The Good Hustle Blog

An extremely biased blog about the Toronto Maple Leafs

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You’re Invited! Leafs Training Camp 1962.

January 12th, 2010 · Leafs News

Check out this invite letter to Leafs training camp circa 1962. From this I can draw a few inferences:

1) I am physically capable of completing the fitness requirements, no problem. I guess the dream of making the NHL at age 30 is still alive.

2) I wonder if any camp invite letter in the last 40 years has made reference to the leafs being “Stanley Cup holders”. I feel like the more recent letters might be more along the lines of, “Let’s try to finish strong in 9th spot again.”

3) The Loblaws sign is missing on that old building in the top left.

4) Dinner was a lot earlier in those days.

5) “Nearly all” the players had cars.

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Trade Speculation: Leafs, Ducks, Coyotes

December 15th, 2009 · Leafs News

Goaltending:

I still think that Vesa Toskala, despite his improved play as of late, is as good as gone. Here’s why I think he will be a part of a trade with the Anaheim Ducks.

- Brian Burke and Dave Nonis have obvious ties to the Ducks.

- J.S. Giguere has publically voiced his displeasure in not being the starting goalie, having been displaced by the you ng and impressive Hillar. J.S. Giguere, “I would rather retire than be a backup goalie.”

- J.S. Giguere has a child with special needs (eye deformation) and was granted a no trade clause by Brian Burke. Toronto happens to have one of the best children’s rehab centers in the world.

- Toskala has played better as of late which is good for Toronto in chalking up some wins but I don’t think Burke is convinced that he can take the team to the playoffs or all the way even if they made it. His recent good play has lifted him from un-tradable to possibly attractive for the right suitor.

- One negative of this would be that Toskala’s contract is still fairly large but still a good $2 million less than JSG’s.

- J.S. Giguere was obviously coached by Francois Allaire so there’s the common bond there.

PREDICTION: J.S. Giguere to Toronto for Vesa Toskala. Toronto may have to add another farm team player to mix given that JSG is a proven winner and arguable stronger in net than Toskala.

Top 6 Forward:

Even though the Leafs have drastically improved their play as of late, I think that tomorrow’s game against Phoenix is another opportunity for the teams to scope eachother out. I expect Peter Mueller to have a big game. The big center who’s 21 now fits the Burke mould and has been on the Burke radar already. Here’s why I think he’s attractive for the Leafs:

- He’s american. Burke has started to build a team around some core US players (Kessel, Komisarek) and an inherited Blake.

- Phoenix is on a role and not getting much production from Mueller who has 6 pts in 28 games, so he wouldn’t be missed on the score sheet much.

- Mueller has taken steps back since his rookie year where he got 54 pts and scored 22 goals. Although he’s not a sniper per se, he’s a strong center who could fit into the top 6 nicely.

- Phoenix needs some depth on D. They’ve got an aging couple of D men, Ed Jovanovski and Adrian Aucoin, leading the way for their team but  they lack the physical presence they’ll need if they want to go far in the playoffs.

- Mueller has great hair. Reminiscent of a certain Leaf / Head & Shoulders man from 1994…

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PREDICTION: Mueller to Toronto for Garnet Exelby and maybe a farm prospect. Leafs simply have too many D men at the moment in that they have to keep scratching healthy guys (of which I applaud the Schenn benching) but I think once Gunarrsson comes back, the Leafs will be fine with their D.

Burke’s obviously got his hands full with the Team USA Olympic stuff and the imposed holiday trade embargo but maybe we’ll see something like these materialize in the new year. I don’t think they’re too far fetched.

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The Ride to Work After a Leaf Victory

November 26th, 2009 · Leafs News

Is just plain better.

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Other Things That Can Happen in 27 Seconds

November 20th, 2009 · Uncategorized

Leafs were leading with 29.9 seconds to go last night. Might as well cruise to victory, the Hurricanes aren’t going to want to score, right? Like giving up a lead before the final buzzer, here are some other things that can happen in 27 seconds.

