Last night the Toronto Maple Leafs went head-to-head with the New York Rangers, a team that, while missing a few key pieces to their offense, is still a dangerous team. The Maple Leafs played a spirited game, but as was the case when they lost to the New York Islanders earlier in the week, were unable to capitalize on numerous scoring chances, leading to a 2-1 loss and serving as a reminder that, as good as the early going has been for the Maple Leafs thus far, every game is going to be a battle. One of the highlights of the Maple Leafs young season has been the play of veteran goaltender J.S. Giguere, who, after four starts, boasts an impressive 1.96 goals against average and a modest .911 save percentage. Given Giguere’s steady play early on, the fact that

Exactly two weeks into the 2010-2011 NHL Season, the Carolina Hurricanes hold the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference Standings and the third slot in the Southeastern Division with six points on three wins and three losses. Their mediocre record is misleading, however. In fact, the ‘Canes are off to a very promising start considering that they are starting four rookies, led by a 27-year-old captain, are the fourth-youngest team in the league and have not yet played a game within a 650-mile radius of the RBC Center. Their two franchise cornerstones, center and captain Eric Staal and goaltender Cam Ward, have stepped up and taken leading roles as the Hurricanes move through a brutal opening stretch. Staal, who was held without a point in the ‘Canes two NHL Premiere games, now has three goals—one short-handed—and three assists in his last

A long, long time ago, in a very different hockey era, goaltenders like Johnny Bower A.K.A “The China Wall,” Glen Hall and Gump Worsley patented the poke-check, of which Bower was clearly the master. The move involved the goalie (usually sans-mask) throwing themselves and their goalie sticks at opposing forwards in an effort to dislodge the puck from the forwards stick—a skill that, for whatever reason, has long been absent from today’s NHL. Known as a scrappy, hard working goaltender, Bower used the poke check effectively to foil opposing forwards on breakaway’s and penalty shots alike, establishing himself as the best in the business. Last winter Louis Pisano (a fellow BR writer) and I sat down with Hockey Hall Of Famer Johnny Bower on our show “Get The Puck Out” (WATCH HERE: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4027353 where we were able to ask Mr.

Numerous rumor mills are suggesting that the Ottawa Senators and Minnesota Wild are kicking the tires on a trade scenario, leaving many NHL experts to speculate on a number of possible scenarios. The Senators are off to one of their worst starts in the history of the franchise, going a paltry 1-4-1 in their first six games, leaving them in a toe for last place with the fledgling New Jersey Devils, who also own a 1-4-1 record. Heading into Thursday night’s game action the Sens own the 26th ranked power play, 17th ranked penalty kill and still have all kinds of question between the pipes. On-again, off-again sniper Alex Kovalev is yet to find his stride (again) and many of the Senators top prospects just don’t look anywhere near ready to compete at the level general manager Bryan Murray needs

Last week the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers squared off in what eventually became a very closely contested match. While most of the attention was on the scoreboard, one could not ignore the fact that the most hated man in the NHL (Sean Avery) two-handed Maple Leafs defenseman Mike Komisarek in the ankle, not once, but twice and got away with it. As much as Komisarek would likely love to extract a measure of revenge on Avery I suspect he will be more inclined to just let it go and let the scoreboard, which should be favorable to the Maple Leafs Thursday night, do the talking for him. That said, there is another member of the Maple Leafs defense who still has a bone to pick with Mr. Avery, and perhaps Thursday night will finally be the night?

While we are just five games into the 2010-11 season there is still plenty of good and bads to talk about when it comes to our beloved Toronto Maple Leafs. Given the teams 4-0-1 record thus far the positives far outweigh the negatives, which, in light of how poorly the Maple Leafs started the 2009-10 season, is a breath of fresh air for Maple Leaf fans. Heading into Tuesday nights game action the Maple Leafs sit atop the NHL standings with nine points, own the third best goals per game average at 3.40, own the seventh best goals against average at 2.20, boast the seventh best penalty kill with a 88.9 percent success rate and own the 13th best power play, which is currently humming along at a 17.4 percent success rate. Needless to say each and every one of