Results tagged “bryanmccabe”

Bryan McCabe is back in town tonight—and like the protagonist in “Boots or Hearts,” he’ll probably be all squint-eyed and confused when he steps onto the Air Canada Centre ice as a member of the Florida Panthers and hears nineteen thousand fans (many of them wearing replica McCabe jerseys) booing him.

Far be it from us to conflate professional sports with Bill Shakespeare—but the Toronto Maple Leafs’ actions before, during and after Tuesday's NHL trade deadline recall Macbeth’s famous words: full of sound and fury, yet ultimately signifying nothing. Charges of heresy will be duly acknowledged.

If you're reading this and it's between the hours of 7-9:30pm EST, do yourself a favour and tune into Hockey Night in Canada. You might be witnessing the end of an era in Toronto sports.

It's been the best of times, it's been the worst of times for the Toronto Maple Leafs; in fact, the past couple weeks have been nothing short of surreal. First, the best of times: wins against the high-flying Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens, followed by a thoroughly unexpected Hockey Day in Canada victory over the league-leading Detroit Red Wings, have given the team a boost. Injured players are getting healthy. The return of the much-maligned Bryan McCabe has apparently galvanized the team's defensive corps, not to mention relegated Andy "The Cause" Wozniewski to the Toronto Marlies. Mats Sundin, meanwhile, who turns thirty-seven years old today, has fifty-eight points in fifty-seven games—not bad for a guy with a "career-threatening" injury (we'll never tire of using it against you, Steve Simmons!).

One month into the new NHL season, and this much is obvious: the Toronto Maple Leafs are a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, dressed in the league’s silly new jerseys. The Leafs are scoring more often than your younger sister, but they’re also leaking goals at a potentially historic rate. They’ve lost two games by 7–1 final scores, but they’ve also got an 8–1 win and consecutive 4–1 road victories against consensus preseason favourites (Pittsburgh and the New York Rangers). The result is that the Maple Leafs are one of the most entertaining teams in the league, even if they’re seemingly hell-bent on driving their doggedly loyal fans to drink.

It was one of the wildest final weekends in NHL history. The Toronto Maple Leafs delivered a knockout blow to the Montreal Canadiens in one of the most electric matches in recent memory, only to have the New York Islanders break our hearts and take the final playoff spot in a shootout against the New Jersey Devils the following day.

With all the personnel changes the Maple Leafs made this offseason, it appears little has infact changed on the ice. With the team opening their 2006-07 pre-season against the Buffalo Sabres at the ACC Monday night, it was the same old story for Mats Sundin's team. Excessive penalties, an inability to score, a bleeding Darcy Tucker, average goaltending and Bryan McCabe's goatee each contributed to a performance that was all too familiar to post-lockout Leaf fans. Even with their unsightly new uniforms, the Sabres had no problem picking up where they left off last season. After dominating the Leafs head-to-head in 05-06, the Sabres scored all of their goals on the powerplay, while Martin Biron turned aside twenty-three Toronto shots in the 4-0 victory. Three of those Sabre goals came during a stretch of the second period in which the Leafs committed six consecutive penalties. All-in-all, it was a dissappointing start to what fans had hoped would be a more satisfying season. The team now travels to Ottawa to play the Senators tomorrow night.

By merely parting with a fifth-round draft pick, John Ferguson Jr. made a strong statement today that his team is for real. The Maple Leafs General Manager acquired veteran defenseman Luke Richardson in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets this afternoon. Turning thirty-seven later this month, Richardson is expected to add his speed and youthful enthusiasm to a tired Leafs defense. For those of you who aren't familiar with the rugged blue liner, that previous sentence couldn't be less truthful. Richardson, who began his career with the Blue and White, has lost a step over the last four or five years and has done little to contribute for the disappointing Blue Jackets this season. His stat line for the year reads: 44 GP, 1 G, 6 A, -18, 30 PIM

It's nothing new to see a Pat Quinn coached team struggle to make the playoffs, only to lose in an early elimination round. Nor is it uncommon for Todd Bertuzzi to take a selfish penalty in hopes to maintain his rough and tough image. So, is anyone really surprised that Team Canada lost in the Olympic quarterfinals, with the game winner coming while Sudbury's finest was in the box? Torontoist certainly wasn't.

The Canadian Olympic team had a strong finish to their first week of competition on Sunday. Cindy Klassen received her third medal of the games in the women's 1000m speed skating. Finishing four one-hundreths of a second behind the Netherlands Marianne Timmer, Klassen was awarded her second silver medal to go along with her bronze from last week's 500m competition. Along with Pierre Leuders and Lascalles Brown's 2-man bobsleigh silver, the Canadians finished the first week in a tie for fifth place with 13 medals. Canada looks to add to add to their pair of golds Monday afternoon, as the women's hockey team is virtually a sure thing against their over-matched Swedish oppontents.

For the first time in his young NHL career, The Crosby Show airs in Toronto, as hockey phenom Sidney Crosby takes to Canadian ice for the first time in his professional career against the Leafs tonight. The Cros faces off against impressive Leaf rookies Alexander Steen and Kyle Wellwood before playing the Montreal Canadiens later this week. (That information was only provided to make the title of this post work.)