Leafs End Losing Streak, First Win In 23 Days

All was well last night for the Toronto Maple Leafs in their 4-2 victory in Sunrise over the Florida Panthers. Ed Belfour kept his anger in check on his way to his best outing since January 6th when the Leafs lost 1-0 to Calgary Flames. Belfour stopped 33 shots and was the First Star last night. Mats Sundin also played well, chipping in 3 assists and was the Second Star. It was a game Leafs fans had been waiting a long time for, it was the first victory in 9 games for this team.

Once again Jason Allison played pretty good contributing two assists. To many Leafs fans it looks like Allison isn't doing that much. It's kind of like the Larry Murphy syndrome when Murphy came to the Leafs as a top offensive defenseman and was eventually booed out of town. Not that Allison is getting booed that much, but, he is not getting the respect he deserves. Leaf fans like players who are either fast or tough, if you're slow you've got to be tough and if you're not tough you have to be very fast. Allison is neither fast or tough, he is just a very smart player. He isn't blessed with speed, but, he finds the open man and is an exceptional playmaker. Although his lack of speed is a detriment in this new speedy NHL, his intelligence compensates. Sure Mats Sundin got three assists last night, but two of them were passes to Jason Allison who made the key pass for the goal. All trade talks involving Allison should be stopped as he is unofficially their number one center and officially their number one playmaking forward.

Alexander Khavanov was injured last night and may have a broken foot. Lately, almost every game a defenceman goes down and last night the Leafs played most of the game with five defencemen (Kaberle, Klee, Kronwall, Wozniewski, Harrison) and they played better than could be expected. Bryan McCabe is expected back for tonights game and should provide a much needed lift to this defence corps.

Last night, the Leafs continued to take foolish penalties, but, the Panthers were even worse earning 10 minor penalties over the Leafs 8 minors. The Leafs need to play with more composure if they plan on making the playoffs. The Panthers played flat foolish hockey last night and as glad as I was to see the Leafs win a game, I'm not sure if they won so much as Florida didn't try to win.

Tonight, the Leafs play in Tampa Bay against the Lightning and their 28th ranked power play. If the Leafs get their usual array of penalties tonight, the Lightning may not punish them at all with their weak power play. Hopefully, the Leafs can put together some good hockey tonight and win their second in a row.

I wonder if Pat Quinn will tap Ed Belfour to play tonight. I would give Mikael Tellqvist the start, he played alright on Saturday and at Belfour's age it is a risk to give him the start in back to back games. Besides, I think one of the reasons Belfour played well last night was because he was fuming on the bench on Saturday. I'd hate to see Belfour snap, but, his workload needs to be reduced and Tellqvist's increased.

Leafs
Toronto+Maple+Leafs
Maple+Leafs
Panthers
Florida+Panthers