Leafs 12 game report (for JK)

Clearly a 12 game report is better than the 10 game report that was vaguely promised... 12 is more than ten and more is better right... that's what the sales person at Jack in the Box told me anyway.

Pretty safe to call the Leafs season a success so far, sure they won some games that they probably didn't deserve to, but that's why we have Reimer and Bernier.  When you have goaltending a lot of little mistakes get covered... when these mistakes are not covered the team mentality can become fragile (see Raycroft and Toskala years). 

Clearly all aspects of the Leafs game is superior in this resurgent period, with the key aspect being the penalty killing.  Now for a good PK team, i would say the Leafs have been playing a little soft this year compared to last year, but keep in mind that some of the key hitters have been absent in this early stretch.  Nikolai Kulemin (ankle), David Clarkson (suspension), Frazer McLaren (finger) and Mark Fraser (lower body) all missed a lit of time in these first 12 games, and all of these men don't take a pass on hitting a body when they get a chance.  I would hope to see a more infectious hitting streak as these guys make it back in the lineup which should help with increased offensive zone time.

If the PK can stay sharp we can hope to see some more physical intimidation out of the Leafs, as they should be able to afford to take a few penalties here and there.  As the announcer said in the game the other night when Dave Bolland took a cross checking penalty... "Well Bolland got his pound of flesh on that one".  It's the old school mentality of hockey... why take a silly little interference penalty when you can flatten a guy.   Now I'm not condoning going out and taking cheap shots on peoples heads but you can make it difficult and "hard" as they say, to play against.   That said, i like the fact that the defensive play has been getting better in a number of areas on the result of smarter hockey and not necessarily rougher hockey.  That way you can layer the rougher play on top of the smarter play and you should be going somewhere.  I would expect this type of evolution in the next period of  games.

Not bad, leafs are tied for the lead in the Eastern Confrence with 16 points (8-4-0), and are showing once again that they can score with the best.  The big difference is that they seem to be able to keep the puck out of their net at a pretty good rate as well. They are tied for 2nd in goals scored, and tied  for 8th in goals against... these are good numbers.

Another key stat is the number of call ups from the farm team that have come in and played reasonably in various roles.  This is good for a number of reasons... team depth,  gaining experience and it alludes to competent team systems.  Clearly the team , so far, has been able to insert players into the lineup, give those players roles that they can handle and be successful.  This was a mere pipe dream a few years ago under the run and gun offense coupled with the rodeo circus of a defensive system that was inbred into the team.

Team captain Dion Phaneuf, it has been noted, has been playing very well lately.  I believe this is much in part to do with the team systems tightening up, so that his game becomes easier to play.  I mean not to discredit the player for his hard work but rather point out that when your team is playing together you have to do less and get to do more.   For example, in the past there were times when the Leafs looked totally lost in their own end and then a defense man is out of position and a goal goes in and he takes the blame... but why was he out of position?  Did numerous people lose their assignments?  It could also be that often times now when a shot comes in on goal the goalie grabs it and the play is dead, rather than a rebound producing a scramble leading to a circus rodeo and then more chances for players to look bad.

Now let's call a spade a spade... the season is still early and there is plenty of time for catastrophe... we lifetime Leaf fans in our 40's know the drill.  But hey, things really do seem to be different this year... I'm not predicting a parade but if we can stay healthy with respect to some key role players I can see this team finding even better form.  For a team that is 8-4 and getting out shot most nights... almost all nights for that matter, I'll take it.

Mary Catherine Irmina West

I got the sad news on the passing of Mrs. West over the last weekend.  She was the mother of one of my best friends growing up and a veritable force in the community.  In many ways a typical mother of our era... a natural chauffeur, short order cook, bake sale operator, a woman with an ear to the ground and her finger on the pulse of the neighbourhood.

Her second home was the schoolyard at Highland Creek Public School where she was a tireless volunteer, back in the times when schools were funded and not desperately begging for bodies to fill holes left in budgets. You kind of feel she did it because she could, and it was the right thing to do.  Of course the grade 8 graduation party was at the West house hosted happily by her... in fact the house was always open for various games, T.V watching and cookie snacking.

