Bieber hit the ice with Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf to film an arena promo that asks fans to get loud in between whistles during home games.  And when he was finished working, he had the opportunity to show off some of his skills on the ice, as he went one-on-one with Leafs’ goaltender Jonas Gustavsson.

With his pride, self-esteem, and perhaps his starting job on the line, “The Monster” was able to slide across and prevent the teen singer from finding the back of the net.

Here is a look at Bieber on ice.

Despite earning nine out of a possible fourteen points since the All-Star break, the fans don’t appear to be changing their views on Ron Wilson’s job status. One fan in particular took the opportunity to let his thoughts be known during a home game against the Carolina Hurricanes on February 3rd.

With the thousands in attendance focusing their attention on the jumbotron during a break in the action, all Scott Roskar had to do to win the prize (we are not quite sure what that prize was) was answer one simple question:

Which player recorded the most points in his career with the St. John’s Maple Leafs?

A) Kyle Wellwood B) Nathan Dempsey or C) Yanic Perreault

As for Scott’s answer, that would be “C. Fire Wilson.” That made him a winner in both the game and the hearts of every Leaf fan in the building.

Hat Tip – [Puck Daddy]

“It’s absolutely personal. You want to see that team (Leafs) lose every game for the next 10 years. That’s how I feel to be honest with you.” Said Paul Maurice in an interview with the Toronto Star

Paul Maurice was back behind the bench at the Air Canada Center yesterday but this time coaching the Carolina Hurricanes. Maurice returned to Carolina after spending 7 seasons with the Hurricanes before getting fired.  He had his most success with the Hurricanes making the playoffs 3 out of 6 years and the Stanley Cup Finals once.

Everyone had their eye on Paul Maurice last night as his coaching skills were put to the test against his old team. Not only did the Carolina Hurricanes come out with the big 2-0 win at the ACC, he told the press that,

“Nothing feels better then beating the organization that had relieved me of my duties.”

A coach that was given no supporting cast in Toronto and only one option to win the Cup.  I would have made the same comments after a win in the city that fired me.

The deal being reported would send Josh Howard, Antoine Wright and DaSagna Diop to the Raptors for former first overall draft pick Andrea Bargnani and Anthony Parker to Dallas.

Josh Howard would fit nicely in the Toronto, with Bryan Colangelo’s uptempo type teams.  A no brainer for the Raptors, especially considering they are in need of a small forward/shooting guard.  The only part of this deal that does not make sense is why would the Dallas Mavericks be interested in Andrea Bargnani.  A similar but underachieving version of Dirk Nowitzki who both play very little defense.

If it were my choice and had this deal on the table, I would definielty throw it out.  I still have high hopes for Bargnani, and he seems to be improving under his new head coach.  Over the last 4 games as a starter he’s averaging 21 points, 6.25 rebounds, and connecting on just over 50% of his field goals (12-21 from three).

The Mavericks killed themselves when they traded away Devin Harris and draft picks for the old man “Jason Kidd”.  Now they are trying to find a quick solution for their mistake.  If I’m the Raptors, I would play hardball and try to stay away from parting with Andrea Bargnani.  Give this kid a couple more years he’ll be a 20 point, 10 rebound man no problem.

In attendance was none other the country music superstar Carrie Underwood.  She was watching the game from a luxurious ACC suite while I was sitting in my nosebleed purple seats with some guy who didn’t stop yelling the whole game.

Miss Underwood was present at the game with the family of Senators forward Mike Fisher.  She was spotted at the ACC when the Hug cam pictured her on the scoreboard screen.  For any of you who don’t know what the hug cam is: periodically during TV timeouts the Leafs camera crew will scan through the crowd with the Hug or Kiss cam focusing on couples in the arena to either hug or kiss.  This time the hug cam was focused on Carrie Underwood who immediately hugged the 2 people sitting next to her.  Couldn’t that be me in the box when the hug cam came on?

After the game rumors began to swirl that Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher are dating.  There were no known confirmations, but why else was Carrie Underwood be in Toronto with Mike Fishers family in a luxury suite?

And yes the Leafs won 3-1.

Week: | 1-2 | 3

Total Pro Sports – As will be the case for the next few weeks, there’s been a lot of movement in the power rankings for Week 3 with the two big moves coming out of Alberta. We also saw some of the teams who were expected to do well improve.

The biggest loser in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Edmonton Oilers. To put it lightly they pooped the bed this past week. They gave up 13 goals while only scoring 4 in their 3 games. They’ll have to get more scoring from players not named Ales Hemsky to turn this streak around.

