Toronto Maple Leafs: Lupul, Vesey, Matthews, Benn

I am happy to report that each Monday I will be posting a new “Goals, Assists, and Penalties” where I give you my two cents on the weeks news around the NHL and Toronto Maple Leafs. I break it down into Goals (positive news), generally positive news or something is lacking (assists), and negative news (penalty). These are purely my subjective opinions.

Plus: Steve Yzerman. Signing Killorn to 7 years. Add it to the list of core guys he locks up at reasonable rates. Could be best GM in the league.

Penalty: The point system. Can we please go to a point system where it is actually possible to make a late season charge and sneak into the playoffs. With so many games resulting in only a one point difference, there isn’t enough of a possibility for a team to win the last ten or so games and come out of nowhere.

That would be exciting. Wouldn’t we want a hot team make the playoffs? See the Senators a couple seasons back with the Hamburlgar in net. My suggestion; 3 points for a regulation win. 2 points for a win in OT or shootout. 1 point for a shootout loss. ZERO points for OT loss. This way players will not start giving up with a minute or two to play with a tied game, guaranteeing at least one point and all but guaranteeing absolute boredom for the fans.

More from Editor In Leaf

Assist: Toronto Maple Leafs signing Sparks to a 1 year two-way contract.
Meh. To be honest I was a little surprised they qualified him. His NHL numbers were atrocious. I don’t care that he got in fans good books with a shutout in his first NHL game.

Or that he has those old Trevor Kidd-type goalie pads. While they are pretty cool, he couldn’t even unseat Bibeau in the AHL playoffs, and Bibs wasn’t exactly on fire. Don’t expect Sparks to be around next season.

Goal: Jamie Benn signing. He deserves the money. Now the question is, will be continue to deserve it over the length of the contract. Questionable, but very possible.

Penalty: Those that keep bringing up how one scout once compared Matthews to Toews. Let Matthews be Matthews. A solid two-way player without flash but lots of talent and vision. Why do we have to compare.

Goal: Toronto Maple Leafs having too many forwards that could compete for a roster spot. Lets take a look at the roster spots that are pretty much guaranteed right now and see how many openings there are and how many players there are for those openings (as to be expected for opening night)…

Line 1: JVR – Kadri – Komarov

Line 2: LW – Matthews – Nylander

Line 3: LW- Bozak – RW

Line 4: LW – Martin – Laich

Players that can fill these four spots: Johnson, Brown, Leipsic, Soshnikov, Leivo, Rychel, Gauthier, Kapanen, Marner, Hyman, Lupul, Holland, Michalek, and Greening.

That is a lot of competition.

Penalty: We are still paying Tim Gleason $1.33M for each of the next two seasons.

Penalty: The new Las Vegas team is apparently having trouble picking a name due to copyright laws. Ironic, since Las Vegas got its start back in the day simply because there were no laws out in the desert. Now they can’t name an ICE hockey team in the DESERT because of laws. How times change.

Goal: Jimmy Vesey is apparently still considering the Toronto Maple Leafs. That would leave 3 spots available for the above list of forwards competing for a NHL roster spot.

Assist: We probably should trade for a backup instead of signing a free agent. We can’t afford to tie up another contract in the list of 50 that we can have when we can get rid of a contract that we do not want. Leivo? I bet he gets moved for a backup.

Goal: We can finally stop starting hockey games down 0-1 now that Bernier won’t be starting in net.

Next: Marincin's Offensive Struggles

Penalty: The whole Lupul situation. I am expecting him to disappear just like Robidas. But if I were another GM, and Lupul was sent to “Robidas-island”, I would start crying foul. First Robidas, then Jared Cowen saying that he was allegedly cleared by the Leafs staff only to be able to buy him out. While he was not actually healthy and therefore not available to be bought out.

Then we may have Lupul disappearing. If nobody cries foul, I’m going to start calling our GM, Lou “the Amazing” Lamoriello, and expect to see a magic wand in is hand and be the heir apparent for David Copperfield. Because getting rid of Cowen, Lupul, and Robidas would be a disappearing feat even the great Copperfield couldn’t pull off.

Under Review: Black Knights. Do I like the name? I am not sure.

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