Sports: NHL Hockey: For both cellar dwellers the outlook is grim

Grim outlook, but one of these teams has to win, correct?

— Sportikos, refWrite Backpage sports newspotter, analyst, columnist

Leafs on the road in Buffalo tonite

Tuesday, 29.01.2013 / 10:01 AM / News

MAPLE LEAFS Toronto (2-3-0) at SABRES Buffalo (2-3-0)

TV: LEAFS TV, MSG-B

Season series: Despite it being early in the season, this is the second meeting between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres. Buffalo went into the Air Canada Centre for its second game of the season on Jan. 21 and left with a 2-1 win.

Big story: With both Toronto and Buffalo coming off tough road losses, the game Tuesday night is a big opportunity to build some positive momentum and climb out of the place both teams are currently sitting -- the Northeast Division cellar.

Team Scope:

Maple Leafs: In their last game the Maple Leafs appeared headed to a second impressive win in three games after taking a 2-0 first-period lead against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. After the opening 20 minutes, however, things stalled out significantly for Toronto. The Leafs managed just 17 shots on goal over the course of the entire game while giving up 42 shots on net and they were eventually victims of a Rangers comeback that was punctuated by a four-goal third period. That the loss came on the heels of 7-4 loss at home against the New York Islanders made the blown lead a tough pill to swallow, particularly considering that just three nights before their loss to the Rangers, the Maple Leafs had spoiled the Pittsburgh Penguins' home opener with a stunning 5-2 victory.

The loss to the Rangers was a particularly rough night for netminder James Reimer, who had an opportunity to grab the reins of Toronto's unsettled goalie situation after Ben Scrivens was pulled from the loss to the Islanders two nights earlier. If the Maple Leafs can manage to get solid play on the back end, however, they could wind up surprisingly opponents. With 11 goals in the last three games, it would appear the offense is not the problem.

Sabres: Buffalo might have been among the most impressive teams in the League in its season opener. On the strength of Thomas Vanek's five-point outburst, the Sabres trounced the Flyers 5-2 for a statement victory and knocked off the Maple Leafs in Toronto a day later to open 2012-13 at 2-0-0. Since then, however, the Sabres have hit the skids. Not only has Vanek missed time due to a muscle strain, but the team is now mired in a three-game losing streak after getting swept in a home-and-home against the Carolina Hurricanes and suffering a 3-2 loss to the previously-winless Washington Capitals this past Sunday.

Perhaps more forboding is the Sabres' lackluster offense of late. Since its season-opening win over Philadelphia, Buffalo has averaged just two goals per game while surrendering an average of 2.50 goals per game over the same stretch. If the Sabres' don't turn it around soon, things could be get out of hand very quickly. Buffalo doesn't have more than one day off at a time until Feb. 13 and 14, meaning there is little time for the players to catch their breath if the team starts to slide.

Who's hot: The Sabres' loss to the Capitals Sunday was the first time this season Jason Pominville failed to register a point, but he is still off to a strong start with three goals and five assists through five games this season. ...Mikhail Grabovski has scored a goal in each of the last three games for Toronto and added two assists over that span for good measure, while Nazem Kadri has quietly put up five points in five games this season.

Injury report: Thomas Vanek (lower-body injury) is considered probable for Buffalo Tuesday. The Maple Leafs, who recently lost Joffrey Lupul for six weeks with a broken forearm, may also be without Clarke MacArthur (lacerated finger), who is considered questionable.

Sports: Hockey (NHL pros): Will tomorrow's meet with player's association re-launch the league for the season?

Washington Post Sports (Dec11,2k12)

The NHL [pro league - owners] and NHLPA [hockey players] are scheduled to resume negotiations Wednesday at an undisclosed location in New York. The meeting will mark the first formal session between the two sides since talks broke down last Thursday. 

Meanwhile…

• Capitals defenseman Roman Hamrlik has made no secret of wanting to get back on the ice and has been one of the most outspoken players throughout the labor dispute. He spoke with Josh Rimer of Nextsportstar.com on Monday and was asked whether the NHLPA should vote on the latest offer. 

“Maybe this week something’s going to happen. I’m not against that,” Hamrlik said. “This is NHLPA we’re talking about stay together. I think it’s good. We should maybe do it and we will see how many guys are going to be with or without. I think maybe it’s going to happen, I don’t know.”

