first half of his first season with Tampa Bay.  Critics will always be critics.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Sloppy Game still produces win in pre-season.

The Leafs regulars faced off against a depleted Buffalo Sabres on Monday night at the ACC.  On this night, it was a chance for Leaf coach Ron Wilson to get his players to play together and learn/execute the new systems for the new year.

This pre-season game was a chance for the power play to get much needed practise, and it was successful going 1-1 in only 45 seconds of PP time.  That would be the first of two goals for Kessel on the night.  Sadly, the Sabres PP was equal to the task going 2-4.  Schenn was victimized for a penalty shot that Gustavsson was not able to stop the crafty Gerbe for his second goal of the night.

Game Summary: A sloppy defensive game for the Leafs that can be corrected over time.  Offense, not easy to coach, was perfect on the power play.  Chemistry on the 1st and 2nd lines are positive signs.  Hanson brought another element to his game showing grit and determination that saw him pound the puck home from the slot with authority on the Leaf fourth goal midway in the third period..  Some of the goals against Gustavsson were soft and not customary for Jonas to give up.  Jonas will need to take the positives from his game and work on the other elements that were lacking.  To be fair, if not for the penalty shot and the poorly executed penalty kills as a result of sloppy defense, Buffalo only manged one even strength goal by Leopold in the second period.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Mike Komisarek test drives NHL 11

Mike Komisarek has taken to twitter like a pro and has not stopped at social networking.  He was video taped in the The Score studio playing the new NHL 11 video with some unsuspecting visitors.

Here are the links.


Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Leafs Starting Lineup Prediction

This is only a prediction given the recent flurry of signings by Brian Burke



NOTE: I believe Kadri will be served better if he learns to develop his defensive game in the AHL to start the season.  That is why I have omitted him.