Superbad Fight
April 4th, 2008 by murph
Via HockeyFights.com, here’s video of Krys Barch vs Daniel Carcillo in last night’s DAL/PHX game.
“The only thing this proves is that you can take a punch like a f*cking champ!”
Archive for the 'Toronto Maple Leafs' Category
“The only thing this proves is that you can take a punch like a f*cking champ!”
Ooops!
March 19th, 2008 by murph
Video of Rob Davison’s 170+ foot shorthanded goal last night. If Toronto had lost last night, Toskala would need someone to start his car back in Toronto.
Checking In On Jason Blake
March 4th, 2008 by Tom
With the Islanders’ continued inability to score, we got curious about how former OrangeAndBlue sniper Jason Blake is faring with his new team - the Toronto Maple Leafs. We certainly knew that Blakey wasn’t exactly lighting it up this year but it had been a while since we saw his stats. Here they are:
Jason Blake 2007-08
GP G A P +/-
67 12 28 40 1
At first glance, you might interpret this as “good thing the Islanders didn’t sign that guy.” And you can’t argue with that sentiment. Blake got $20 million from Toronto after coming off a career year in which he posted 40 goals and 29 assists in 82 games. He was durable and he consistently lit the lamp. This season playing in a new system with a new club that has been plagued by inconsistency, Blake has been a shadow of his former self. He still gets the shots off, leading the Leafs with 277 so far this season, but they cross the goal-line just 4.3% of the time. He’s actually averaging more shots this season (4.1 a game) than he did last year (3.7). The difference is last season with the Islanders, Blake scored on 13.1% of his shots, more than three-times better than his average this season.
The question is - would the Isles have been better off this season if Blake had stayed? Long-term, I think the answer is obvious, they had to let him go. Blake just got too expensive and, at 34, is past the prime age for big-time scorers. But would the Islanders been better off with Blake for this one season? Probably, but I don’t think anyone could have expected him to duplicate last season’s numbers. For the three years prior to last season, Blake averaged 25 goals and 28 assists per campaign.
On this season’s club, Blake was basically replaced at left wing by Ruslan Fedotenko. Fedotenko has scored 15 goals and 16 assists this season. The other two big offensive additions are Mike Comrie (20G 27A) and Bill Guerin (20G 17A). To afford Blake, the Islanders wouldn’t have been able to acquire all three of these guys. Substitute Blake for any one of the three, and give him his average numbers over the three years prior to his break-out season, and the numbers are pretty even.
What is harder to gauge is what intangibles Blake would have brought to the club. He hustles. He goes all out. He creates chances out of thin air. He causes penalties. He can hog the puck. He can get trigger happy. He’s not a very good two-way player.
So, after thinking about it, I guess my answer is it is really difficult to tell whether the Isles would have been better this season with Blake suiting up but I don’t think he would have made much of a difference either way. I know it’s all guess work but I just don’t see how Blake could have had a big impact on this moribund offense. The problems go deeper than missing one good sniper.
Isles PP Leads to Another W
February 15th, 2008 by murph
Woah! Two in a row! 4 powerplay goals? Who are these guys? Special teams were the difference last night as the Isles PP was 4 for 7 last night while the PK killed 4 of 5 penalties.
“We saw the improbable last year when we were left for dead,” goalie Rick DiPietro said after the Islanders slipped past the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Thursday night. “There’s still a lot of hockey left.”
“There’s still belief in this room,” Comrie said. “Ted (Nolan) and the coaching staff have us focused on the game at hand. We’re not looking too far ahead.”
Ex-Isle Jason Blake had an assist on Toronto’s last minute goal. After 59 games, Blake’s stats are 11G 25A 36PTS, just a little off his 40G 69PTS performance last year which led to his big Toronto contract. Gotta get back to work now…
Isles Go For Two-in-a-Row Tonight
February 14th, 2008 by murph
About the only thing that’ll make the fans forget the 7-game losing streak is a 7-game winning streak. Whaddya say boys? Sound like a plan?
The Isles fresh off their first home win of 2008 on Tuesday vs the Flyers, head to Toronto to try and start a little winning streak. Toronto and ex-Islander Jason Blake are just 2 points behind the Isles in the Eastern Conference standings. The Leafs lost last night 1-0 to Buffalo.
Couple of links for you today…
- Chris Simon has been cleared to practice with the Islanders in advance of the end of his suspension. Simon will rejoin the Isles on 2/21 vs Tampa Bay.
- How can ANYONE, let alone a semi-reputable establishment like USA Today, put together a list of the 8 Worst NHL Trades without mentioning “Mad” Mike Milbury’s name at least once?? In the name of Mad Mike’s legacy, I demand a recount!
- Either the Leafs held an outdoor practice in minus 10 degree weather, or Wade Belak is about to rob a bank.
- Brendan Witt left Tuesday’s game early with a knee injury. According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, he’ll miss tonight’s game.