Usain Bolt could, on paper, run 281 meters.

“Joe” could dump Taylor Swift over the phone. (This even was actually timed)

You can order and pay for a medium ice cap at Tim Horton’s….using debit.

You can deliberately use your hand in a World Cup qualifying soccer match to set up the game winning goal, celebrate, and then  feel like you’ve cheated the world.

You can check on your crops, visit 2 friends farms, shoo away raccoons, and decide if you really want to buy that Cotton Candy machine that would look so good in the middle of your freshly plowed field.
AND IF YOU’RE THE LEAFS…

You can take a tiny portion of the 27 seconds to decide if giving up 2 first round picks (and a second) is a fair trade for Phillip Joseph Kessel Jr and then spend the rest of the season watching in horror as the worst case scenario unfolds and that 1st round pick becomes the #1 pick and now you’ve just walked the path of shame that former Leafs GM’s have of which you vowed not to do.

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5 Things That I Can Guarantee Tonight

November 3rd, 2009 · Game Preview

5. Leafs will win. Strange to say those words together like that but I’ve got a good feeling here. Tampa just played last night (and was destroyed by Philly), Leafs are overdue for a win, and also because I’m tired of seeing Steve Stamkos roof sweet goals on Sports Center. He’s been hitting the medicine balls a bit too much lately.

4. Ian White will have the best mustache on the ice. Obviously.

3. Kaberle will get assists. That’s just what he does. The rest of the Leafs D may contribute an own-goal or two as well.

2. Ron Wilson will get annoyed at reporters, in the morning, before the game, and definitely afterwards, regardless of the outcome.

1. Phillip Joseph Kessel Jr. will not score. Just accept it. He’ll get 25 by the end of the year though and Leafs fans will grow to love him. In the long run he’ll be worth the price.

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Wendel Clark Made Me Do It.

October 25th, 2009 · Leafs News

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For all the shit that Canucks fans gave me leading up to the Leafs game yesterday, my answer was, “What do the Leafs have to lose?” What, another loss? Who cares? We’re going to lose A LOT more games than 8 this year so what’s the big deal? Blah blah blah, so the Leafs lost again. I’m not going to give you a breakdown of the whole game in words which is the writing caliber of some of the nations sportswriters. So lame. Here’s a breakdown of my EXPERIENCE at the game in more tweet-gestible portions.

- Walk in the door and immediately to my right is a silent auction. Mostly Canucks crap except for a signed version of this:

- Have an out of body experience and find myself immediately grabbing a pen and placing a bid of $320. I don’t have $320 ready to donate to this cause. 

- Immediately experience remorse for placing bid.

- Get to nosebleed seats. Canucks fans ignorance levels seem to get higher the further up your seats go. Drunk people yelling “Leafs Suck” during every pause in the national anthem. Really classy.

- Empty flask of JD into XL cup. (Speaking of classy)

- Leafs take a shitload of penalties, begin to dread the exceptional levels of ignorance once the Leafs get scored on.

- Yep, ignorance confirmed. Leafs down 2-0 at the end of first.

- While waiting for food, tall asian girl comes up to me and grabs by jersey sleeve. “What is this, the Toronto Maple Leafs?” Ummmm. I answer, “Yes, that’s who the Canucks are playing tonight.” Her response, “Booo”. See, I told you the level of intelligence was pretty low. Like, who “boo’s” someone to their face? So lame.

- Check on Clark bid. Yep, I’m still leading. Fok.

- Return to seats. Devour smokey. At some point the Leafs score. Momentary silence of ignorant Canucks fans. Cue the ignorant Leafs fans. 

- Robert Louis begins to errect impenetrible wall.

- 2nd intermission – I have been outbid! Yes! But then I start thinking about outbidding that person. Do I want to pay $340 just for the sake of winning? Would make a good story. Hmmm. I’ll pass. I want a picture of Wendel in denim with a mullet anyway, or if possible, an extreme closeup of Wendel’s fists. Also know as “The Assasin” and “The Punisher.”

