Der Toronto Maple Leafs Thread

[AustroLeaf]

Wahnsinnssave von Razor beim Stand von 2:1 15 Minuten vor dem Ende. Wenn er so weitermacht, lebt die Chance auf die Playoffs.

[Seppo Dramac]

Mit dem 2:1 im MSG zähle ich 4 Siege aus den letzten 5 Partien. Trotzdem nur Platz 9 in der Conference. Ob das was wird?

[AustroLeaf]

Nachträglich, aber doch:

New York Rangers - Toronto Maple Leafs 1:2 (0:0, 1:1, 0:1)

1:0 (33.) Shanahan 26 (Jagr, Rachunek) PP

1:1 (34.) Ponikarovsky 13 (Sundin, Kaberle) PP

1:2 (47.) Sundin 20 (White)

SOG: Rangers 38, Leafs 28

PP: Rangers 1/2, Leafs 1/6

Recap

Raycroft zum dritten Mal hintereinander nur mit einem Gegentor. White angeblich mit einem Traumpaß auf Sundin beim 2:1, leider geht das Spielvideo auf mapleleafs.com nicht.

@Seppo Dramac:

Neunter, arschknapp wird es sicher bis zum Schluß. Da wirken auch 3 Siege in Folge keine Wunder, aber die Ausgangsposition ist schon mal wesentlich besser als vor 2 Wochen.

Was v.a. wirklich Mut macht, ist die Leistungssteigerung von Razor. Paul Maurice hat schon angedeutet, daß er vielleicht alle Spiele bis Saisonschluß macht, falls es das Playoffrennen nötig macht.

bearbeitet 1. Februar 2007 von AustroLeaf

[Bam_Margera]

Raycroft zum dritten Mal hintereinander nur mit einem Gegentor. White angeblich mit einem Traumpaß auf Sundin beim 2:1, leider geht das Spielvideo auf mapleleafs.com nicht.

dann musst halt auf nhl.com schauen. und ja, es war ein zuckerpass (bei dem pöck am feld stand).

[AustroLeaf]

dann musst halt auf nhl.com schauen.

Ohne Joe "Holy Mackinaw" Bowen macht es aber so viel weniger Spaß.

[Lichtgestalt]

LEAFS DO THE MATH: 18 WINS NEEDED

The Maple Leafs' successful raids on foreign ice last month are just a prelude to the War of 18-12. With 30 games remaining and plenty of lost ground to recover, the Leafs figure they need 18 wins -- or 36 points -- to hit 92, considered the minimum to make the Eastern Conference playoffs this year.

The euphoria of six wins in eight games, five of those on the road, had dissipated by the time the Leafs arrived home yesterday from their 2-1 win in New York. They remain outside the top eight playoff seeds, waiting nervously for teams to make up their games in hand. "We'll need more of it," Sundin said of their recent scoring/defence/goaltending mix that has revived post-season hopes. "We carried on from Carolina (in New York), helped out in our own end and had all five guys playing defence. So we're keeping it out of our net a lot more."

The Leafs are still paying the price for a seven-game losing streak in the autumn. But a win tomorrow in Ottawa, where the Senators hold their regular-season mastery over Toronto at 3-1-1, would be regarded as the Leafs' most significant of their five-game road trip.

Andrew Raycroft seems up to the task, allowing just three goals the past three games against some fairly difficult teams. He insists his asbestos hockey pants are holding up through a fiery fan baptism in Toronto. "There was no outside counsel for me. We just all stuck together in here through that tough December," Raycroft said. "We're a fairly young team, but at the same time, we have some guys who've been around enough to know that you're going to have a bad three weeks in a year. But it was nice to have feedback from the guys to make my life easier at the rink."

The Leafs' excellent road record this season (14-9-3) has been helped of late by the opportunity to come home and recover between some games, such as they've done the past 48 hours. "I really think we'll be a better home team down the stretch (where they play 11 of their final 19 games)," coach Paul Maurice said. "When you find a way to win on the road as we have, I think we'll be all right. Andrew has been really good and he has started to get some breaks around the net, too. You can always tell a goalie's (confident) when he starts steering shots to the corner and not just bunting them back in front."

SPRING MIX

Breaking down the Leafs' final 30 games:

Home: 15

Road: 15

Vs. Northeast Division: 11

Vs. Rest of Conference: 15

Vs. Western Conference: 3

Vs. Teams above .500: 6

Vs. Canadian teams: 7

Back-to-back situations: 5

Back-to-back, road: 1

Most consecutive days off: 2

Record in final 30 games last year: 16-11-3

Last game on the schedule: April 7 vs. Montreal

-> Toronto Sun

[AustroLeaf]

[AustroLeaf]

Senaturds-Leafs nach dem ersten Drittel 0:0.

Die Leafs nach 10 Minuten bei den SOG mit 10:2 vorne, gegen Ende aber die Sens besser. Raycroft lt. Leafs Radio mit einigen spektakulären Saves.

[Lichtgestalt]

Ottawa Senators - Toronto Maple Leafs 2:3 SO (0:0, 2:0, 0:2, 0:0)

0:1 (27.) O'Neill 18 (Stajan, Gill)

0:2 (35.) Sundin 21 (Ponikarovsky, Kubina)

1:2 (45.) Alfredsson 19 PP (Spezza, Meszaros)

2:2 (49.) Comrie 12 (Corvo, Emery)

2:3 (SO) Pohl

SOG: Sens 32, Leafs 38.

PIM: Sens 6, Leafs 10.

PP: Sens 1/4, Leafs 0/2.

