Gameday #18: Toronto Maple Leafs @ Boston Bruins
I'll just tag this in here, Panoo... if you don't mind.
The Leafs go for their 6th win in 7 games tonight when they visit Boston to take on the Bruins.
Andrew Raycroft stopped 40 shots in Toronto's last win (4-1) over the lowly Philadelphia Flyers, in what Paul Maurice (and many Maple Leaf fans) claims to be Raycroft's finest game in a Leaf uniform.
The Goaltender has been stellar as of late, allowing 6 goals in his last 4 Games, and stopping 122 of his last 128 shots faced. Raycroft is begining to have many thinking that it may be the return of the goale to his Calder winning form.
He now has a 2.73 Goals Against Average and a .911 Save Percentage (posting a 1.50GAA in his last 4 starts), and will be facing the team that traded him in favour of Leaf Goalie Prospect, Tuuka Rask tonight. This will be the team's 1st of 8 meetings in the now often debated NHL schedule.
Related Topic: http://www.hockeyforum.com/toronto-maple-leafs/3542-raycroft-spectacular-leafs-win.html
The Leafs, however, will be without Captain Mats Sundin for 3-4 weeks, who has an injury to his elbow. Sundin has been playing his best Hockey in years, and so far has shown that more ice-time form the new Head Coach, and a linemate to set him up in Kyle Wellwood could take him a long way. Not to mention playing with a jump in his step not see for a while not considering the end of last season.
Related Topic: http://www.hockeyforum.com/toronto-maple-leafs/3577-sundin-out-2-3-weeks.html
On the other side of the coin, Leafs Defenceman, Pavel Kubina will be returning to the starting line-up tonight, likely to be paired up with rookie Brendan Bell behind the somewhat established (but not entirely cemented) Kaberle-McCabe pairing.
Kubina has missed a whole month with a knee injury he suffered against the Florida Panthers at the beginning of October.
Pavel Kubina said:
"It's been a long four weeks for me. It's so hard to watch the team and not be able to do anything.
The time has passed and hopefully I will come back and help the team."
Leaf forward Bates Battaglia also scored for the Leafs in their victory over Philadelphia. He's been off to a start that he hasn't had in years as he still searches for his 20-goal form of 2002. Battaglia currently has 4 goals in 17 games, close to pace.
Nik Antropov, Alexei Ponikarovsky, and Tomas Kaberle also scored for the Leafs.
Kaberle continued his offencive tear, netting his 11th Point in 6 games on an empty-netter Monday night, and has 13 Points through 17 games (6G, 7A).
The Bruins on the other hand, are coming off of a 5-3 loss to the high-flying Thrashers.
Goaltender Tim Thomas has a 3.47 Goals Against Average and .894 Save Percentage through 8 games, so far not living up to the 3-year deal given to him by the Bruins last season, and only delivering 2 wins thus far.
Bruins Goalie prospect, Hannu Toivinen hasn't faired much better in the 7 games that he's played, posting a 4.20 Goals Aganst Average and a .869 Save Percentage. The Bruins have called-up Goalie Brian Finley today to replace Toivinen, who has been sent down to the minors:
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/news_story.asp?ID=183319&hubName=nhl-bruins
Rookie Prospect, Phil Kessel, has 5 Points in 12 games (3G, 2).
Trade rumours continue to swirl around veteran Bruins Winger, Glen Murray, who leads the team with 6 goals, 4 on the powerplay.
Marc Savard, winner of one of the 3 stars of the week last week, leads the team with 16 Points in 12 games played, 12 of them assists.
Boston is 4-6-2 through 12 games for 10 points, last in their division and 14 in the East.
Toronto is 9-5-3 though their first 17 for 21 Points, and trail division leading Buffalo by 4 points, and Conference leading Atlanta by 6. Toronto is 4th in the East.
