Metal Reviews

Now you know how Leaf fans felt last season when McCabe scored on Raycroft in OT against Buffalo. In Buffalo to, to make things worse. I was at that game and I was ashamed to to show my face around Sabres fans for the rest of the week. Not to mention mine, and several others hate towards McCabe at the time.

EDIT - the Leafs lose again, this time to the Thrashers, 6-3. Kovalchuk was a pain in the ass tonight. Scoring a goal, cheap shot on White, hit on Schenn, and the fight with White. CuJo is done, has a wonderful 0-3-1 record this season with a 3.95 GAA and .851 SV%. Toskala is not much better though... John Tavares here we come.

Kings got embarrassed by Flames last night. Ugh.

A win tonight against the Oilers would be huge since we are tied at this point. A loss would feel like the start of a horrible slump since we have a bunch of road-games coming.

What happened to Toskala? I've always liked him as a goalie and he looked pretty good early in the season if I remember correctly. Has he become Andrew Raycroft? At this rate you can barely get a decent return for him on the trade market.

We have a lot of games coming up in the next 2 weeks, so they gave Toskala the night off against a team lower than us in the standings. CuJo blew it, and now we ride the hell out of Toskala. And for your information, Toskala's start to the season was/is not very good at all. A 3.33 GAA and a .876 SV% is not that great. I like Toskala, and I know he can turn things around. He started last season like this to, then easily became our best player down the stretch. I want to see him do good this year, but I also want a good draft pick. So when Brian Burke becomes our GM on Saturday (and yes it will happen), then maybe Toskalas game will pick up and let the firesale begin in Toronto. The last couple of months of the season might be depressing in Toronto, but a good draft in June will more than make up for it.

Hopefully we'll be back on track against Philly tonight... Would someone take the time to simply explain the +/- system?

You get a + if you are on the ice when your team scores a goal. You get a - if you are on the ice when th other team scores a goal.
If you are on the penalty kill and get scored against, you do not get a -.
If you are on the power play and score a goal, you do not get a +.
If you are on the penalty kill and score a shot handed goal, you get a +.
If you are on the power play and get scored against, you get a -.

+ is good, - is bad. A player with a good +/- means they are good/responsible defensively.

beat detroit, now vs Calgary. it'll be interesting to see how Canucks do with losing Luongo but also been on ridiculous good record lately

Schneider is good. Losing Luongo sucks, but this kid is tearing it up in the AHL.

i'm hoping they'll keep kicking ass without him. that would be a great morale boost for the team because it feels like he's been the crutch the Canucks have been leaning on ever since they got him.

And to think the Leafs drafted him...

So which rookies are doing good this season? Sutter has been important to us.

Top rookies in points:

Kris Versteeg (Chicago Blackhawks) 7 goals, 13 assists, 20 points

Derick Brassard (Columbus Blue Jackets) 8 goals. 11 assists, 19 points

Mikhail Grabovski (Toronto Maple Leafs, yer!) 9 goals, 4 assists, 13 points

There's so much fucking stats in hockey, it's fucking impossible to keep track of it all.

Can't say enough good things about Drew Doughty. He has an incredible poise, plays like a veteran but is only 18. He has the highest average time on ice on the whole team and is a complete stud.

There are some successful rookies out there. Brassard, Versteeg and Grabovski to name a few. Haven't had the chance to watch them though, other than the highlights.

Maybe for some, but seeing as how I grew up with uncles, grandfathers, cousins, and friends who were all majorly into hockey it made it easy for me to learn everything. And, I watch as many hockey games as I can (not just the Leafs) as well as hockey shows like NHL On the Fly or Hockey Central on a nightly basis.

So all I am saying is, keeping track or points/goals/assists/ +/- / wins/losses/shutouts/etc comes pretty natural to me.

Just keeping track of goals so far... It's even hard for me to keep track of the players on the ice.. Just started watching live hockey though, and it isn't that long since I got into it.

I wouldn't worry too much about keeping track of all the stats unless you are a veteran fan. The only stats of real importance are goals and points. The value of the plus/minus stat can be debated.

The tricky part would be goalies since no one stat tells the whole picture. You have to combine save percentage, goals against average and to a slightly lesser extent, wins and shutouts to get an understanding of how they're doing.

We need more hockey fans in Norway for sure. Maybe that will keep some of you occupied and allow the rest of us to take a few medals in ski sports as well ;)

Top rookies in +/- :

Kris Versteeg (Chicago Blackhawks) +11

Derick Brassard (Columbus Blue Jackets) +9

Patrick Berglund (St. Louis Blues) +8

Other Notable Rookies (in all categories):

Bobby Ryan (Anaheim Ducks) 2 goals, 2 assists, 4 points, +5

Drew Doughty (Los Angeles Kings) 3 goals, 4 assists, 7 points, +5

Luke Schenn (Toronto Maple Leafs) 0 goals, 2 assists, 2 points, -7

I had to put Schenn in there.

But that -7 hurts...

We need more hockey fans all over the world. Canada may be the hot bed of hockey, but there are a lot people here who hate hockey or just don't care. A lot of that has to do with the Leafs though. Arguably the most loved and hated team, ever. Habs can be the most loved to, but not nearly as hated as the Leafs.