Hamrlik went on to say he was against the idea of a secret vote by union members. You can check out the full 13-minute interview in the video below.

Sports: NHL Hockey playoffs: Washington Caps 3 vs Boston Bruins 4

Capitals fans, burned before, have been left scarred

by Mike Wise, WaPo Sports columnist
Read him here WaPo (Apr23,2k12)

— Sportikos, refWrite Backpage sports columnist
— all WaPo sports materials reposted and edited by Sportikos

Here’s Washington Capitals' lineup for Game 6:

Ovechkin-Laich-Brouwer 
Johansson-Backstrom-Semin 
Hendricks-Beagle-Chimera 
Knuble-Aucoin-Ward

Defense
Alzner-Carlson 
Hamrlik-Green 
Erskine-Wideman

Goal
Holtby 
Neuvirth

Boston Bruin's roster but last-minute changes for Monday's game here.

Wednesday's next game for the Caps and the Bruins in the playoffs, coming up.

WED APR 25, 2012

CAPITALS

BRUINS

7:30 PM

CBC, RDS, NBCSN, NESN(HD)

TICKETS

Posted Apr22,2k12

Game 6: Seguin scores in overtime 

to lift Bruins over Caps, 4-3, force decisive Game 7

Monday's Loss to the Bruins, as it happened


by Lindsay Applebaum  (Apr|22,2k12) 

Tyler Seguin ends it in OT — good timing for his first goal of these playoffs — to give the Bruins a 4-3 victory, and we head back to Boston for the decisive Game 7 on Wednesday.

See Seguin’s game-winning goal after the jump.

Overtime: Caps win the faceoff, overtime is underway.

Read more ...

Sports: NHL Hockey: 7th game of Stanley Gup finals 2k11

-----------------------------------
clipsyndicate (June15,2k11)



tonite's big game
Canucks vs Bruins, Vancouver

-- video re-posted by Sportikos

Sports: Hockey: Detroit Red Wings goalie engulfs puck shot by San Jose Sharks

Christian Science Monitor (May1,2k11)

National Hockey League's Western Conference played its semi-finals in the annual lead-up to the Stanley Cup.  The May Day photo by CSM shows Jimmy Howard, goalie for Detroit's Red Wings, stopping San Jose's Sharks from scoring in Game 2 of the NHL series, in San Jose, California.








-- CSM pix and text materials posted here by Sportikos

Sports: Hockey: Canadiens' Hal "Skillsie" Gill goal-scoring nites

Montreal Gazette (Mar7,2k11)

Montreal Canadiens' Hal Gill (2nd L) celebrates 

his first period goal against the Lightning (aka 

The Bolts) here with teammates 

Tomas Plekanec, Brian Gionta and P.K. Subban in an NHL hockey game in 

Tampa, Fla.   Photograph by: Mike Carlson, Reuters

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Canadiens+rearguard+Gill+takes+ribbing+scoring+touch/4398504/story.html#ixzz1FzBfha95


MONTREAL - On average, over his career, Canadiens defenceman Hal Gill has scored one goal every 28 games. It’s for this reason, and perhaps others, that his teammates razz him with the nickname Skillsie.


So, who would have guessed the handle was for real?





Earlier Canadiens game - Mar5,2k11 - Tampa Bay Lightning's Steven Stamkos (R) hooks Montreal Canadiens' Brian Gionta during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Tampa, Florida . Photograph by: REUTERS/Mike Carlson

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Habs+Lightning/4390813/story.html#ixzz1FzEFZ1vC




Big Hal is on fire, comparatively wallet-sized David Desharnais the only other Canadien to enter Tuesday night’s game against the Boston Bruins also riding a two-game scoring streak.


If Gill’s been playing offensive possum all this time, he’s just been revealed as the world’s largest, sharpest-shooting marsupial.


On Monday, following practice in Brossard, Gill was scrummed by reporters who wanted to talk not about his strong defence, but rather his offensive output that helped lift the Canadiens to a pair of victories in Sunrise and Tampa, Fla.


He grinned, looked a little sheepish, raised his hands in a “what should I say?” gesture – and proceeded not to give himself the credit he deserved.


