Time to Drink Some Kule-Ade

OOOOH YEAH! from familyguy.wikia.com

Today we finally got some Leafs news: Nikolai Kulemin was resigned to a two year $2.8 million/year deal.  This was effectively his last RFA deal and takes him to UFA at the conclusion.  From reading PPP comments on today's FTB it seems that most people are content with the deal.  It wasn't a "homerun" as one commenter put it, but it wasn't a bad deal either.

Kulemin was slated to go to team-elected arbitration soon and this deal stopped that process.  Many NHL fans will recognize that this is quite a common occurrence.  Nobody likes going to arbitration and teams and players often reach a deal beforehand.  In fact there were 7 other forwards headed to arbitration this summer who have come to an agreement with their team.  I have decided to compare Kulemin to them.  Follow me over the jump for the comparison.

Jonathan Bernier: Is His AHL Success Meaningful

Some guy likes putting players on NHL 11 covers

 So here is Bernier!  From http://theheadcrusher.picturepush.com

Last night Andi Petrillo of HNIC tweeted that the Leafs had made an offer for LA Kings goaltender Jonathan Bernier.  This led many Leafs fans at PPP upset and had them ranting about why he was a terrible goaltender.  To be as clear as possible, I do NOT think trading for Bernier is a good idea for the Leafs.  That being said, I think he is a lot better than a lot were giving him credit for.

People were arguing about his ES vs total save percentage, the value of his draft position, his position stuck behind Quick, his junior (CHL and WJC) production, etc.  But for this post I want to specifically look at his production in the AHL.  So follow along after the jump if that interests you.

7 Thoughts on Free Agency Thus Far

Image by draglikepull

When you follow a team that seems to hate the playoffs, you start to look particularly forward to certain times of the year: the trade deadline, the NHL Entry Draft, and of course the opening of NHL free agency.  A fair bit has happened around the league over the last 2 days so I thought I would provide my opinion on some of the activity.  In no particular order, here are 7 thoughts on Free Agency thus far:

The Best of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft

Image from wikipedia.  What a terrible logo for the event which took place at the

Minnesota North stars arena.

The biggest news in the NHL this week is the retirement of the 'classy superstar' Nicklas Lidstrom (oh and a couple of teams are trying to win some silver bowl or something....).  This morning I was reading Down Goes Brown's latest post about Lidstrom's career and it was as funny as ever.  While laughing along to the post one of the jokes got me curious, who were the 52 players selected before Lidstrom?  A quick check told me which draft it was (click here for a list of players selected in the 1989 NHL entry draft (as it is from Hockey Reference it can be sorted by various statistics)) and I have thus written this short post about who I think the top 7 players were (in order) from the 1989 NHL entry draft.

Warning: Leafs fans may not be too happy...

Kadri Versus his Draft Class

I haven't posted here in a while (read roughly half a year).  Between a busy life and the Leafs seasons falling off a cliff I guess I just haven't gotten around to it.  Well I am back and I am going to try to dispel a myth.  The myth?

"Kadri is a bust"

Haven't you heard?  He can't even stay in the NHL!  Look how little he has produced!  He was drafted so long ago!

Are these reasonable statements?  Not really and if you follow me after the jump, I will show you why...

Playoff Predictions

With the playoffs starting tonight, I've been scrambling for the last few days to make my picks and get rosters sent in for various pools as I'm sure all of you have. While creating my playoff bracket, I got curious about what percentage of series go to 4, 5, 6 or 7 games. A few minutes in excel had it figured out, so follow after the jump for series length since the start of the current playoff format, plus playoff brackets from me, Bcapp, and JPNikota.

Shot Differential Chart for Leafs vs Wings 1/7/12

Hey guys, back again with some more BW Charts for you. Been experimenting with ways to get the goal lines on the charts, and I think I've figured out a way to do it. With that out of the way, here are the shots and shot differential charts for Leafs vs. Wings, 1/7/12. 

As you may remember, this was a game that the Leafs didn't really deserve to win. The team got out to a good start, building up a 3 goal lead in the process. After that, Detroit was mostly driving the play and keeping us in our own zone. To our credit, we did a good job keeping shots to the outside and Gus put in a solid performance. After Lupul scored to put us ahead with 12:50 to play, score effects are very noticeable, with Detroit putting a flurry of shots on the Leafs net in the last 10 min.

Shot Differential Chart for Leafs vs. Jets 1/5/12

Hello fellow Leafs fans. Been trying to think of an idea to get started with writing about the Leafs and hockey in general for a while, and I figured what better way that to shamelessly borrow an idea from the stat wizards over at Arctic Ice Hockey. I've been reading their stuff since before the Jets moved to the 'Peg and always liked how in depth they get with their stats while still making them understandable to us normal folk. When I first saw what Bettmans Nightmare has been calling a BW Chart, I thought it was a great way to visualize the flow of the game.

Those those of you that may not read AIH and have not seen the charts I'm referring to, here is an example of their chart for Leafs vs. Jets, 1/5/12 (disregard the error in the chart title). I decided to use this as a measuring stick for my own chart, which of course would have Leafs on top and Jets on the bottom, where they belong. The chart done by Arctic Ice Hockey also shows Leaf goals as black vertical lines, Jets PK as red shading, and Jets PP as green shading (this is something that I'm working on getting into my own charts, so any Excel ninjas out there can leave a tip in the comments if they know how).