“The start was huge for us,” Eakins said. “It actually started right off the first shift. We were able to catch them sleeping, and we never let up. I thought our forwards did a great job of getting in on their defence and being physical.”

“Our execution was excellent,” Eakins said. “We had practiced very hard and had scaled them back to make sure they were ready. The young men came out flying tonight.”

With this win, Toronto Marlies’ Ben starting goalie Ben Scrivens recorded his second shutout and made 31 saves for an 8-1 playoff record.

Oklahoma City goaltender Yann Danis had 27 saves in front of 2,596 fans at the Cox Convention Center.

As for the Toronto Marlies offensive push, Thursday night’s game was led by Marcel Mueller, Phillipe Dupis, Nazem Kadri and Nikolas Deschamps, who all registered two points each.

Next game is tonight, Friday night in Oklahoma City. In my opinion if the Toronto Marlies can do what they did last night, this team will easily win the AHL Western Finals.

Series Schedule
Game 1 – Thursday, May 17: Toronto at Oklahoma City 8:00 p.m.
Game 2 – Friday, May 18: Toronto at Oklahoma City 8:00 p.m.
Game 3 – Monday, May 21: Oklahoma City at Toronto 3:00 p.m.
Game 4 – Wednesday, May 23: Oklahoma City at Toronto 7:00 p.m.
*Game 5 – Friday, May 25: Oklahoma City at Toronto 7:00 p.m.
*Game 6 – Monday, May 28: Toronto at Oklahoma City 8:00 p.m.
*Game 7 – Wednesday, May 30: Toronto at Oklahoma City 8:00 p.m.

Rant Sports Toronto Maple Leafs Feature Writer
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The aspect of what I think went well during this last season for the Toronto Maple Leafs is the dynamic duo of Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul. This season Kessel set careers high is goals (37), assists (45) and points (82), while Lupul had career highs in assists (42) and in points (67).

More specifically Lupul assisted on 17 of Kessel’s 37 goals this season before missing the last 13 game with a shoulder injury. Kessel is under contact for the next two seasons and if Lupul performs as well as he did last season, expect General Manager Brian Burke to get Lupul under a new contact before next year’s NHL trade deadline.

In the end there is hope for the Maple Leafs in Kessel and Lupul, as well as quite a few player in the Marlies, some of the Maple Leafs defenseman and James Reimer we will have to wait in see his performance next season. But Head Coach Randy Carlyle had this to say about hope for the Maple Leafs next season.

“I don’t know if I look at it as hope,” Carlyle said. “There’s some things that I know that we can do well as a hockey club, and there’s some things that I know that are stopping us from doing well. And we have to correct those things to give ourselves the best chance for success.”

Rant Sports Toronto Maple Leafs Feature Writer
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Leo Komarov will join the #Leafs this summer, according to his KHL team’s official website (s/t @IgorEronko)

May 14, 2012 9:37 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@dchesnokov

Dmitry Chesnokov

Team Finland forward Leo Komarov will play for #MapleLeafs next season #NHL

May 14, 2012 9:30 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@IgorEronko

Igor Eronko

@biggsbrownross Komarov – skilled agitator, good skater, can play either top-6 or bottom-6

May 14, 2012 9:51 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@IgorEronko

Igor Eronko

Roughly 10 days ago Komarov made his intentions known when he said he would rather not play out his last year of his contact in the KHL and make his way to the NHL game.

What type of player is Leo Komarov?

I would describe Leo Komarov as a pest on the ice. Even as a small forward, 5′ 11″ and 190lbs, Komarov has the ability to get under people’s skin, there is a lot of grit in this guy and he is not afraid to be in front of the net. On offense, Leo Komarov is not one to lead the rush or be the offensive catalyst on a team, but he will be a well well rounded player as a bottom six forward on any team, with plenty of speed in his legs.

My opinion on Komarov is that he is a wait and see player once he arrives in the NHL. There are a few special attributes I feel Komarov has which could translate into something special in the NHL, but its just a wait and see process to see if this Finnish forward pans out.

Rant Sports Toronto Maple Leafs Feature Writer
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Dale Hunter replaced Bruce Boudreau in November who originally started out the season as the Capitals Head Coach. Before that, Hunter was the Head Coach for the OHL’s London Knights.

