the Leafs D is brutal

no team review today by the way, but let me just say that if you want some hints on how to make your fantasy team better then fire off an email to me (check out the profile to see my email addy).

anywho, the title of this post remains ... gospel. i'm a Leaf fan. i'll remain a Leaf fan. HOWEVER, how is it that the Sens can pull off at least three 2on1's starting at the Leafs blueline last night? seriously, it literally looked like the D was tripping over their own blueline. Wozniewski got burned once, really badly; and i have zero confidence in the defensive play of Pavel Kubina (waste of a contract). i think that Woz will be fine but with all the chat surrounding the Leafs D of late, with all the hubbub of "let's get rid of so and so" then let me just say, the signing of Pavel Kubina was a horrid move. how he is a plus player this season i don't know. the rumour has been that JFJ has been shopping Bryan McCabe, Hal Gill and Kubina around but they each pull down a lot of money and i have my doubts that any of them will be moved. should they trade Kaberle? LORD NO. but if they can move McCabe/Stajan for Liles/Svatos or Wolski then that looks good to me. i'm not crazy about shopping Alex Steen through the league though, he's worth keeping around. remember that JFJ.
i read one report of the game last night saying that it looked like a bulldog against a chihuahua. yep, that's about right. the Leafs gave up what 3 goals(?) on 2on1 stuff deep in their own zone. shameful. against a great counter-punching team like the Sens who knows how to capitalize (pun intended) then there's little hope of success once the hole is already dug. the 3rd goal that went in was even SHORTHANDED for crying out loud.
i'm just going to over to my corner and whimper for a while but before i do let me just vent for a bit about the lack of hockey coverage that i want here in central Canada. last night the battle of Ontario raged and was televised on Sportsnet, for Ontario only. we here in Sportsnet West's domain were treated to a nice version of Prime Time Sports which if i wanted to hear i could just tune in on my radio to hear it. why is it that the Leafs can't be on a national scale at least on nights when none of the Western teams even have a game? i pretty much can only watch a Leafs game on Saturday nights anymore, and Ontario is only 2 hrs drive away for me. i hate this system. now if i wanted to pony up a couple hundred bucks i could land the NHL channels and get all the hockey i wanted but my wife isn't going to allow that when we have a huge mortgage to pay and a life to live (and no i'm not bitter about it, i agree with her). all i'm asking for is a few extra Eastern team's games on tv, especially if the sched doesn't list a single game in the West to peruse. and while i'm on the subject, i'm tired of all the Western emphasis on the Flames and Oilers out here. it's just as easy to pick up an Eastern feed for a cable channel as it is to pick up a Western feed. or if channels in Manitoba want to pick up a hockey feed from somewhere then how about the closest NHL team to Manitoba? how about some more Wild games, i'd even take Hawk games for crying out loud instead of this constant diet of Oil and Flame (not a good mix)(BOOM).

in other games last night Rick DiPietro returned from his brief scrape of the eye to hold back the Ranger attack last night. i noticed that Nigel Dawes is still getting some ice time although it does seem to have dropped a little. he got 5 shots off though and that's significant given the fact that he was on the ice for half the time as the big guns. Chris Drury scored his 3rd (about freaking time) and Chris Simon was back for the Isles while Sean Avery got an assist for blueshirts. Simon is still a very nice PIMy option but he won't score a ton and Avery will give you plenty of both.
Pavelic showed himself well last night against the Caps. i still say that Johan Hedberg will be the main option for the Thrash until Lehtinen comes back but Pavelic is a decent enough option to get a handful of wins for a team that has turned it around. Ilya Kovalchuk scored his 13th and has had himself a phenomenal week. i hope you bought low on him a couple weeks back when i told you that he was going to explode. Marian Hossa has yet to explode so the window of opportunity is still open on him if you want to look at trading for him immediately though. incidently, Kovalchuk doubled over in pain last night in the 2nd period, skated off the ice under his own power and was done for the night. i don't think it's serious but i also haven't heard more about it. he's having a MRI today and actually said he can't move right now. not good. maybe Hossa will pick things up so they can keep teh ball rolling. Semin didn't play for the Caps last night and is frustrating many a fantasy hockey owner so far this season. now is not the time to bail on him though. Slava Kozlov has 7 pts in his last 5 games.