“You try to get a shot through, you shoot for a tip, you try to get it to the net and sometimes it goes in. What are you going to do?” Gill said, shrugging playfully.


The last time he scored in two consecutive games was Oct. 21 and 24, 2002, against Toronto and Ottawa as a member of the Bruins.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Canadiens+rearguard+Gill+takes+ribbing+scoring+touch/4398504/story.html#ixzz1FzBL52TW

-- Gazette materials posted by Sportikos

Sports: Bigger, faster, stronger: Hockey, baseball, football vs. track and field

Ilya Somin, Volokh Conspiracy law profs' blog (Jan28,2k110

Has Sports Performance Peaked? Posted: 28 Jan 2011 12:37 AM PST (Ilya Somin) In this recent Boston Globe article, sportswriter Paul Kix argues that human sports performance is close to reaching its maximum limits because track and field world records have plateaued over the last two decades: In the sports that best measure athleticism — track and field, mostly — athletic performance has peaked. The studies show the steady progress of athletic achievement through the first half of the 20th century, and into the latter half, and always the world-record times fall. Then, suddenly, achievement flatlines. These days, athletes’ best sprints, best jumps, best throws — many of them happened years ago, sometimes a generation ago.  “We’re reaching our biological limits,” said Geoffroy Berthelot, one of the coauthors of both studies and a research specialist at the Institute for Biomedical Research and Sports Epidemiology in Paris. “We made major performance increases in the last century. And now it is very hard.” I am skeptical of this claim. If you look at most other sports, it’s clear that performance is steadily improving. Anyone who follows baseball, basketball, or football, for example, can see that today’s players are stronger, faster, and more agile than those of a generation ago. Consider Wayne Gretzky’s recent comments about the development of hockey since his heyday in the 1980s: “The game in my era was a completely different game [than] it is today,” Gretzky said. “The players today are so much bigger and faster and stronger, but that’s evolution. It just means our game is getting better. Fifteen years from now, these guys will look back and say, ‘What a different game.’...“ If Gretzky were playing in the NHL today at the same level as when he was in his prime, he would still be a great player. But he probably would not dominate to the overwhelming extent that he did back in the 1980s, when he was simply head and shoulders above the competition (at least until Mario Lemieux began to challenge him towards the end of the decade). I think the hockey experience is more typical than that of track and field. Moreover, a key reason why the track and field records of the 1980s and early 1990s have proven difficult to break is that that period was the era when the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs was rampant in the sport. With the fall of the Soviet bloc (the Soviets and East Germans were especially egregious cheaters in this field), and the rise of tougher testing, today’s track stars are less likely to be juiced than those of a generation ago, and therefore have trouble surpassing the records set in that era. I recognize, of course, that steroids use also probably improved performance in other sports over the last 20 years, including baseball and football. So one could argue that these sports would have stagnated but for the availability of PEDs. But the standard of play in all of them remains much higher than in the 1980s, despite recent enforcement crackdowns. In the medium to longterm, I think progress will continue as a result of improvements in preparation, strategy, and conditioning. It’s theoretically possible that today’s techniques are the best that can possibly be devised. But that seems unlikely. Eventually, genetic engineering could also provide a big boost. -- Ilya's VC blog-entry reposted by Sportikos

Sports: Hockey: Washington Capitals star is comeback kid against Toronto Maple Leafs

Ovechkin’s hat-trick lifts Caps past Leafs

 

 

BY MICHAEL TRAIKOS, POSTMEDIA NEWS JANUARY 23, 2011 COMMENTS (1)

 

 

• STORY
• PHOTOS ( 2 )

 

 

More Images »

 

Alex Ovechkin #8 and Nicklas Backstrom #19 of the Washington Capitals celebrates goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs during game action at the Air Canada Centre.

Photograph by: Abelimages, GettY Images

TORONTO — One was sort of expected. The other was not.

Alex Ovechkin scored his first hat trick of the season in a 4-1 win Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the story of the night belonged to Washington Capitals rookie goaltender Braden Holtby, who stopped 30 shots for his fourth career victory.

The three-goal output was just what Ovechkin needed. Heading into Saturday’s game, the two-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner had scored just once in his last seven games and was on pace for 27 goals this season — the lowest of his NHL career.

It turns out he just needed to play in Toronto.

more:http://www.montrealgazette.com/Ovechkin+trick+lifts+Caps+past+Leafs/4151137/story.html#ixzz1C0I5alXD

Sports: Hockey: Montreal Canadiens lead 1st half of ton+t's game against Carollina Hurricanes.

Montreal Gazette at 7:38 EST.

2-0 after one

posted by Mike Boone at 7h38 EST on Nov 13

Carolina came out skating and had 15 shots on goal.

Carey Price stopped them all, in frequently spectacular fashion.

Cam Ward faced 10 Canadiens shots and surrendered goals to Tomas Plekanec (brilliant, as usual, tonight) and Mike Cammalleri.

The Canadiens killed two penalties and will be short-handed when the second period begins.

Carolina Hurricanes?  All I can get, yet that's a great get, is the Philadelphia Flyers at Canadiens home-base rink.  The Flyers demolished the 'Canes Thursday (8-0)

-- Sportikos

Follow Us

Sports: Junior Hockey: System exposed by brave med scientists and reporters

Canadian Press, the service to newspapers print and online, also has an online edition of its own. Today CP is running an article by Sheryl Ubelacker "Concussion rate in junior hockey 7 times higher than previously reported: study" (Nov1,2k10). Via Winnipeg Free Press online. Here's Ubelacker's analysis:

TORONTO - The proportion of junior hockey players who suffer concussion is far more significant than previously thought, says a groundbreaking study that has researchers calling for changes to how Canada's national game is played at all levels.

"The results of this study demonstrate an incidence of concussion significantly higher than any other study in the literature — seven times higher," lead investigator Dr. Paul Echlin told a news conference Monday.

Echlin, a sports medicine specialist in London, Ont., said the study recorded the number of concussions sustained by members of two unnamed junior hockey teams during the 2009-2010 regular season.

Seventeen players suffered a total of 21 concussions during 52 physician-observed games — with almost one-quarter of those occurring among players involved in on-ice fights, say the researchers, whose study is published in the November issue of the journal Neurological Focus.

Echlin said that during the season, 29 per cent of players who had a concussion went on to suffer a second or recurrent concussions — brain injuries that have the potential to result in lifelong physical and cognitive deficits.

-- Sportikos posting Ubelacker

Click the time-stamp below to Read more ...

Sports: Hockey: Mass outpouring by fans for a new franchise in Quebec City, intent on bringing back les Nordiques

Montreal Gazette, Montreal's leading English-language newspaper, yesterday published Marianne White's sportsnews article (Oct2,2k10) about popular support in la belle province for the return of les Nordiques, Quebec City's former heroes of the ice rink.  Somehow the team was swept from the city's grasp and ended up derelict in Colorado.  The people -- that is, the fans -- want the team back; but to get it after 15 years, they need a new coliseum, an uptodate hockey stadium, something qu+t pricey these days. Trouble is, the Fed gov is being dunned for the balance, after the province and the city do their bit.  Trouble is, the Feds have no business using any part of the Fed budget to make payouts from the dominion's general revenues for stadia, certainly not in these financially difficult t+ms of meltdown.  Sorry, mes chers Quebecois, but try raising the money yourselves.  I'll kick in $10 out of my penury; but don't tax me.

The city of Quebec certainly should have its own new stadium. You're a northern city like Edmonton and you need a hockey team to compete on a continent-wide basis for raising the spirits of your wonderful fan base thru the long Winters.  But it's not the job of the Fed gov to give $175 million to one city, as the Prime Minister said, because then he'd have to dole out similar amounts across the country.  We can't afford it.  Period.  Of course, Quebec's political culture is bedevilled with fans of another sport -- political blackmail.  Don't connect, please, hockey with taxing the have-nots across the land to meet your own needs, as real as they may be.

-- Sportikos

Ahead of a weekend rally that is expected to draw some 50,000 people to the Plains of Abraham, the federal government came under pressure again Thursday to pump $175 million into a new NHL-calibre arena in Quebec City as the mayor announced construction for the project would start in 2011.

Photograph by: J'ai ma place/Mallette, ABCP Architecture

QUEBEC — Tens of thousands of Quebec Nordiques fan gathered on the Plains of Abraham on Saturday to push for a return of their beloved team and the construction of an NHL-sized hockey rink.