During the time Dale Hunter coach the Capitals this season, he and his team had a 30-23-7 record during the regular season. Along with beating the defending Stanley Cup Champions in 7-games in the 1st round, later to lose in the 7th game against the New York Rangers in the 2nd round of the NHL playoffs.

Hunter was also a former Capitals player, playing 12 NHL seasons in Washington.

My opinion on the situation is that I kind of expect Dale Hunter to resign as the Capitals Head Coach, his heart has always been with his London Knights team and even though this is at the OHL, I believe Hunter loves the success he has had. I wish all the best to Dale in the future.

The Capitals and General Manager George McPhee will certainly have a buzy off-season ahead of them, with the decsion of a new Head Coach to hire. Along with re-signing potential UFA’s such as Alexander Semin, Dennis Wideman and Mike Knuble, plus keep RFA’s Mike Green and Mathieu Perreault signed to new contracts.

Rant Sports Toronto Maple Leafs Feature Writer
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After Lashoff played 11 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs towards the end of the 2010/11 NHL season. This former first round pick was hoping to be among the team’s first AHL call-ups this season by the Maple Leafs.

Those hopes were all ruined when Lashoff injured his knee during a game in October, during an incident that was called a “questionable hit” by Toronto Marlies Head Coach Dallas Eakins.

“Once the injury happened, it was a pretty big shock to my system,” said the 25-year-old. “I pretty much focused on setting my mind set straight, once I got the surgery, to work hard and I gave myself the goal of coming back for the playoffs.”

At the start of the first round of the 2012 AHL’s playoffs, Coach Eakins requested to Lashoff if he could push himself to get back to game shape if the Marlies go deep in the playoffs, despite Lashoff’s currently inability to play. As the days went along the odds that Lashoff would return were low, but the notion of Lashoff making a return, when he could have packed up his locker, truly inspired the Toronto Marlies.

Well, the verdict is that Lashoff ended up playing in game #4 against the Abbotsford Heat.

“I had a lot of confidence in him, so I had absolutely no reservations,” said Coach Eakins. “He’s a veteran guy that has worked extremely hard to come back from a real tough injury. The other thing about Lashoff is he’s a great leader. He’s a guy that you want in your dressing room, a part of your team.”

The Toronto Marlies first conference game will be on May 17th, in Oklahoma City against the Barons.

Rant Sports Toronto Maple Leafs Feature Writer
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The big picture of how this series has gone leading up to the 7th and final game, is that each team has alternated wins and losses since the Rangers won in Game #1. Every game has been a one goal contest and no team has recorded more than three goals in a single game.

During the first period of this enduring physical match-up, Brad Richards and the New York Rangers scored the first and most important goal of the game 1:32 into the first period. During the rest of the first period, throughout the second period and the first 10 minutes of the third period, this winner takes all game consisted of great physical play, solid defense and one penalty.

All in all making this game where you cannot afford a mistake and that is what happened 10:05 into the third period of play. Where Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto got a shot off between the face-off dots to put his team up 2-0. But 38 seconds later, the Capitals did not waste time when veteran Roman Hamrlik was able to wrist in a shot from the same position Del Zotto scored his goal. A couple minutes later the Capitals got their first power-play opportunity, when Ruslan Fedotenko went to the box, but the Capitals could not capitalize on this opportunity to tie up the game.

In the end the Capitals certainly made a valiant effort in the remaining minutes and seconds to tie up the game. But when the New York Rangers have the likes of Henrik Lundqvist in net, along with a solid defense; two huge reasons why this team won the 1st seed in the Eastern Conference during the regular season, the Rangers were too much for the Capitals.

Lundqvist finished the game saving 21 of 22 shots, while Braden Holtby saved 29 of 31 shots.

The New York Rangers will play Game #1 against the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden’s this Monday night.

My personal opinion of this game is that I have definitely seen more exciting game 7′s than this one and yes more goals makes the game more exciting. All in all, the first couple minutes was fast paced and Richards being doubled shifted early in the game proved to be a great decision in the end. I feel that the New York Rangers played a better physical game and with their Vesina Trophy goalie in net, along with being on home ice, I think the odds were in the Rangers’ favor from the get go.

Rant Sports Toronto Maple Leafs Feature Writer
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As I look at the logo it appears with the images and wording, that this logo is clearly to commemorate the Toronto Maple Leafs 100 years in the NHL. I would also expect that this logo would be sown onto the shoulder part of each game worn jersey.

