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Taking Advantage Of The Lesser Lights; Christmas Wishes For The Leafs

December 24, 2011, 5:44 PM ET [ Comments]
Mike Augello
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
A sign that this year's edition of the Toronto Maple Leafs may be different than the clubs of years past has been their ability(especially in the last two weeks) to defeat teams that trail them in the standings.

After defeating the division rival Buffalo Sabres at home on Thursday, Toronto completed a sweep of back to back games with a 5-3 victory over the New York Islanders last night in Uniondale, NY. With the victory, the Leafs have 40 points and sit in sixth place in the Eastern conference standings. This is the first time since before the NHL lockout that Toronto has held a playoff spot at the Christmas break.

It looks like Toronto received their Christmas present a few days early with the call up of Nazem Kadri, who scored his second goal in as many games, as well as screening Isles goaltender Evgeni Nabokov on Carl Gunnarsson's first goal of the season. Clarke MacArthur, Joey Crabb and Joffrey Lupul also scored for the Leafs and James Reimer made 30 saves for the victory.

Toronto will be off until next Tuesday, with a swing through the Southern U.S. with a contest against the surprising Florida Panthers, then moving on to Raleigh on Thursday to face the struggling Hurricanes before completing the four-game road trip in Winnipeg on New Year's Eve. This will be the Leafs first visit to Manitoba since February, 1996.

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Leafs head coach Ron Wilson gave a not so subtle hint last night via Twitter about what present he wants in the near future.

"This Xmas could be better if Santa stuffs a certain piece of paper in my stocking. #whatcouldthatbe"

If his club continues to hold a spot in the Eastern Conference's top eight, Wilson will undoubtedly get what he is looking for. In that vein….here are my wishes for a few of the Leafs this Christmas:

For Phil Kessel, my wish is for Tyler Seguin, Jared Knight and Dougie Hamilton to be lambasted with an equal amount of "how does it feel to have been traded for Phil Kessel" questions that he has fielded from the media over the last few years.

For Colby Armstrong, Matthew Lombardi and Tim Connolly, my wish is that you find a good luck charm that will make any visits to medical professionals for the next two seasons and beyond completely unnecessary.

For Luke Schenn, my wish is that he forget about living up to the contract he recently signed and just play the physical and solid defensive brand of hockey that he has shown many times during his tenure in Toronto. Also, a reunion with his brother Brayden would be nice.

For the Toronto penalty killing, my wish is that you discover the structural, tactical or personnel problem that has relegated you to bottom dwellers of the league and that you reach the teens of the NHL's PK rankings by the end of this season.

For Nikolai Kulemin, my wish is for him to watch the video collection of his 30 goals last season and discover what is missing this season.

For Dion Phaneuf, my wish is that one of his patented mid-ice body checks finds a certain pesky, annoying New York Ranger forward in the very near future.

For GM Brian Burke, my wish is that you use the same mind control that got Darryl Sutter and Bob Murray to make deals over the last two years on another unsuspecting NHL GM.

And finally…. for the fans sitting in the platinum seats for Leaf games at the Air Canada Center, my wish is that you leave right at the buzzer at the ends of the periods and get back a few minutes earlier for the start of the next, because the optics of whole sections of empty seats is unbecoming of a storied hockey franchise.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays to all the members of Leafs Nation and your families.

Here is my favorite Christmas song:



Tomorrow: The 12 Free Agents for Christmas

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