The biggest gainer in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Calgary Flames. After struggling against Northwest opponents the Flames really turned things around lead by their captain Jarome Iginla. Iggy lead the team in their win over Nashville scoring a hat-trick and then collected 3 points (1 goal 2 assists) in their next victory against Phoenix. Kiprusoff seems to have settled down as they only gave up 5 goals in their 3 games.

Lets take a look at the rest of the league: NHL POWER RANKINGS for Week 3

Rank	Team	Record	PRV	Comment
1		8-2-1	-	They just keep winning with victories over the Blue Jackets and Penguins this past week. Zherdev had a good week with 4 points (2 goals 2 assists), 3 of which came against his former team.
2		6-0-2	4	They’ve been able to get at least one point in all of their 8 games so far and are still getting great goaltending from Ryan Miller.
3		7-2-0	1	Struggled to keep the puck out of their net against the Flyers and Panthers, but shutout the Lightning on Saturday. Patrick Marleau really stepped up his game this week collecting 5 points, 4 of which came in their game against Philly.
4		6-1-1	6	After winning all 3 of their games this week the Wings are starting to look like a Cup winning team. Both Marian Hossa and Pavel Datsyuk found their games this week and that’s good news for Detroit but bad news for the rest of the league.
5		5-0-1	1	Tough loss to the Sabres but beat the Blue Jackets in a close one. Mikko Koivu is still continuing to surprise people as he has 10 points in 6 games.
6		5-2-2	5	Collected 5 out of a possible 6 points and only gave up a total of 4 goals in their 3 games this week. Oh yeah, Malkin & Crosby have a combined 26 points in just 9 games.
7		5-1-1	4	Beat the Panthers on Monday but weren’t able to take advantage of the long layoff and lost 6-4 to the Ducks on Saturday. Koivu & Tanguay have a combined 18 points in their first 7 games.
8		5-2-1	1	Hammered the Stars 5-0 but lost back-to-back games to the Flyers. As will likely be the case at the end of the season, Zach Parise leads the team in points with 11.
9		5-3-0	1	Played the Wings tough and beat the Panthers but lost to the Kings 4-0. Kariya continues to lead this team but their top 4 scorers are all in the minus column for +/-.
10		5-3-0	9	They’re playing better as a team and it showed winning all 3 of their games this week. Ryan Smyth looks good scoring a highlight reel goal and Paul Stastny leads the team with 11 points.
11		4-3-1	2	Lost two tough ones in a row to the Flames and Coyotes but managed to squeeze out a win against the Stars. Alexander Semin has been on fire and leads the team with 14 points.
12		4-3-1	15	Won all 3 of their games this week and Iginla finally woke up scoring a hat-trick in their game against Nashville.
13		4-2-1	-	Lost to the Penguins and beat the Islanders. They’ll need Staal, Whitney and Brind’Amour to put up more points and get better goaltending from Ward if they want to improve this coming week.
14		3-2-3	-	Lost two close games to the Sabres and Leafs but won their game against the Thrashers.
15		3-2-3	5	A good 3-0 shutout win over the Oilers and put up a good fight against the Wings on Saturday. Kane and Havlat are going at a good pace but they’ll need more production from Toews to compete against the tougher teams in the West.
16		3-2-3	9	Played inspired in their 3 games this past week, twice coming back from 2-0 in their games against the Ducks (lost in the shootout) and Bruins (won in regulation). Antropov had a good week and leads the team in points with 7.
17		4-4-0	2	Lost to the Flames but rebounded with a win over the Kings. Shea Weber is establishing himself as a top defenceman in the league with 9 points and a +/- of plus-3.
18		4-4-0	6	Lost to the Blue Jackets and Ryan Kesler surprisingly leads the team with 9 points. 9 points isn’t horrible, but Kesler shouldn’t be the one leading the team in that category.
19		4-3-0	14	Rough week losing all 3 of their games while only scoring 4 goals and allowing 13.
20		4-5-0	10	A lot better week for the ’06 champs winning all 3 of their games. Perry and Getzlaf have seemed to of woken up.
21		3-4-2	5	Wasn’t a terrific week but was a lot better than their first two beating the Rangers and Islanders. Ribeiro had a monster game against NYI getting 5 points (1 goal 4 assists).
22		4-4-0	1	Had a decent week beating the Senators and Sharks but lost to the Canadiens and Blues. Cory Stillman leads the team with 9 points.
23		2-3-3	6	Had a lot better week beating the Devils in back-to-back games and earning a point in their shootout loss to the Sharks. Richards and Carter are picking up their play lately scoring a combined 10 points in the team’s 3 games this past week.
24		3-4-0	6	Rough week losing to the Avalanche and Predators. Their biggest problem is trying to get Kopitar and Frolov going consistantly.
25		3-5-0	2	Got off to a good start beating the Canucks, but lost their next two to the Rangers and Wild. Nash must maintain a point per game pace for this team to be competitive.
26		3-4-0	2	Beat the Capitals but lost to the Flames. They’ll need more from Jokinen as they play the Penguins and Wild this week.
27		2-4-2	10	They lost all 3 of their games this past week and Todd White leads the team in points. Need I say anymore?
28		2-5-1	12	Lost all 3 of their games and like usual Heatley, Spezza and Alfredsson seem like the only players who can score on the team.
29		2-5-0	7	What can be said about this team? They lost both of their games last week and DiPietro seems to be battling injury issues already.
30		1-3-3	2	There must be something wrong with the water in Tampa. They barely beat the Thrashers and lost 3-0 to the Sharks. After 7 games St.Louis and Lecavalier only have 9 points combined.