-> Recap

[AustroLeaf]

Geile Sache. Sundins Tor ein Traum, das ist der Nordic God .

Sundin, Pohl und Raycroft entscheiden das Shootout. Maurice im Post-Game-Interview offensichtlich überglücklich, hebt das zweite Drittel als das bislang beste der ganzen Saison heraus (Schußverhältnis 18:8, Tore 2:0).

The battle continues

John Pohl versenkt den entscheidenden Penalty Shot:

[themanwho]

Irgendwie auch genial, wieviele Leafs in Ottawa waren .. da hatte man ja fast das Gefühl, dass es sich um ein Heimspiel gehandelt hat (natürlich nicht so abwegig bei der geringen Distanz zwischen beiden Städten).

[AustroLeaf]

Irgendwie auch genial, wieviele Leafs in Ottawa waren .. da hatte man ja fast das Gefühl, dass es sich um ein Heimspiel gehandelt hat (natürlich nicht so abwegig bei der geringen Distanz zwischen beiden Städten).

Des weiteren findet man in Ottawa (wie auch den anderen kanadischen NHL-Städten) viele ortsansässige Leafs-Fans. Aber es stimmt schon, auch z.B. nach Buffalo machen sich meist imposante Leafs-Kolonnen auf den Weg.

home game in Ottawa

[Lichtgestalt]

Leafs' win over Ottawa shows team they're playoff material

OTTAWA — Among the ebbs and flows that make up an 82-game regular season, with many turning points along the way, the Toronto Maple Leafs can look back on Saturday's dramatic win over the Ottawa Senators as a watershed. If they manage to pick their way among the eight or so National Hockey League teams fighting over the final five playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, the Leafs can say winning that shootout, 3-2, over the Senators was what told them they were good enough for the postseason.

Over the past two weeks, the Leafs showed a marked improvement in their defensive game, and it was no coincidence that goaltender Andrew Raycroft's game perked up as well. There was that 8-2 setback in Pittsburgh on Jan. 20, a game that captain Mats Sundin called "the low point of the season for us," but the Leafs rebounded with three consecutive wins. The win over the Senators made it four in a row. How it came about and who it was against could be the cornerstone of a playoff drive.

Leafs head coach Paul Maurice is loath to admit it — in their position, every game is a must-win, he says — but he capitulated on the point. When he is preparing his charges for this week's swing through St. Louis and Nashville, Maurice said, he will be showing them video from Saturday's game. "Yes is the answer to your question," he said. "As a coach, I'll look at this game and say: 'These are the things we want to do tomorrow and this is the video we'll show. This is our fore-check, this is our neutral zone and this is where we want the pucks to go.' "

Outside of a few lapses in the third period on Saturday, which allowed the Senators to erase a two-goal Toronto lead and take the game to overtime, the Leafs played one of their most complete games against an opponent that owned them.

Going into Saturday's game, the Senators had an 11-2 record against the Leafs since the 2004-05 lockout ended. Their record against the Leafs this season was 4-1. Toronto took a vastly improved game and psyche into Ottawa, but there was still the feeling it could dissipate quickly against a team that shook off a bad start and injuries and was headed back to its rightful place near the top of the conference. "I was nervous about this game," Maurice said.

However, the Leafs came out strong and stayed strong for two periods. The defensive game that marked their recent improvement was there, as was Raycroft, and they were strong in the Senators' end of the ice. There were a couple of defensive mistakes in the third period, but the Leafs bounced back and almost ended the game before overtime. The celebration that followed Raycroft's final save, which won the shootout after an unlikely shooter, eight-goal man John Pohl, scored the go-ahead goal, showed the players saw this as a watershed win, too.

"Definitely," Raycroft said. "[The Senators] are a good team, they are playing really well right now, we're in their building, it's Saturday night, all the variables were there. We dominated them in the second period, it wasn't even close, and we played really well in the first. They made two good plays in the third, but over all, we deserved to win."

What the Leafs have to do now, to ensure this really is an important milestone, is remember how they reached it. "We just need to keep working hard and realize we're only as good as how hard we work and how well we play our system," Raycroft said. "We can't think we're automatically in the playoffs."

For now, though, the Leafs can say they are a playoff team. The win gave them 58 points, which tied them with the Carolina Hurricanes for the eighth and final playoff spot. But the Leafs have the official grip on it, since they have the same number of wins as Carolina, 26, but have played one game fewer, 53.

What the Leafs can tell themselves, though, is that they responded when faced with a big game. In a race that is likely to stay close for the rest of the season, that might make the difference.

"Every game is a must-win game," Maurice said, "even though at the end I'll tell you it wasn't. We go into every game thinking we have to win this to make the playoffs. That's how these things end up being so positive or so negative. The team that manages that fight emotionally, I think, wins."

-> globesports.com

[AustroLeaf]

St.Louis Blues - Toronto Maple Leafs 1:2 (0:1, 1:1, 0:0)

0:1 (16.) Ponikarovsky 14 (Sundin, Kaberle) PP

1:1 (33.) Johnson 7 (Mayers, Brewer)

1:2 (39.) Steen 11 (O'Neill, Stajan)

SOG: Leafs 16, Blues 20

PP: Leafs 1/2, Blues 0/4

Recap

GO LEAFS GO!!!

bearbeitet 7. Februar 2007 von AustroLeaf

[Seppo Dramac]

Und noch immer nicht auf einem Playoff-Platz ... Carolina und Tampa sind in Reichweite und theoretisch schon überholt, ich bin aber skeptisch dass die Leafs das durchhalten und so konstant bleiben.

Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt ...