Rocket:

Mikhail Grabovski will likely be hearing from the league office. A fine (could it be a suspension?) is in order for Grabs for shoving the linesmen late in the game when Mikhail lost it. Much earlier than that, the refs had lost control of the game. If Stephen Walkom, the NHL’s director of officiating is doing his job, he will be issuing pink slips to referees Tim Peel and Chris Ciamaga. What an absolute mess they made tonight. Their work certainly exacerbated an already chippy game. There was a total of 150 minutes of penalties.

After the game Grabovski had this to say about Sergie Kostitsyn: ”I think he is not Belarussian now, he is French because I never fight with Belarussian guys,” Grabovski said. ”I don’t know why he wants to fight with me. If he wants to fight, we’ll go in the street and every minute of every day I’ll wait for him and we’ll fight.”

Tonight’s game was just ugly. Toronto is a lousy team. Brian Burke will eventually make the Maple Leafs better. But since his arrival, Toronto was bound to get worse before they get better. For a group of players on the team, the writing is on the wall. They will be moved by the trade deadline and these guys have stopped playing. The young Leafs just look disorganized right now. Most are playing as individuals trying to impress the new GM enough to stay with the club.

Vesa Toskala was just awful. He allowed 4 goals on the first 15 shots and 5 goals in total. Curtis Joseph replaced him in net for the third period.
This had all of the feel of a minor league game. So it was quite appropriate that Patrice Brisebois had 3 assists against AHL calibre competition. Even at that, Brise didn’t contribute, in any significant way, to the 3 goals. Patrice’s pathetic defensive play was on display for the Leafs’ second goal. Who knows why Brise was on the ice with a minute and a half left in a 6-1 game?

Being up 5-1 heading into the third period allowed Guy Carbonneau the luxury of giving additional ice-time to a player like Matt D’Agostini, who has seen his shifts drastically reduced over the past few weeks. This has resulted in a drop-off in offensive production. It was also a chance to say to Brisebois: ‘Hey grey beard, we’re going with the kid for the third period’. But that didn’t happen! Carbonneau did give Yannick Weber time on defense but to do so and to maintain (his lover) Brisebois’ shifts, Josh Gorges was shifted to forward. Gorges is a good skater but the experiment was almost a train wreck. Why risk injury to a key player putting him an unfamiliar position? And for what purpose?

I don’t understand Guy Carbonneau’s obsession with playing a defenseman on the 4th line as a forward. It hasn’t been successful before. Streit hated it. Dandenault, a veteran, said that it is a difficult thing to do. So why throw a rookie defenseman, playing his first NHL game into an unfamiliar position? Weber looked and played nervous, often finding himself out of position. Give him credit though that he does have the skating ability to get back into the play. Playing nervous as a forward seemed to affect his confidence on the power-play. Weber did get better as the game went on.

It was a great game for Andrei Kostitsyn. He had a goal and 2 assists and again was a co-leader on the team in hits. Alex Kovalev had a goal (off a great pass by AK-46) and an assist. Robert Lang had another strong outing. Max Lapierre also had a goal and an assist and led the team in shots with 5. However, Max again was dreadful in the faceoff circle at 33%. Perhaps another Carbo clinic is in order.

As far as team guys with heart there is none better than Tom Kostopoulos and Francis Bouillon. Good work by TK to set up Latendresse’s goal. Huge respect to both Kosto and Frankie for dropping the gloves when they had to and for taking their lumps. Laraque doesn’t have a fraction of the courage that these two guys have.

It was an uneventful night for Jaroslav Halak. He really wasn’t tested at all by the Leafs. Halak didn’t look good on the Kaberle goal but he may have been partially screened. I would have liked to see Ryan O’Byrne in the line-up tonight to help clear guys like Brad May and Nik Antropov out of Halak’s crease.

The Leaf-Canadiens match-up is the most long-standing rivalry. It was good to see the former players introduced prior to the match. As the game went on, I wondered what the legends thought of the sloppy play, poor officiating and buffoonery at the end. Let’s hope a few of them will be in attendance to enjoy a real hockey game on Saturday night against the Capitals.

Pre-game:

A ceremony to honour original six rivalry with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The crowd responded with a huge ovation when Jean Beliveau was introduced.

Price, Tanguay, Higgins, Dandenault, Koivu, Laraque out with injuries. Begin is a healthy scratch.

Yannick Weber gets his first NHL start.

Brad May will play his first game as a Leaf.

Rocket’s 3 stars:

1. Andrei Kostitsyn
2. Alex Kovalev
3. Tom Kostopoulos / Francis Bouillon

(photo credit: AP photo)