The event was the culmination of a widespread public movement in the region aimed at bringing the National Hockey League back 15 years after the Nordiques were sold and became the Colorado Avalanche.

Wearing blue shirts to commemorate the former team’s jersey, hockey fans came out in droves to express their love for the Nordiques.

"I’ve never been able to watch a full hockey game ever since the Nordiques left, it’s too painful," said Quebec City resident Gilles Boulanger.

He was holding a sign mocking the infamous Maclean’s magazine cover with the "most corrupt province in Canada" replaced by “the most hockey province in Canada" with Bonhomme Carnaval sporting a Nordiques jersey.

A number of former Nordiques players — including the famed Stastny brothers and Michel Goulet — were taking part in the demonstration, dubbed the “Blue March.”

A dozen provincial and federal politicians were also in attendance, including Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois, Conservative minister Josee Verner and Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume.

The Stastny brothers — who formed one of the NHL’s most feared trios in the 1980s — were reunited Saturday for the first time in decades.

Peter Stastny said Quebec City is closer than ever to seeing an NHL team come back, adding that Saturday’s rally would definitely send a strong message to politicians and the league.

"Quebec City has what most cities don’t: extraordinary support from the fans, the excitement, the atmosphere," he said.

Stastny’s comments seem to be in line with what some NHL players think. An informal poll conducted this week by The Hockey News Magazine asked 90 players where the league should put a team via either relocation or expansion.

Quebec City came in first with 33 votes, followed by Winnipeg with 18, Las Vegas with 12, Hamilton with 11 and Seattle with five. Toronto received two votes, while Halifax, Saskatoon and the Kitchener-Waterloo region each garnered one vote.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has made it clear the first step toward bringing a team back to Quebec City is building a new state-of-the-art hockey rink to replace the outdated arena, the Colisee, which was built in 1949.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s government has already said it will pay 45 per cent of the construction costs of the projected $400-million arena, while the city is ready to fork out $50 million.

A feasibility study for an 18,000-seat stadium showed it would be profitable, and both Charest and Quebec City’s mayor have since been lobbying the federal government to come up with the remaining $175 million needed to build such a venue.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has refused to commit financing and stressed the federal government would have to act in fairness with other provinces if it chose to contribute. 

Copyright © Postmedia News

When I realized I had taken a handful of positions (Derrida has a book of that name / title) in my politically-economically charged comment introductory to this blog-entry (top), an entry which includes a political position on the question of the Fed govt's priorities in l+t of the economic situation, and priorities in state expenditures during this next financial period; when I realized all this, I sat down by Grand Central Station and Wept.  I howled gigglishly at my own presumption, until I noticed the tears falling on hand, my pant-leg, the chair, the floor.  Do foregive!

-- Politicarp

T  

Sports: Hockey: Chicago's Blackhawks win Stanley Cup, defeating Philadel[phia's Flyers. Boohoo!

Flash! Flash! Flash!

MarketWatach June 9, 2k10 11:31 pm

Chicago Blackhawks win Stanley Cup in 4-3 victory

by Michael Kitchen

The Chicago Blackhawks won the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup in a 4-3 overtime victory against the Philadelphia Flyers. The victory was Chicago's first since 1961, with a goal by Blackhawks' Patrick Kane clinching the Game 6 win.

Must go!Q Hope to return with a pix or YouTube vid. Wild!

-- Sportikos

Sports: Some games today: Washington Post listed these events to be broadcast

Thanks to WaPo's sports coverage and provision of a daily listing of events -- Major League Baseball and the French Open tennis meet --  refWrite can signal its readers who may want to tune into widely broadcast sporting events.  If you subscribe to WaPo's daily email service, you can get notice of their Sports stories, and the viewer/listener heads-up, like today's.

Washington Post frontpage is here.  French Open tennis match news is here.  Sad, but Serena Williams had problems (the clay court clogged her tennis shoes, made her footing unsure), and she lost.  WaPo's Sports today features an article by Barry Svrluga (a most interesting name with the pile up of four consonsants at the front end of the word), the article is 3-pages long "Five years ago, the Washington Nationals were on top of the world" (June2,2k10).