I remember that time the city tried to put a dump at the top of our street.  Lets just say that the city councilors in charge of that project felt the full brunt of the West opposition to something that would be bad for the neighbourhood.  There was no quiet in that little disagreement as troops were rallied and forms were signed, and the dump never happened...  and they never tried again.

In high school we put a play on that happened to be a wrestling match between Santa and Scrooge.  I was Scrooge and Rob, her son was in my corner as "the Grinch"... Rob showed up with proper sewn Grinch shoes,  Grinch hat and to the letter Grinch shirt and pants... "yea my mom really got into it" he said at dress rehearsal.  And that's what she did, she got into things, made them better, to make them better for the kids.

Thank you Mrs. West, rest in peace.

 

Dashboard Blogger

 Dashboard Blogger-  I like that term... Dashboard, historical a board of wood or leather in front of a carriage, to keep out mud.

 If one was a mind wandering fool one might come up with a scenario where dashboard blogger is some code word, for a spy plan, or something like that... actually i am loosing my inspiration for this line of thought real quickly.  Why go on then?  It comes down to the base exercise my man... if you are on the computer there is a very good chance you are accomplishing nothing of any real importance... you might even think that you are "working'.  That what adults tell kids right... i have to do some work on the computer... but young dashboard blogger knows differently... perhaps it is a team of two, Randy Dash and Carl Board Blogger.  Randy Dash known to some as "Dandy Randy Dash" for his stealth puck moving skills in the offensive zone.  But how did Carl Board Blogger get such an unfortunate name?   Well his last name was actually Blouger, but his drunk half wit uncle sent the forms into the countries birth registration center, the only problem being that he was over at Stan's Bar and Grill all afternoon watching a football game and his "u" was pretty sloppy, with the top kind of closed off and the line extending down below and curving .   And of course the city clerk was overworked and typed in the name as Blogger, thought nothing of it.  Of course once you are in the records, on the books these things tend to stick.  But how do you get a middle name that is "Board"... well "Moonbeam" was taken, so lets not worry about it.

  Things don't always have to make sense on the internet, and that won't stop some moron from posting it on social media and then arguing with other hammerheads over it's validity.   Perhaps dashboard blogger is just a screen name for some knucklehead bot, or web robot as Wikipedia might describe it.  Ah the problem with comments... i suggest a new law.  Every computer device should be hooked up to an electronic shock devise that by law should be attached to the users sensitive genital parts, and then every time the user makes a stupid comment Blammo... they get a shock.  I guess the real problem with that is that 5 seconds after the law is enacted the world would suffer a massive power outage to the likes that have never been seen before.   Remember stupid is the new smart, this happened years ago and is marked in popular culture in a great number of ways.  The glorification of the idiot in some ways could have been a Punk-esque  form of rebellion against the idea of forced proper-ness and the utter failure of smart talking suits tanking mankind in an utter shameless fashion.

  It's hard to say, every one is a lair and the rest are consumers... except for dashboard blogger, the only hope left for Mankind.  Able to leave smart and relevant comments that reek of compassion and understanding and can magically inspire all commenters to see the greater good and come together to form a more balanced and caring society.  Dashboard Blogger weaving threads into strong ropes to rescue the lost and confused souls on the wonderful Internet.  

  In his spare time he is a potato farmer who makes a mean potato chip in the oven but threw his shoulder out waving a damn towel at the hypersensitive smoke alarm one night.    After a couple of T3's he had an idea... a raw potato restaurant!  It was a smash it... Selling plates of pickled salted potato slivers and a tall glass of alkaline water, dashboard blogger was killing it.  Powered mostly with his ability to write scientific sounding articles on the health virtues of raw potatoes and alkaline water, coupled with his ability to influence comment threads with his super power the franchise takes off.