- Leafs dominate the 3rd period. And I mean dominate. Canucks were on their heels. I got the feeling that the Leafs could really use a clutch and bonefied star at this point. Seeing Stajan, Ponika-gretzky and Grabovski keep control of the puck but not bury it was pretty frustrating. A guy like Mats from a few years back was missed but imagine having a guy like Rick Nash or Jerome Iginla?

- Leafs loss, meet up with fellow Leafs fans. 7 of us go to “Jimmy’s Wine + Liquor”. Sitting on patio, taking the odd jab from passing Canucks fans. 

- After one of our posse doesn’t return from the ‘washroom’, the waitress says, “Hi, umm, we have a bit of a situation here.”. I bet you do.

- “Does the ’situation’ involve #16 Tucker?”….”Yes, he’s putting his arm around customers at the bar and our bartender has refused him service and asked him to leave”. Ha!

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- And so ends our night. 

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90’s Night at the ACC. How do the 2009 Leafs Compare?

October 19th, 2009 · Leafs News, Shitty Leafs from the Past

$5 if you can name the brand of jeans that Wendel is sporting.

I can’t remember but I know I had a pair. Its killing me. Were they Request jeans? Either way Pete, Wendel and I look like we’re having a blast here after drinking a few orange whips and seeing Les Mis.

Zezel Jarvis Clark, Les Mis

So, yes I participated in the online voting for 90’s night at the ACC against the Rangers. Basically you had to vote on who your favorite players were, kind of like a hockey pool, except that the boxes they were divided into were totally bizarre and had some total loser leafs. Mike Craig!!? Todd Warriner!!? How can you have these guys and not have someone like Darcy Tucker….?

Anyway, I will admit that it was pretty cool to see some vintage 90’s names on jerseys going around for the pre-game skate. Obviously it would’ve been WAY cooler if they could have had a bunch of the real guys do the skate. I mean come on, seeing Wendel skate around would’ve blown the roof off. Which BTW, I’m a big fan of how the Oilers get their jersey retirement guys to suit up and do a lap. Oh, that’s right, Leafs management doesn’t really believe in retiring numbers. They like to ‘honor’ them. I would like to take this opportunity to ‘honor’ that idea with this:

I’m trying my best to remain positive during this little slump but on a serious note, take a look at this fictitious lineup of decent / semi-shitty 90’s players that I’ve created and tell me that its not comparable to the players that we have on our team today. I’m not kidding.

Unlike the 90’s night at the ACC, I took the time to actually match up which 90’s player was comparable to the current day roster by line and position Ie: Drake Berehowsky = Luke Schenn (first rounders that got / have the sophomore blues). Its actually kind of scary how similar some of these players are:

MISC. 90’s Leafs Line-up

Forwards

Jonus Hoglund – Darby Hendrickson – Nicholai Borschevsky

Fredrik Modin – Sergei Berezin – Mike Gartner

Gary Valk – Kent Manderville – Alyn McCauley

Todd Warriner – Ken Baumgartner – Steve Sullivan

Defence

Al Iafrate – Mathieu Schneider

Dmitri Yushkevich – Drake Berehowsky

Jeff Brown – Jason Smith

Goalie

Jeff Reese

Damian Rhodes

2009 – 10 Leafs Lines as of Today

Forwards

Viktor Stalberg – Matt Stajan – Jason Blake

Alexei Ponika-gretzky – Mikael Grabovski – Niklas Hagman

Rickard Wallin – John Mitchell – Lee Stempniak

Nicolai Kulemin – Jamal Mayers – Phillip Joseph Kessel Jr

Defence

Beauchemin – Kaberle

Komisarek – Schenn

Finger – Exelby

Goalie

Joey MacDonald

James Reimer

I’m scared. Are you?

