Leafs Collapse After Strong First Period Against Islanders

Leafs celebrate after jumping to an early lead, before allowing
five unanswered goals
PHOTO: NHL.com

Another late surge by the Toronto Maple Leafs isn't nearly enough to get back into a game where they gave up five unanswered goals after jumping to an early 3-1 lead. The Leafs would ultimately lose the game by a score of 7-4. A reoccurring theme for the Maple Leafs over the last several seasons is the inability to play a 60 minute game. Tonight was a display of just that. The Leafs were all over New York in the first period, but fell asleep for the next 35 minutes. In their defense, the Leafs did play last night and so fatigue is definitely an issue, but it's not an excuse.

In a season with only 48 games, every game is crucial, more-so than the average season. The teams that manage to hold early leads are the teams that will thrive and the teams that can't will be on the outside looking in, as the Leafs have been since the previous NHL lockout in 2004. At times Toronto has shown some promise early in this season, but tonight's game exposed the majority of the hurtles that the Leafs will have to overcome this season.

Brian Burke Fired, Dave Nonis Takes Over

The Toronto Maple Leafs have relieved Brian Burke of his job and replaced him with his Dave Nonis, one of Toronto's assistant General Managers. The news came as a shock today when the decision was made, and was followed up by a press conference from Toronto at 1:45pm this afternoon. Burke has been appointed a new role for the Maple Leafs as a senior advisor.

Burke, who was the GM for the Leafs for the last four years, had a losing record in his tenure with Toronto. He just recently signed Randy Carlyle to take over as the coach at the tail end of last season. Considering the fact that the NHL and the NHLPA have finally come to a deal after four months of lockout, the timing of this news is rather odd. Why not fire Brian Burke in the summer? Or why not fire him in the dead months during the lockout? The timing doesn't seem right for a change to just happen. What made this decision happened just a few days prior to training camp for the 48-game shortened NHL season.

NEW VIDEO - TIM CONNOLLY - NO HEART

In this episode, the ever-so-wacky Tim Connolly has to be serious. He is having some really troublesome health issues. But GM Brian Burke knows a good doctor or two, and with the help of an unlikely friend, Tim realizes that his health problem isn't so bad after all.

NHL13 - Thoughts on the Demo

Finally I've mustered enough desire to fight off the laziness that has kept me from writing an article over the last few months. This is because EA Sports has released the Demo for NHL 13 today. The game will be available on September 11th, 2012.

After pretty much releasing the same game since 2008 with some minor tweaks over the last four years, this year EA Sports added a bit more to the game. Is it completely different? Absolutely not. Are there a lot of tweaks or just a few? There isn't a lot, but there isn't a few. However, the parts that were revamped this year compared to years in the past were done very carefully to the best detail.

So, what's new?

Speaking strictly about gameplay, there are a few improvements they have made this year. Some for the better, some that may need to be working on by next year to get it just right. The biggest improvement this year is the new skating engine. Players actually look like they're skating across the ice. Unlike previous years where you could do things like stop, turn on a dime and skate at full speed, the skating this year is far more realistic. The downside with the skating, and what may end up being a problem with the game until it is patched by EA (hopefully), is the new skating backwards option. It's a great idea to fully optimize skating as their tutorial video shows, but I think the backwards skating is way too powerful and will end up being a big problem when playing other users online. I have already seen a shoot-out glitch goal where the skater just skates backwards towards the goalie until the last second and turns to face the goalie to score. He did it over and over again only missing a few times.

The Kings End One Stanley Cup Drought, But Two More Continue

The Los Angeles Kings win the Stanley Cup for
the first time in franchise history.
PHOTO: NHL.com

The Los Angeles Kings have won the Stanley Cup for the first time in their history. The season had many ups and downs for the Kings, but they managed to make their way into the playoffs by capturing the eighth and final spot in the West. But when the playoffs started, the Kings put their regular season struggles behind them and rolled through each of their opponents with relative ease to capture the Stanley Cup.

The Kings, joined the National Hockey League back in 1967, along with five other teams. This was the league first major expansion and would be the start of many more to come over the next several decades. The downside for cities which already had teams in the NHL was the increased competition, and with that  came a lower chance of success. Although the Kings managed to break their drought, which lasted nearly half a century, there are two more droughts dating back to that same season where the NHL expanded from six to twelve teams.