Be sure to check back next week with our NHL Power Rankings for Week 4.

The biggest loser in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Anaheim Ducks. It was a close race between them and the Philadelphia Flyers, but since they’re just two years removed from winning the Cup it goes to Anaheim. Not much really needs to be said other than they’ve only won one out of their first six games and Rob Niedermayer and Travis Moen are tied for the team lead in points with four.

The biggest gainer in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the New York Rangers. They took both games from the Lightning in Prague and continued their sold play when they got back to North America beating the Blackhawks, Flyers and Devils. Taking into consideration that they lost both Jagr and Shanahan and brought in the questionable Zherdev and Naslund who struggled the last two years in Vancouver the Rangers were the biggest winners the first two weeks of the season.

Lets take a look at the rest of the league: NHL POWER RANKINGS for week 1 & 2

Rank	Team	Record	PRV	Comment
1		6-1-1	-	Impressively won both games against Tampa Bay over in Europe and continued that success here in North America winning their next three in a row. Combined that with the surprising play of Voros and Dubinsky and the Rangers are sitting pretty.
2		5-1-0	-	Won their first four games in a row, three against divisional opponents and sit first in the Western Conference. Jonathan Cheechoo has rediscovered his scoring touch which could mean big trouble for teams in the West.
3		4-0-1	-	Their 100th season got off to a bad start in Buffalo losing in the shootout, but they’ve won their last four in a row. Alex Tanguay is loving life as a Hab and Carey Price looks sharp.
4		4-0-0	-	They haven’t had the toughest schedule to start the season, but they’ve won all four of their games to go undefeated and that’s what good teams do. This also looks to be Mikko Koivu’s breakout season as he’s averaging two points a game so far.
5		4-0-0	-	This young and exciting team is finding a way to get it done each night so far. They’ve managed to win all four of their games by only one goal thanks to timely scoring and solid goaltending. They’ll have to start winning games by a bigger margin if they want to stay near the top of the West.
6		4-0-1	-	The Sabres have been a pleasant surprise so far going unbeaten in their first five games. Thomas Vanek is tearing it up with 7 goals already and both Miller and Lalime are playing great only giving up a max of 2 goals per game.
7		4-1-0	-	Lead by Martin Brodeur the Devils have looked solid winning four of their first five games. As per usual, they’ll have to get some consistent scoring in order to have a successful season as they’ve only played one game were they’ve scored more than 2 goals.
8		4-1-0	-	Lead by the speedy Paul Kariya the Blues have come out of the gate and surprised winning four of their first five games. They’ll have their first big test on Wednesday when they play the Red Wings.
9		3-1-1	-	Shaky start to the season losing to the Thrashers, but they rebounded nicely beating the Blackhawks, Canucks and Penguins. They have a tough week ahead facing the Flames, Coyotes and Stars.
10		3-1-1	-	Haven’t gotten off to the start they would have liked, but they have beaten the Senators, Hurricanes and Rangers. Surprisingly Brian Rafalski leads the team in points with 6.
11		3-2-1	-	Just like Detroit they haven’t gotten off to the best start, but both Malkin and Crosby are off to good ones.
12		3-3-0	-	Surprised a lot of people winning their first two games against Calgary, but have lost three of their last four games. They’ll be in tough this week playing the Blue Jackets and Oilers.
13		3-1-1	-	Off to a pretty good start beating the Panthers, Lightning and Ducks. Both Whitney and Staal look sharp which is a good sign as they’ll be leaning heavily on those two for scoring.
14		2-1-1	-	They’ve gotten off to a better start than their record shows. They beat the Avalanche and Senators and lost two close ones to the Wild and Canadiens.
15		3-3-0	-	Gotten off to a so-so start beating the Stars, Blackhawks and Blue Jackets. Dan Ellis will have to start playing better as they face the Flames and Kings this week.
16		2-2-1	-	Pretty average for a middle of the pack team. They should be able to take two of three from the Panthers, Ducks and Leafs this week.
