Which Leafs will be left standing?

September 27, 2011   Uncategorized     207 Comments

He can count to six and to nine just as quickly as the other defenceman still in Leafs training camp. So there’s no need to beat Keith Aulie over the head with an Easton to remind him he’s in for a battle to retain his starting job on the Leafs blueline. With nine defenceman still in camp, as few as four or five of the starting six jobs are anywhere near settled. Who gets a spot opening night is one of the big stories to be played out over the next 10 days.
“So far I just feel I’ve been okay,” Aulie said after a two-hour practice Monday at the Mastercard Centre. “I’ve felt really good, I’m just a half second late sometimes and haven’t defended the way I want to. “You can’t hide the fact that we have a lot of good D-men here and a lot of good D-men ready to play. Lots of guys are playing well and it’s going to make (management’s) decision pretty hard. “If you are in my shoes, I have to show them everything I got these last two or three games.” He’s not alone. From general manager Brian Burke to coach Ron Wilson, it’s been recognized as a good problem to have. If there’s anywhere in the organization that depth of NHL talent exists, this is it. Many general managers believe a team needs eight NHL-ready defencemen anyway to be prepared for injuries. The other obvious benefit of depth is the currency it provides on the trade market. Theories abound on what management should do though performance over the final three pre-season games could help sort it out. “We might have the easy job just going out there and playing,” said newcomer John-Michael Liles.http://www.torontosun.com/2011/09/26/who-will-be-left-standing


207 Responses to Which Leafs will be left standing?

  1. mapleleafsfan says:
    September 30, 2011 at 1:57 pm

    Yea I'm at school in Montreal so you get some leafs games but you almost get chased out of bars if you ask for them to turn it on.. Now I just go and ask for the team we're playing's game haha.. But yea I have to stream a lot and it's definitely hard to find good quality ones…

    myp2p.bz usually has quite a few streams and sometimes you can find a decent one… justin.tv used to be alright for streaming but it's a lot of links just promo-ing other sites now so it's not that great… and also cbc usually streams the saturday games if you can't watch them on cbc.  
    It does really suck trying to find something of decent quality though, i usually just settle with a crappy one and use it more for the audio then just watch the replays when theres something worthwhile. 
  2. hockey_lover says:
    September 30, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    Yeah that was pretty crappy.  I'll admit man .. as much as I dislike Kessel, he handled it really well and took it in stride, despite the stupidity being thrown in his face.  I got a lot of respect for him after that.

  3. hockey_lover says:
    September 30, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    Seriously. Put down the keyboard and go get laid. You might chill out a bit sweetheart.

  4. reinjosh says:
    September 30, 2011 at 3:19 pm

    Thats a good point. The whole political correctness, walk on eggshell attitude gets annoying. Just say what you want to say. That's why the guys like Torts and MacTavish were always some of the best on TSN. They weren't afraid to just come out and say what they wanted to say. 

  5. reinjosh says:
    September 30, 2011 at 3:23 pm

    That's a hard question. 

    Probably Kulemin but thats based on the idea that I think he's capable of being a 40 goal guy occasionally and a perennial 30 goal two-way player. 
    Than again Grabovski is working his way to being only a little bit behind Kulemin on the defensive side, he has leadership over him and his offense isn't exactly that far behind Kulemin either. Plus he's a center and those are becoming harder and harder to find nowadays. 
    Kulemin because he's younger? 
    I really hope it doesn't come down to having to choose. 
    Very tough
  6. Leafs_Wallace says:
    September 30, 2011 at 4:08 pm

    I also like Dave Hodge but he only gets about five minutes of air time a week.

  7. mojo19 says:
    October 1, 2011 at 1:50 am

    Dave Hodge is cool.

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