There are times in an NHL season that your team really lets you down. The Toronto Maple Leafs continued their downward spiral on Tuesday night, losing a hard fought game to the New Jersey Devils by a final score of 4-3 in overtime. Maple Leafs sniper Phil Kessel tied the game with 44 seconds left in the third period, beating Devils’ goaltender Martin Brodeur with a slick wrist shot which eluded the future hall of fame netminder. Despite Kessel’s heroics,Torontowas unable to close the deal, as Devils’ defenseman Mark Fayne put a weak shot pastTorontogoaltender Jonas Gustavsson at the 01:18 mark of overtime. For Gustavsson, Fayne’s shot resulted in one of three questionable goals on the evening. Soft goals and poor positioning for their goaltenders and a lack of overall defense is killing the Maple Leafs chances of making the

Heading into Thursday nights action the Toronto Maple Leafs sit in eleventh place in the Eastern Conference, a mere six points out of the eighth and final playoff spot. With a record of 25-27-6 the Maple Leafs don’t really look like a playoff team, but as the rise of the New Jersey Devils (8-1-1 in their past ten) and close to unbeatable for the better part of a month now, anything can happen. The question is, with three teams to pass, can the Maple Leafs get hot enough to capture the final playoff spot in the East? The obvious answer is, probably not, but as the saying goes, “stranger things have happened.” Last season the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference earned a total of 88 points (both the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens hit the 88 point mark), the

Heading into tonight’s exciting tilt between the 28th ranked Toronto Maple Leafs and the 30th ranked New Jersey Devils, nobody expected any fireworks. The Devils and Maple Leafs had lost a combined 39 games and own two of the most pathetic offenses in the game. Needless to say, this game had “total bore” written all over it, and it was, that is until Maple Leafs defenseman Dion Phaneuf and Devils sniper Ilya Kovalchuk dropped the gloves. To be honest, it wasn’t much of a tilt, but in a season that has already seen Sidney Crosby and other super-star calibre players drop the gloves, it was interesting to see Kovalchuk trying to drop bombs. The Maple Leafs were up by a score of 1-0 at the time. In the end the fight did little to change the outcome of the game,

This weekend one of the best coaches in NHL history passed away after a long battle with cancer. While there is no question that hockey has lost a great coach, as good a coach as Pat Burns was, from all accounts he was an equally fine individual. As a lifelong Toronto Maple Leaf fan I can recall the announcement that Burns was joining the Leafs, I was estatic. For many, it was the turning point in an otherwise lethargic franchises lineage, for, in Pat Burns, we all believed our team would be better. Known for his hard work, ability to communicate with players, fairness and gruff demeanor behind the bench, Burns was the kind of coach that players would go through a wall for. Like a super star player, Burns was as much of an icon in Toronto as anyone, in

While it is still very early in the 2010-11 NHL season there are already more than a few surprises in the overall standings. Teams that were supposed to be world beaters are sitting in the basement, while other teams that were supposed to struggle have come out flying right out of the gate and sit amongst the NHL’s best. Let’s take a look at the Ten Most Surprising NHL Teams Thus Far, for better, or for worse. New Jersey Devils: Ok, so not everybody thought the New Jersey Devils would be world beaters this season, but there sure were a fair amount of experts out there that were suggesting the Devils would be a contender for the Atlantic Division title and/or the Eastern Conference’s top team. Through 13 games the Devils sit dead last in the NHL standings with a

Three weeks and one calender month into the 2010-2011 NHL season, we’ve already begun to be able to pick out the surprises and disappointments of the year. Teams like Buffalo and New Jersey, two top-ranked teams from the Eastern Conference last season, have both struggled to get going and posted a combined 0-8-2 home record, while franchises such as Montreal, Boston, and Tampa Bay have burst onto the stage with a combined 20-7-2 record. Meanwhile, in the West, Nashville, Edmonton, and Dallas started out strongly but have faltered lately, while, on the other hand, youthful squads such as St. Louis, Colorado, and Los Angeles have already begun to prove their legitimacy. But how does the NHL look from a divisional standpoint? Which five-team groups have been the toughest to play in so far, while which divisions have struggled despite their