Isles/Philly highlights
Tucker Eats Knuckle Sandwiches
January 4th, 2008 by murph
Great fight last night between Jarkko Ruutu of Pittsburgh and our least favorite Maple Leaf, Darcy Tucker. Tucker gets pummeled repeatedly. Awesome with a capital “A”.
Blake Returns to Island Bearing Gifts
December 27th, 2007 by murph
Wow. What a crazy game last night, lots of good and bad to talk about. Fan-Favorite (for the most part) Jason Blake returned to Long Island for the first time after signing a free-agent deal with Toronto last summer. Blake was a “love him or hate him” Islander - you either loved his speed and hustle, or you hated his tendency to hog the puck and occasional turnovers that came with it. We here at Islanders Army were strongly in the “love him” category, as evidenced by our top secret plan to clone Blake and dominate the NHL with five 40-goal scorers on the ice at once.
It was all business and $$$ that led to Blake leaving. He wanted a longer deal than what the Isles were offering and after a career year with 40 goals, he found someone else willing to give it to him. The Toronto Maple Leafs opened the checkbook for a 40-goal scorer for 5 years, and so far have 5 goals and 16 assists to show for it. The Isles showed their appreciation for the 6 years Blake played for us with a short pre-game video tribute.
I missed the first two periods and the Islanders “offensive explosion” of 3 goals in the first. Considering the difficulty the lsles have had scoring 3 goals in 60 minutes, 3 in the first 20 was quite the feat. The excitement of those goals quickly wore off at the start of the second period when Wade Dubielewicz came out of the tunnel and into the net in place of Rick DiPietro who apparently hurt his knee in warmups and wasn’t able to finish the game. DP is getting an MRI on the knee and will miss tonight’s game at Ottawa. Joey MacDonald has been called up from Bridgeport to backup Doobie. With Doobie in net, the game took a more defensive tone - 14 Islanders first period shots turned into just 4 second period shots. Still the Isles held a 3-2 lead after 2 periods.
An early 3rd period Islander powerplay backfired into a shorthanded goal and a 3-3 tie. It stayed that way through regulation thanks to the heroics of Doobie, Toronto goalie Andrew Raycroft and some goalposts. Both teams had some great chances down the stretch, including Mike Sillinger getting stoned on the doorstep twice by Raycroft with less than a minute left in regulation.
Richard Park got called for hooking in OT and it looked like the Isles were doomed on the 4-on-3 powerplay. Doooooobie to the rescue with some awesome saves and it looked like we were headed to a shootout, until this….
Richard Park (aka The “New” Jason Blake) pick-pocketed the “Old” Jason Blake at the Isles blueline and turned it into a 2-on-1 because of a Toronto line change. Park’s shot was deflected by the defenseman, stopped by Raycroft, but then a uncovered Mike Comrie came along and banged in the rebound with just 10 seconds left in OT for the 4-3 Islander win. Tic-Tac-Toe, three in a row for the Orange and Blue.
Blake’s miscue is sure to send Leafs Nation into a frenzy. After the game Blake defended his actions, while his coach wasn’t buying it.
“We’ve only got so many seconds left in overtime,” he said of his extended bout of stick-handling. “I was trying to make a play. [Park] made a great play by poke-checking it.”
Blake’s coach, Paul Maurice, was not impressed.
“He turned the puck over an awful lot tonight,” Maurice said. “You can’t turn it over there at any point in a game.”
Sorry Blakey…it was all just business last night.
Jerks on Ice
November 11th, 2007 by murph
See, what would be best here is if a giant hole opened up on the ice and no one ever heard from these two clowns again. Our least favorite Maple Leaf and Ranger, Darcy Tucker and Sean Avery, went at it last night. Actually, they almost went at it before the game when Mr. Oh-So-Classy Avery whacked Blake’s shinguards…in warmups. I saw this replay while out last night and was very confused as to who to root for.
Frustrated in Toronto
November 8th, 2007 by murph
With a 6-7-3 record so far this year and a rabid fanbase desperate for their first Stanley Cup in 41 years, pressure is building on the Toronto Maple Leafs and their high-profile free agent Jason Blake to succeed. Through 16 games this season, Blake has only 2 goals compared to a year ago on the island when Blake had 9 at the same point. The Toronto Sun sat down for an interview with Blake to discuss the season so far. It went something like this:
Blah, blah, blah. Mats Sundin. Blah, blah, blah. $20 million. Blah, blah, blah. Ottawa 5 Toronto 1.
At the end of the interview, they ask Blake some questions about the Islanders who have 1 more point than Toronto with 4 games in hand. Here’s the good part:
“No. 1, they have an unbelievable coach,” Blake said. “Ted Nolan’s the best. No. 2, we played like the Senators, that way. We weren’t as talented, we weren’t as big, we weren’t as strong but we moved the puck. We tried to hit the open guy. No. 3, we had Brendan Witt, one of the most underrated defenceman in the league.”
And No. 4?
“The best goalie. The best upcoming goaltender in the league. (Rick) DiPietro will win the Vezina in the next three years.”
