Following the final buzzer to end the first period of last night’s game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Carolina Hurricanes, things got heated in front of the Canes’ bench after the Leafs’ Mikhail Grabovski took a run at a Carolina player.

As players from both teams exchanged face-washes, Tim Gleason and Nikolai Kulemin separated themselves from the pile and began throwing punches with their gloves still on.  It was at that moment that Gleason dropped his gloves and connected with a stiff right to the face of the Leafs’ forward, knocking him to the ice in pain.  Kulemin got up clutching his face and headed off the ice, running into the boards blindly on the way (0:52 mark).

That leaves us with just one question:  Was it a cheap shot?  We’ll let you be the judge of that.

A inside source of TPS has identified that their is a possibility that Jay Bouwmeester and Nathan Horton of the Florida Panthers could be traded any day now to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Tomas Kaberle a draft pick and either of 3 options in Mikhail Grabovski, Nikolai Kulemin or Jiri Tlusty.

A second rumor has also surfaced during the All Star weekend that Leafs prospect Justin Pogge is on the trading block and can be traded for JS Giguere of the Anaheim Ducks or Niklas Backstrom of the Minnesota Wild.

These both would be an interesting trades and possibly excellent moves for the Leafs who would be able to fill their needs with talented young players.  The only problem with trading Pogge is that the Leafs would then have 2 starting high priced goalies on their roster.  If this trade does happen you can expect Vesa Toskala to also be traded.

We’ll just have to wait and see if these rumors actually come to fruition.