BTW – If you even dream of beating me in 90’s leafs trivia you better wake up and apologize (-Ali).

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GoodHustle Chats with Phillip Joseph Kessel Jr.. Seriously.

October 17th, 2009 · Leafs News, Uncategorized

Props to Leafspace and LeafspaceMonika for hosting the chat with Brian Burke and Phil Kessel today.

Although unnoticed, I was particularly proud of myself for being cunning and realizing that if I ask a question on Twitter that is more than 140 characters that it will appear in 2 posts and be in reverse order. Using a high-tech computer program called, “Microsoft Word” I was able to draft up my response, find the midway point and press the Enter key, and then use a Tool called Word Count to see how many characters were in each. I made sure that each was no greater than 140 including “@LeafspaceMonika” and then I posted it it reverse order so that it looked like this:

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Unfortunately the questions didn’t get answered but there was definitely a bias being given to the behind the desk sportscaster and they only answered 2 questions from people of the interwebs. I really thought that the Irish proverb would touch Brian on a heritage and intelectual level on top of being a valid question. 

I’m still holding out hope for buying him a soda when the Leafs come to Vancouver on Oct. 24. 

ANYWAY, next up was Phil Kessel. Maybe because I have a sick sense of humor, I thought the funniest part was when Phil was asked what he thought about the future of the Leafs and all of the sudden there was a dial tone on live TV. LOL. Perhaps Phil was holding the phone on his bad shoulder. 

But speaking of which, my question to Phil was answered: 

Q: Hi Phil, Heard you were in on the dodgeball action. I saw Ron Wilson playing too. Were u or others scared to throw at him?

A: (long winded) But basically Phil thought that the dodgeball game was fun. It “Took him back to the fun he had being on the ice as a kid.” Phil didn’t specify if balls were actually thrown at coach Wilson but from the video I saw it looked like Ron was one of those aggressive dodgeball players. You know, the ones that come right up to the center line when they have the ball, daring the opposition to throw one. I guess he’s trying to show what an aggressive forecheck looks like in dodgeball.

Sorry I don’t have a better recount of what Phil’s long winded answer was. I had a hard time hearing what he was saying most of the time. But I just wanted to throw this out there again, Does Phil Kessel not look exactly like Spencer Pratt?

Spencer Kessel

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What is a Reset Button and How Does it Work?

October 15th, 2009 · Uncategorized

Over the last few days we’ve heard Ron Wilson, Brian Burke and a bunch of leaf players refer to the Reset Button. I’m here to provide a few examples.

Example 1: Hilary Clinton’s Reset Button

This button was used by Hilary Clinton with a Russian Minister to “reset” the relations between the USA and Russia. The button was pressed by Hilary and the minister in front of media to effectively  symbolize that the Obama administration plans on reversing course on whatever the Bush posse did. If this button actually works I have to ask where it was during the Cold War. Might have saved some time.

Example 2: The Staples Easy Button

This button effectively ‘reset’ the image of it being a headache to photocopy the chapters featured on your upcoming midterm from your friends $200 Physics textbook that you were too cheap to buy.

Example 3: Ron Wilson’s version of a Rest Button

We saw Wilson and the boys playing dodgeball on the ice with tennis balls today in an effort to make hockey ‘fun’. In the below example, we see how it is also used in the pitch black with medicine balls. This is so that everyone is equal and there’s no singling out a Finnish goaltender for being the weak link.

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After the grueling dodgeball game and keeping on the track of relaxing, the Leafs were taken to the nearby African Lion Safari (where Aki Berg is now employed).

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Leafs vs. Penguins YouTube Preview

October 10th, 2009 · Game Preview, Leafs News

Predictions for today’s game.

Period 1:

Mike Komisarek Kills Jordan Staal again. Notice how Staal is lifted to his feet to receive his beating.

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Period 2:

With the unexpected strong play of the leafs, some equipment adjustments are required.

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Period 3:

Vesa earns his paycheque

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