17		2-2-1	-	Big surprise win over the Capitals in their first game of the season and then lost a tough one to the Panthers the next night. Bryan Little is looking to have his breakout season as he leads the team in points with 6.
18		2-2-0	-	Lost their first two games to the Sharks, but rebounded by beating the Ducks and Hurricanes. They’ll need to get more scoring from guys like Kopitar and Frolov to remain competitive.
19		2-3-0	-	Have rebounded from losing their first three games of the season by beating the Flyers and Stars back-to-back. They have a tough week ahead facing the Kings, Oilers and Sabres.
20		2-2-2	-	Even Steven, their record pretty much says it all. Two positives are the games they did lose were winnable and it appears Patrick Kane wont be suffering from a sophomore slump.
21		2-2-0	-	They got spanked by the Wild 6-2 but came back with a nice 2-0 shutout win against the Islanders on Saturday. They have a tough schedule this week playing four games against the Canadiens, Senators, Sharks and Blues.
22		2-3-0	-	No real surprise here. Had two nice wins over the Blues and Lightning but one of their losses came in a blow out to Buffalo 7-1.
23		2-3-0	-	Nice wins over the Stars and Predators but looked sloppy in their losses to the Sharks and their second game against the Predators.
24		2-3-0	-	Got off to a good start in back-to-back wins over the Blue Jackets and Ducks, but have lost their last three games in a row. On the plus side rookies Kyle Turris and Mikkel Boedker are looking good to start off the season.
25		1-2-2	-	Surprise win over the Red Wings to start off the season but were beaten handily by the Canadiens and Penguins on back-to-back Saturday nights. Rookies Luke Schenn and Nikolai Kulemin have looked impressive so far.
26		1-3-1	-	Tough loss to the Blue Jackets to start off the season and then split a home and home series with the Predators. They’ll look to rebound playing four games this week. Rookie Fabian Brunnstrom looked impressive scoring a hat-trick in his first NHL game.
27		1-3-1	-	Suffered a tough loss to the Canucks last Saturday and weren’t able to pick up a win in their home and home with their provincial rivals the Oilers. On the plus side new comers Todd Bertuzzi and Mike Cammalleri have looked good so far scoring a combined 10 points in 5 games.
28		0-2-3	-	Tough luck is the best word to describe what’s happened with Tampa so far. All of their losses have been by one goal and the last three in either overtime or a shootout. I’d suggest to Mr.Melrose to play Steven Stamkos more if they want to win and have him develop into the player he can be.
29		0-3-2	-	Tough losses to the Rangers, Penguins and Sharks. They’ll have to get better goaltending and play better defensively to start winning as they’ve given up 4+ goals in 4 of their first 5 games.
30		1-5-0	-	A nice 4-0 shutout win over the Sharks, but that’s it. They’ve had a horrible start to the season and their top three forwards Getzlaf, Perry and Selanne are playing like its still preseason.

Be sure to check back next week with our NHL Power Rankings for Week 3

If you don’t remember who the original twin towers were, your not a basketball fan.  These two players absolutely dominated the boards and the game when they played together.  When Tim Duncan was drafted out of the University Of Wake Forest back in 1997 by the San Antonio Spurs, it created a lethal dual for the Spurs.  With veteran David Robinson in the front court,  two, 7 footers banging the boards, scoring points and blocking shots, they were soon nicknamed the “TWIN TOWERS”.  Most opposing teams couldn’t defend this with their tallest players being under 7 feet, the Spurs now had 2 of them!. 

What a difference 2 bigmen made for the spurs In 1999 they went from being the last place team in the NBA to a contender the next year.  The twin towers second year together, they ended up winning there first championship and in 2003 they did it again hoisting the NBA Championship trophy for the second time. 

If Jermain O’Neal can come back to form as that All Star he once was 4 years ago and the emergence of Chris Bosh as a top NBA player, anything can be possible this year for the Raptors.  Do you see the similarities?  There are already Torontonians making comparisons to Tim Duncan and David Robinson.  Even though the season hasn’t started we can only assume that this may be the case with Chris Bosh and Jermaine O’Neal.  Hopefully the combination does work, and both can stay healthy and help Toronto win the East and maybe just maybe win a championship.

Well just have to wait and see!