The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed forward Joffrey Lupul to a five-year, $26.25 million contract extension through the 2017-18 season. Here is the conference call with GM Dave Nonis courtesy of the Leafs website:
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The game was hardly played at top speed, players were missing passes and making errors that they normally would not make, but there are very few hockey fans complaining that the game they love his back.
The Toronto Maple Leafs took advantage of numerous opportunities with the man advantage, scoring power-play goals in the first and second period and holding on for a 2-1 victory over the Montréal Canadiens at the Bell Centre Saturday night.
The Maple Leafs had six players in the lineup whose last name began with the letter K and all made a significant contribution to the victory, but none were more noticeable than 27 year old Mike Kostka, who in his first NHL game was placed with Dion Phaneuf on the top defensive pairing. The native of Ajax, ON played close to 23 minutes(second in ice time only to Phaneuf) and assisted on the game's opening goal.
Nazem Kadri quieted some of his critics by scoring the opening goal of the 2013 campaign, at the 4:51 mark of the opening period and looked as comfortable as he ever has playing center at the pro level. With wingers James van Riemsdyk and Leo Komarov, the 22 year old Kadri was involved in all three zones of the ice and while creating offensive chances, also threw his weight around with a number of noticeable checks.
Komarov, who is played 27 games this season split between Moscow Dynamo and the Toronto Marlies, played well defensively, had seven hits on the night and lived up to the billing of being an annoyance on the ice.
Phil Kessel, while at times appearing winded, also showed a superior burst of speed blowing by Montreal checkers and defenseman. Kessel had an assist on both Kadri’s power-play marker and linemate Tyler Bozak’s eventual game-winner midway through the second period.
Nikolai Kulemin led all Toronto forwards in ice time with 20:35, mostly due to the confidence that coach Randy Carlyle has in his defensive abilities. While not registering a point on the night, Kulemin won a critical face-off in the defensive zone with 7 seconds remaining in regulation, after linemate Mikhail Grabovski was thrown out of the circle.
The much maligned Mike Komisarek, who many target as a potential compliance buyout victim over the summer, played 29 shifts and over 16 minutes ice time and was effective paired with Carl Gunnarsson.
Montréal is not expected to be a playoff team or anywhere close to being a playoff team, so a victory over them is an accomplishment but not a great accomplishment. It was very noticeable that players who were active either in Europe, the KHL or in the American Hockey League had a distinct advantage over players who only practiced and skated during the lockout.
While being impressed with the performances of Kostka, Kadri, Komarov and Ben Scrivens, who made 21 saves on the evening, any excitement has to be tempered. In three or four weeks, if these players continue to be as effective as they were on opening night after the rest of the league has gotten up to speed, then there'll be reason for optimism.
Toronto makes their home debut tomorrow night at the Air Canada Center when they face the division rival Buffalo Sabres.
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the Toronto Marlies ended their two-game losing streak in Hamilton, winning a 3-2 victory over the Bulldogs in a shootout at Copps Coliseum Saturday night. Recently demoted Tim
Connolly scored his first career AHL goal late in the first period to give the Marlies in early lead. Trailing 2-1 late in the third, team captain Ryan Hamilton scored his club leading 18th goal of the season to force overtime.
After five minutes of extra time did not determine a victor, the game went to a shootout where Matt Frattin scored the tiebreaker on the fifth and last chance for victory.
Mark Owuya made 18 saves on the evening for his third win of the season and with the victory, the Marlies improve to 23-12-1-2.
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