Sports, by Sportikos

WaPo, of course, roots, roots, roots for the home team, "If they don't win ...."  You know the great oldtimes baseball song, don't you?   The leading newspaper in the American nation's capital roots for these major league teams:

Baseball:     Nats (Nationals)  ...  and the Orioles (Baltimore, Maryland nearby DC).

Football:     Redskins  -- "Offensive coordinator Kyle Shahanian is pretty creative, and you've got to think he'll get the most out of two pass-catching tight ends. Cooley has been spotted lined up wide at times and without a clear No. 3 receiver, both Fred Davis and Cooley could see a lot of action, especially with a quarterback who relies so heavily on the tight end," says Jason Reid, "Redskins Insider" columnist for WAPO who's wr+ting these days about the Skins in practice exhibitions to fans at DC's Redskins Park.

Hockey:     Capitals  --  Catch sports columnist Tarik El-Bashir's preview of tonite's hockey cup finals  Game 3, "Chicago [Blackhawks] at Philadelphia [Flyers], Game 3 preview" (Jun2,2k10).

Soccer:       United   --   The big story today in the USA is not the various city franchises of this sport,  but the recent  win of the USA national soccer team against Turkey (Jun2,2k10). See the pix below: May29,2k10; Jozy Altidore (r+t) battles for  the ball with Turkey's Servet Cetin.  Pix:  John McDonnell - WaPo. 

Sports: Hockey NorthAmerica: Philly's Flyers set a new record in great game

Of all places, the meritorious deeds of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team have been sung on the venerated full-scroll blogpage of The Volokh Conspiracy, by Jonathan H. Adler (May14,2k10).

A Historic Victory

Tonight the Philadelphia Flyers overcame a 3–0 deficit to win the seventh game of their playoff series with the Boston Bruins – a series in which they had trailed 3–0. In the process they became only the third NHL team to win a seven-game series after losing the first three games, and the first such team in 35 years. Now the seventh-seeded Flyers will face the eighth-seeded Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference finals — and that has to be a historic match-up as well. Go Flyers!

[Note: I went back and forth over “a historic” and “an historic,” eventually settling on the former.]

While I definitely root for the Flyers against the Bruins, when the game between the Canadiens vs Flyers comes up in our Eastern Conference finals of the National Hockey League (it's really binational, of course), I  root for the outstanding Canadian team this season.  Go Montreal! Go Canadiens!

I grew up in Philly, I visited and performed my poems in Montreal, and I've never even been to Boston (tho I watch Boston Legal and Crossing Jordan - about the tuff lady detective who does autopsies in the morgue and is loved unrequitedly by police officer Woody ... such is love in the morgue).

Sports:Hockey: Toronto's last chance for the playoffs, tonite vs NY Islanders

Toronto's Maple Leafs face their last chance to gain entry to the end-of-season tournament for the National Hockey League's championship. In a racy pre-game psych-up, Bill Lankhof of Toronto Sun writes, "Somehow, Leafs keep hanging on" (Apr5,2k7)

If it is true that the most dangerous animal is one that is wounded and cornered then the Maple Leafs should be a fearsome sight to behold the next couple days.

They've got the Islanders and Montreal [Saturday, Apr7,2k7] right where they want them. The rest of the NHL just doesn't know it yet.

This team has more nicks, scratches and blemishes than a frat-house beer fridge. Parts keep falling off, the door is hanging by one hinge but somehow it keeps getting the job done.

When they beat the [Philadelpia] Flyers Tuesday they did it on goals by three defencemen, against a hot goaltender, with a No. 1 line centred by goal-slump ridden Mats Sundin and a second line centred by someone with the injury yips.

For three-quarters of the season this team couldn't win at home. Now, when it had no choice, it's won eight in a row.

They have had more man-games lost to injury than any other team. Kyle Wellwood, the lynch-pin of the power-play is back from hernia surgery, but skates like he's carrying a Ming Vase in his hockey pants. But, he'll play tonight because without him the Leafs might as well decline the penalty.

"He does so many great things even at the speed he's going. But my concern is the cautiousness in his skating. He can still create some things. But the Kyle that we remembered before the injury was quick to holes. He's not at that point right now," coach Paul Maurice said yesterday.

Here's hopin'!

FINAL SCORE & STATS: Sports Illustrated