The Importance of Mikhail Grabovski
When the Maple Leafs re-signed John-Michael Liles, the prevailing thought was that Mikhail Grabovski was about to become a cap casualty. Liles took less than $4 million to stay in Toronto, putting next year’s cap space at slightly over $11 million. The problem was that Keith Aulie, Cody Franson, and Nikolai Kulemin become restricted free agents in line for raises, and Jonas Gustavsson becomes an unrestricted free agent.
Grabovski will likely make close to $5 million, so to keep Grabovski in the fold the Leafs need some creative cap management, especially if they hope to make other improvements to the squad.
Because of the shrinking cap space and Grabovski’s soon-to-be free agent status, his name has inevitably popped up in trade rumours. And unless there’s some unlikely fantasy scenario where Ryan Getzlaf comes back the other way, in no way does a Grabovski deal help the Leafs.
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Leafs at the All-Star Break
The Leafs entered the all-star break with two straight wins against the Islanders, they sit in 9th in the east tied with both Florida and New Jersey in points but those two teams sit ahead of the Leafs in 7th & 8th for the moment. The Leafs exit the break with back to back games against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Two crucial games to try and stay within the hunt for that playoff spot.
Let’s breakdown some stats, with some positives and negatives.
The Leafs sit in 24th in goals against, a stat that must be improved, the long stretches being hemmed in their own zone has to be corrected along with those giveaways at the their own blue line, if and when these are addressed and fixed, then those goals against will come down, consistent goaltending will also help the cause. I don’t think I even have to mention the penalty kill, we all know, right?. The power play has dried up as well, with Liles coming back soon that may improve it and get it back to where it was before his concussion.
What Will Happen With This Site
I left Hockeybuzz as a ref and a poster last week because I found the conversations so repetitive, the same fights over and over again, I needed to get away. I couldn’t join in the conversations as hard as I tried to get in them. I started to feel like an outsider at times. I took so much abuse in Personal Messages from people that were banned that it wasn’t worth it any more. I did however meet a lot of great people and I’m glad I can call them friends on that site. Some posters from HB came here from time to time to comment on the blogs, but I knew it was time to move on. I shared some good stories and I will miss those. So what does that have to do with this site?
Working from home, taking care of my daughter and being on HB had really limited my time that I could be on Leafs 4 Life. I started L4L for you guys, I have incurred all the expenses to host and maintain this site mainly because of my love for hockey and the Leafs. I will keep this site going but I need some help, not in the monetary sense but in the blogger and participation way. We need to grow this just a little more. So I need you guys to start writing some blogs or helping me attract some people who would like to contribute some content. I basically need you guys to help do some recruiting.
I will update all new additions to the Leafs organization, stats, etc… to this site and keep that part current. Please help me out with the rest, I would really appreciate it.
As some of you may know I have a new addition to my family who needs some extra attention right now, she is my main priority as my wife and I are trying to get her acclimated to her new life with us. It’s been two of the greatest weeks of my life with Kaitlyn mixed in with a bad week at HB. To all the regulars here, I thank you for sticking with the site, to all others who may be passing by, please let me know if you would like to blog or even to just join the site and leave a comment. In time we can build a solid community of great posters and bloggers. Thanks for reading.
-LeafMan-
Should We be Optimistic?
The idea for this blog came to me after a couple of weeks studying comments on a few hockey web sites, reading many blogs and of course watching the games. I found myself asking the same question over and over again, do we really as Leafs fans have a reason to be optimistic this season and beyond?
More than four years ago the outlook was bleak, I can remember the deplorable words in my eyes written plenty of times on various web sites and blogs, “it’s time to tank or the Leafs should sell off all players and tank”. As a hockey fan it exacerbated me to think a team would conducts itself in this manner, how anyone could want their team to intentionally tank a season is foreign to me, it circumvents the true meaning of having honour and integrity, the organization and players should feel absolute pride when they put on that Leaf jersey and not do a discourtesy to the logo, the fans and the city.
So this brings me to today, do I feel optimistic about the Leafs? Well yes and no.
2011-2012 Season Opener - Leafs vs Habs
The start of the season begins tonight and with it comes new hope that the Leafs are in at least contention for a playoff spot. New additions to the roster this season are J.M. Liles, Matthew Lombardi, Cody Franson, Jake Gardiner, Matt Frattin, David Seckel and Injured Tim Connolly.
Last year’s record gets wiped from the standings as the Leafs take on the Montreal Canadiens, the Habs will be without their perennial injured defenseman Andrei Markov.
One key area that I will focus on is specialty teams,with new assistant coaches Scott Gordon and Greg Cronin now in place, I hope we don’t see the same old bad habits, bad positioning on the penalty kill, for me, the tone for the entire season is defensive zone coverage which we will be paramount for a successful season. The powerplay is another key area that needs improvement.
Close eyes will be on Jake Gardiner, who had a terrific pre season, Liles on the powerplay and Matt Frattin, who impressed with his three zone play during the Exhibition games. Buckle up, with the Leafs you just don’t know what you will get from game to game.
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