Apparently you can eat raw potatoes, but one of the things is that the uncooked starch in the potato is not as easily digested in your digestive tract.  What happens next is that that starch gets fermented in your large intestine... this can be uncomfortable however there is a positive side in that the fermentation of resistant starches increases the production of butyrate, a fatty acid that is associated with favorable effects on diseases in the colon.

The things you come across when you try to keep some totally bizarre line of thought accurate.  Perhaps there is a song in there.

Leaf's report, for J.K.

Hot damn, another season on us like the word hope defined.  Being a Leaf fan has been a hard dollar for a long time, but there is never a year in which that little childish feeling doesn't somehow flicker in your soul in which you imagine an elaborate dream sequence of chance and fate teaming up together to achieve the unthinkable.

A side note for those who say "the NHL is a savage money hungry beast, and should be ignored", I get your point.  I also drive a car, and for some insane reason i am responsible still for adding plastics to our landfills... far greater sins.  The real trick with the NHL is to make sure they don't get my money.  I mean i would punch myself in the balls before i would pay the ticket price an entertainment company charges, all while asking you, the patron to act as an extra in their made for tv experience.  You know the drill, TV time out, flow of game broken, rock music, advertising... you forgot what was happening.. and then on the big screen MAKE SOME NOISE! MAKE SOME NOISE! LOUDER! LOUDER! And then they race over and drop the puck like it's an emergency.  You see of course what the T.V viewer  sees is a loud boisterous crowd and then action, and the paying fan gets no oscar nomination.

Who cares, i love watching Leaf games, and hockey season in general.  For example, i made one of the best dinners the other night.  Leaf game is on.  Games usually start 4:00 PM my time, given i have lived on the West coast for a couple of decades.  Think about it... I need to have dinner ready by 6... gives me a period to think, plan, light prep (thanks to the commercial breaks)... hey if you can't beat them join them right.  And then an intermission where i blast into the kitchen and put the damn thing together.   And then another period.  Sometimes you get a good cleaning out of it.  Say you wiped the floor, and while you were wiping the floor your team's captain Dion Phaneuf walks in over the blueline takes a nifty Nazem Kardi pass and goes top shelf where momma keeps the cookies.  Well, you might see that as a good OMEN, perhaps it was the fact that you were wiping the floor that tipped the balance in the universe spurring the goal to happen.  In the end you get a nice clean floor...  when hockey is your religion, you need to practice your prayers.

So what about this Toronto Maple Leaf team for the 13/14 season?

If everybody on the team has a "career" year, i like our chances.  Hey go with the obvious first right?

The culture is changing, there is no doubt about that.  There is youth and some pretty damn good players.  And the pretty damn good players are pretty young, which marks a significant change from the Leafs of yesterday, where the team would pay a premium for older, past their prime name stars.

I like the goal tending, I knew Reimer would get the start in game one, it had to happen.  They owed him that honor for sure, had they not played Reimer in game one it would have been a bad omen of things to come.  And Reimer played great in the opening game, which he won.  Now Bernier get's the start tonight and that's all good, he looks like the real deal (although i thought Cornell alumni Ben Scrivens looked real good last year).  The smart money is that Bernier is better (than Scrivens who he was traded for), and under ideal situations both goalies play great, and you have a winning team and an extra asset in goal.  Having 2 good goalies is always a good problem to have, some teams manage that well, and others not so well.

On the defense i thought Paul Ranger had a great game the other day... a veritable steal for the blue shirts. A great big defender who left the game 4 years ago and is now back with a renewed passion for the game.  Anytime you can get a top 4 d-man for nothing but a friendly cap hit is good.  This along with the Kessel extension and the general feeling one get's that Toronto is a place good young players want to play now.  I'm not sure this was always the case, and hey if you are calling the shots on where you want to play why not choose to play on a team you think can compete to win.

