The Maple Leafs 4-3 overtime loss to New Jersey last night was another case of a young team’s growing pains this season. Ron Wilson’s squad continues to spring leaks like the proverbial dike, with problem areas popping up and once solved, a completely different problem appears.
As opposed to many nights this season, where the team’s lack of defensive concept robbed them of valuable points in the standings, last night was squarely on the shoulders of Jonas Gustavsson, who allowed weak five hole goals to David Clarkson and former Leaf Alexei Ponikarovsky to give the Devils the advantage at the ends of the first and second period. With the Leafs pressing for the tying goal, “The Monster” turned it around and made a number of excellent stops in the third until Phil Kessel tied the game with just 44 seconds left in regulation.
But whatever credit was earned with his third period heroics was squandered with a horrific error 78 seconds into overtime, as defenseman Mark Fayne’s wide point shot glanced off the inside of Gustavsson’s pad and into the net.
The Toronto coaching staff has continually yo-yoed back and forth between Gustavsson and James Reimer since his return from concussion issues in early December and with the exception of Gustavsson’s streak of success at home in January, both netminders have failed to take the ball and run with it.
Leafs GM Brian Burke has repeatedly said that the club is not shopping for a goaltender before the deadline. If he is sticking to that stance, the only choice now is to choose one goaltender and stick with him win or lose until the team either makes or misses the playoffs.
Gustavsson is an unrestricted free agent after the season and Reimer was signed to a three year contract extension over the summer, which indicates that the Leafs hierarchy believed he would be the team’s number one goaltender.
Unless a move for Jonathan Bernier, Josh Harding or Evgeni Nabokov is in Mr. Burke’s bag of tricks in the next five days, it is time to go with Reimer and stay with Reimer.
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Thirty two years ago today, a group of young college kids forever changed the world of hockey with an upset for the ages.
The two landmark events in the history of international hockey were the 1972 Canada-Russia Summit Series and the "Miracle on Ice" at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. The neophyte Americans were up against the invincible communist hockey machine of the Soviet Union, virtually the same team that won the gold medal in Innsbruck in 1976 and defeated the NHL All Stars in the 1979 Challenge Cup.
There is no doubt that the achievement of the Americans was monumental, but a few important facts have been lost through the prism of more than three decades of jingoism and over-glorification. The talent level of U.S. college hockey players was not recognized by the media until after 1980, but was already being recognized by the NHL. In the 1978 NHL draft, 20% of the draft selections were US-born players, some playing in Canadian Major Junior but a significant amount playing in US colleges.
If you evaluate the talent level of the 1980 squad based on their NHL careers after "The Miracle", this team had excellent talent. They had three players who might be considered Hockey Hall Of Fame caliber in Neal Broten, Mike Ramsey and Ken Morrow. Other players who had fairly significant NHL careers were Dave Christian, Mark Pavelich, Mark Johnson, Dave Silk, Jack O'Callahan and Steve Christoff. This team was hardly as much of an underdog as then ABC announcer Jim McKay described, comparing Team USA defeat of the Soviets to a bunch of Canadian college kids beating the perennial Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Soviets were also not as invincible as portrayed today. Pointing out these factors is not to diminish the achievement of the 1980 squad, they defeated the two great international hockey powers of the time, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union on the path to winning the gold medal. The impact of their victory on February 22, 1980 is the reason that the United States is an ever growing hockey power in the world.
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Interesting comment from Sportsnet commentator and former Blue Jackets GM Doug Maclean on Toronto radio this morning.
His belief is that the meeting between Columbus GM Scott Howson and Brian Burke in Manhattan on Sunday was more likely about center Jeff Carter than sniper Rick Nash.
Maclean went on to say that Carter is likely to be traded by February 27th and believes that he will either be traded to Los Angeles or Toronto.
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