J.P. Nikota

Well, today is the day that Matt Stajan and Niklas Hagman make their first appearance as opponents against the Leafs, and the same goes for Dion Phaneuf and Fredrik Sjostrom against the Flames. It'd be nice if Aulie could play and have a good showing, but the lineup

What do you say after a loss like that? The Leafs were embarrassed everywhere on the ice with the exception of about five minutes in the third period where Tyler Bozak and Mikhail Grabovski scored, and made it briefly look like we were headed for another comeback. Although on paper,

There is no shortage of opinions stemming from last night's embarrassment of the mighty Capitals. I can only hope that the Leafs have saved some of their David vs. Goliath routine for the upcoming game against Pittsburgh, because I don't want to read this many game

When I last wrote an update of my work on Zone Hit Ratio to measure the pressure our defense is under, I finished the article by noting that giveaways are probably hurting this team more than any dependance the Leafs might have on their defense to recover pucks. A Plea

Tonight the Leafs take on a young Edmonton Oilers team that has won two in a row. If the Leafs are going tostand much of a chance of making the playoffs, these are the kinds of games that they absolutely need to win. Of course, it's not impossible

ZHR is back, with a much larger sample size. This time, I've included each team's first twenty games. As I explained in my earlier post, ZHR is an attempt to isolate defensive work done by a team. Basically, it counts all of the hits given and

Our friend Steven Stamkos is back in town tonight, and the Leafs need to figure out how to stop him. It's crunch time in Toronto; they currently sit 13th in the East, seven"> // --> points out of a playoff spot, and need to string some

Leaf writers all over the Barilkosphere are reflecting back on the first quarter of the season, and how this Leaf team stacks up to last year's squad. There are plenty of bright spots, including the MacArthur-Grabovski-Kulemin line, Schenn's development, Gustavsson's emergence, and the team&

Not much in the way of Leaf news today, aside from a couple articles by James Mirtle at the Globe and Mail that I got a kick out of. It seems that Brett Lebda is feeling just a tad left out. "I thought I was playing pretty well, but

A common observation in last night's GDT was that the Leafs' defense was keeping Dallas shooters to the outside and blocking a lot of shots. Of course, when a Stars' player did manage to get a good chance, Jonas Gustavsson was very solid in goal, and

Editor's Note: One of the strengths of this site aside from Chemmy's funny faces, my squishy cheeks, MF37's rampant pessimism, and SkinnyFish's satiny beard is the community. Whenever a void has opened up there has beensomeone eager to step in to help