It is not unthinkable that the Toronto Maple leafs might have a few players in the top 10 scoring this year.  Not saying it will happen, but it wouldn't be unthinkable to see Phil Kessel, James Van Riemsdyk, Joffrey Lupul or Nazem Kadri in that category.  There are a bunch of potential 20 goal scorers on the team as well... Mason Raymond, David Clarkson, Tyler Bozak and Dave Bolland... Nikolai Kulemin scored 30 a few years ago.

The teams specialty teams have become much improved under coach Randy Carlyle, and the addition of some key penalty killers, Jay McClement leading the pact haven't hurt.

With the defense slowly coming around and a bunch of young defenders in the pipe the identity of the classic Toronto Maple Leafs play poor defense and let the goalie stand on his head routine, is being replaced by some systems and the idea that if you don't play the system, somebody else behind you might be willing to.

 I never play in hockey pools, too much work keeping on top of things, and being a hockey pool guy who goes with his heart, i have a long history of being tarred and feathered.  But this year might actually be different, the team seems to identify with being a team.  I get the feeling that they (the players), in their heart think that they can do something if they work together.  Sometimes you get teams filled with high paid individuals and egos get stomped on and feelings get hurt.  The team's willingness to fight for one another is impressive.  Years ago the New Jersey Devils pushed the leafs around in the playoffs, and i believe they got 6 shots on net in the final eliminating game... they were in the game until the end due to a brilliant performance by Curtis Joseph their stalwart goalie at the time, but you can't win a game getting 6 shots on Martin Brodeur.  The team back then won a lot of games with stellar goal tending and a third period push by Mats Sundin, and Alexander Mogilny.

The forwards who won't score a lot, can skate, have speed, will hit and can play a role. Remember Jonas Hoglund and the Robert Reichel /Mikael Renberg years.  They put some points up, but what happened when the games moved up a notch in tempo?

Kudos to the GM's and Coaches who have instilled this more competitive identity and made some good hard decisions to bring the team to the dawn of this new era. 

As usual i am optimistic for a season of omen watching, heckles and hockey in general. If i was a betting man, which i am not, i say the Leafs contend for a while starting now.

Idea for the City of Portland, permits department.

Dear Permit Department Superintendent,

  I was thinking that if you have somebody scheduled for a mechanical inspection, under your terms, which happen to be: You stay home always that day from 8AM to 5PM, then when calling the people to reschedule, perhaps the opening line of the conversation should not be: "hi we have had to re-schedule you inspection until tomorrow".

Perhaps an opening line along the idea of "sorry due to (insert natural disaster here), we will be unable to meet the commitment we made to you, that caused you to  alter your day so completely... is there a convenient time in the future for you that we could do this?"

I suggest a meeting in the office, perhaps you could bring coffee and doughnuts, and have the staff do some role playing.  It could be a real good bonding experience.

I think it might do wonders for the relationship between the permit department and the general public.

You see somebody might have children, who need to be escorted to and from school, which means coverage at the house for these moments.  Perhaps they work and are losing the chance to make money while they wait for the permit department?  Is there any idea of when or if tomorrow's new scheduled appointment will happen?

If you need me to run the meeting, we can talk, my rates are very affordable and i will show up as scheduled down to the minute.

I do realize that any kind of strange thing can happen while an inspection is underway, and so hence it can be hard to predict exact times in this line of work. 

That said, i believe you should make every effort to try to appear some time in the 8 hour window, and rescheduling appointments with zero input from the other party breezes an air of arrogance that is hard to inhale.

Mark Robertson


**** UPDATE***

Within seconds of posting this venting little blog, there was a knock at the door... it was the inspector, his boss said this was a "Must do!" job today.  I take it the boss got my phone messages.
Clearly i am overjoyed right now, but i almost went to Yoga and missed the whole thing, i was actually about to leave.

It was my understanding that i was rescheduled until tomorrow,  so as another side note it's good to communicate.  If you re arrange your schedule to meet the needs of a citizen in distress, don't be afraid to call and communicate.

Anyhoo, City of Portland, you are still a star in my books.  I believe you care... we can work on the communication part in my seminar :).