The Penguins were badly outplayed for the final 40 minutes of this game and for a team that is trying to make the postseason there is no excuse for the lack of effort they displayed in the final period. There was a lone bright spot in this game and his name was Marc-Andre Fleury, although Fleury allowed 6 goals in this contest most of them were not his fault.

Fleury made the save of the year, robbing Jason Blake of his 7th career hat-trick, if you did not see the game or catch the highlights we recommend you take the time to see this save.

Jason Blake came roaring down the wing and cut to the net, as he cut to the net goalie Tim Thomas decided the only way he was going to stop Blake (who earlier beat him for a goal) was to lunge at him with his blocker and glove.  Thomas used a double armed close line technique and never recieved a penalty for it.

“Thomas is the man.  And I have no idea what is wrong with this play.  Thomas checks a player.  There is nothing in the rules that says he can’t.  If Jason Blake doesn’t get his a$$ handed to him from Brian Burke, it will be because he is on waivers (yeah, won’t happen, I know).  Dude, you just got checked by a goalie.” Via Puck Daddy and Jerseys And Hockey Love

This is not the first time Thomas has hit a player, a couple of weeks ago against the Montreal Canadiens Tim Thomas hit an unexpected Andrei Kostitsyn who was crossing in front of the net and a fight ensued.

Is Tim Thomas double armed close line a legal play in hockey?  We think not, but if a goalie can hit a player and not get a penalty, then we think players should be able to body check a goalie when they come out of their crease.

It seems to be a trend in Toronto, sign a player and then bench him, Matt Stajan signed a new contract then benched, and now Jason Blake. Don’t even get me started on Matt Stan, this guy shouldn’t even be playing in Junior “A”.

These guys gotta go, Toronto wants to rebuild and it’s not gonna start with these 2 guys, and no we don’t want them on our mens hockey team.

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He may be a former 40-goal scorer and armed with a fat five-year $20-million US contract, but all that buys Jason Blake tonight is a spot in the TD Banknorth Garden press box.

Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson did the expected after this morning’s skate and announced Blake will be a healthy scratch for tonight’s contest against the Bruins. Blake will be replaced in the lineup by tough guy Ryan Hollweg, who is coming off a three-game suspension for decking St. Louis rookie Alex Pietreangelo from behind.

“I’m not going to compromise how I coach the team for the wrong reasons,” Wilson said this morning when explaining Blake’s benching. “He’s not scoring, he’s not back checking, he’s not doing this or not doing that (so) we’re going to keep him in the lineup until he catches a lucky break? That’s not how I coach.

“Everyone on the team has to understand that if you are not performing up to your ability, if you are not doing certain things that we as coaches expect everybody to do, you run the risk of not being in the lineup,” Wilson said.

“It’s not the end of the world. This is our seventh game. If you are going to get people on their toes, you might as well do it early in the season.”

Given his play of late, Wilson said benching Blake was “a fairly simple decision” and that it was important from an integrity standpoint to show the rest of the Leafs that no one on the team is immune to being held accountable.

“He hasn’t scored recently,” Wilson said of Blake’s reputation as one of the few goal scorers on the team even though he scored just 15 last season. “He scored one goal on a power play when the score was 4-0. We’ve got to get him going and we have to get everybody to buy into a set of principals.”

For his part, Blake is grudging in his acceptance of the demotion.

“I thought I played good, maybe not in the last game, but what do you do,” Blake said. “There’s not much you can do other than work hard and stay positive.”

Besides Blake, defenceman Carlo Colaiacovo was also getting the press box treatment, a healthy scratch for the second consecutive game.

Source: Toronto Sun

5.  Toronto Maple Leafs Season Preview

Lets just say there’s a reason why Mats Sundin didn’t rush back to play with this team.

The Leafs biggest weakness is up front. Nik Antropov, Jason Blake, Jiri Tlusty and Alexei Ponikarovsky make up part of the top 6. Newly acquired Mikhail Grabovski and Niklas Hagman will add some offence along with Alex Steen. While forwards like Matt Stajan, Dominic Moore and Jamal Mayers will help out on the defensive side of things. Rookie John Mitchell is an interesting wild card and will start the season on the 3rd or 4th line.

Despite the forwards, their defence is looks pretty good. Tomas Kaberle and Pavel Kubina are the top two while guys like Carlo Colaiacovo, Mike Van Ryn, John Frogren, Anton Stralman and the man himself Jeff Finger add some good depth. Rookie Luke Schenn is starting off the season with the big club and if he continues his sold play from preseason will likely stay with the club, although they wont be relying heavily on him.

In net they have a solid #1 in Vesa Toskala and Curtis Joseph brings some good leadership to the dressing room but is far removed from being one of the top goalies in the league.

It’s the start of a rebuild for this team, so unless a miracle happens they’ll be on the outside looking in for the playoffs for the 4th year in a row.