With this 100th season coming up I would like to think the City of Toronto and the Air Canada Centre will likely get to host the All-Star game to co-inside with their season; along with the NHL Entry Draft after the season is completed.

The other point of view one could make about the Maple Leafs 100th season during 2017/18 season, is will the team be good by that point. I would certainly like to think so, but wouldn’t it be nice to give your fans a playoff appearance during you 100th season; please make this happen Brian Burke, if some how you are still around at that point in time.

If you copy and past the link below into your ULR, you can view the new logo.

http://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/vwTrdmrk.do?lang=eng&status=&fileNumber=1568062&extension=0&startingDocumentIndexOnPage=1

Rant Sports Toronto Maple Leafs Feature Writer
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Marlies Head Coach Dallas Eakins had this to say about his playoff star.

“He’s a leader, he’s our guy that is probably 75-80 per cent on face-offs over a whole season,” Eakins said. “He’s an excellent penalty killer, good on our power play and when the game’s on the line this year a lot of times he’s the guy who stepped up and done it for us.”

During the 2012 AHL playoffs, Zigomanis has collected 3 goals and 2 assist, but as Coach Easkin’s stated, Zigomanis is a leader on this team, wins 75% of his face offs, not to mentioned Zigomanis’ commitment to defense.

As for the Abbotsford Heat it was the end of a historical season for the Heat on Wednesday, in front of a crowd of just 1,360 fans at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre. The Heat finished the regular season with a record of 42-26-3-5.

The series against the Heat started off with the Heat winning the first game by the score of 3-1, then losing by the score of 5-1 two days later; both games were played in Toronto. But the Marlies were the far superior team winning the next three games in Abbotsford, for the 4-1 series win.

The Marlies will face either Oklahoma City or San Antonio in the next round, for a shot at to play for the Calder Cup.

Rant Sports Toronto Maple Leafs Feature Writer
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This small group of individuals include Rick Vaive, Gary Leeman and Dave Andreychuk.

For an evening with the Maple Leafs legends, tickets are on sale at $75 each, or $15 for VIP seats; to purchase a ticket or a table cal 905-483-7276.

For more information about the Maple Leafs Legends;

Rick Vaive
Vaive had a great NHL career, producing 788 points in 876 games. The highlights of Vaive career consists of three, back-to-back-to-back 50+ goal seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the early 80′s. More personally, I laughed at the fact when I read Vaive was stripped of his captaincy during the 1985/86 NHL season, for missing a morning practice. I also was fortunate enough to briefly talk to Vaive when he came to my home town of Elmira for a NHL Alumni at the Woolwich Memorial Arena.

Dave Andreychuk
Andreychuk is a Ukrainian-Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played for 6 NHL teams over his 26 year NHL career. Two career achievements of Andreychuk that I would like to mention is his 53 goal performance with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1993/94. Along with winning his first and only Stanley Cup trophy in 2004 with the Tampa Bay Lightning at the age of 40 years old.

Gary Leeman
Leeman was initially drafted as a defenseman by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1982 NHL Draft, but then converted to a winger when he started to play at the NHL level. Leeman was best known as a speedy, but gritty forward, the skills to put up huge numbers. Leeman won only one Stanley Cup when he was with the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.

Rant Sports Toronto Maple Leafs Feature Writer
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When Marc Bergevin was named the General Manager of the Canadiens, rumours immediately began that Rick Dudley could be one his way as the new Assistant General Manager in Montreal.

Though there is concern that since Dudley has been hard at work preparing for the Maple Leafs in this year’s upcoming draft. For Dudley to move over to the Canadiens who draft two spots ahead of the Maple Leafs this year. Could prove an advantage for the Canadiens, in terms of Dudley’s expertise and knowledge of the Maple Leafs draft plan he would bring to Montreal. Along with Brian Burke’s potential desire to move up from their 5th pick in the 2012 NHL Draft.

Toronto would be crazy to let this guy go regardless of the situation, though I think Brian Burke is not the type of person to get in the way of one of his staff personnel being promoted to in a different organization.

In the end when Dudley finally makes his move to Quebec, he will certainly be a fantastic front office addition to a Habs team who craves for experience. A team who is in dire need of front office leadership after a dismal 2011/12 season. Especially with their newly hired General Manager, Bergevin, who is inexperience at this position, will certainly benefit the most from Dudley’s presence.

Rant Sports Toronto Maple Leafs Feature Writer
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Email me at jz4jfrecordings@hotmail.com
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