First, the big news Friday night when Tornoto fired their coach after having a couple bad weeks in which they only had one win in tweleve games. Brian Burke, the Leafs General Manager told the press Saturday morning that he didn't want his friend to be embarresed at home again, referencing the chanting of Tornoto fans in their home game against Florida. The Leafs fans got their wish of a new coach and that new coach will be Randy Carlyle. Carlyle and Burke know each other well, having been a team on the 2007 Stanley Cup champion Anahiem Ducks. When Carlyle was fired earlier this year, many people began to wonder if Burke would bring back his former coach. The Leafs are getting a coach who means business and won't take bad attitudes from anyone, regardless of skill or worth to the team. He was the coach who nutured Ryan Getzlaf, Corry Perry and Bobby Ryan into NHL stars and he will be looking to do that with Nazem Kadri and Carter Ashton in the future. Though the Leafs won their first game with Carlyle, it was against Montreal and should not really reflect how they are going to play moving forward. I cannot see Toronto making the playoffs this season due to the lack of trades and the change of a coach. But under Carlyle, they should conitnue to imporve in the coming years and will one day play past April.
The other news from the past week involves junior hockey and the Windsor Spitfires. As you may know, I have been covering the Spits as a media member and got a couple interviews this past week. The Spits are in the final, 8th, playoff spot and have only a two point seperation between them and ninth. They started the weekend off good with a dominate 5-2 victory against the Brampton Battalion, but they couldn't carry the momentum through the rest of the weekend. After the first game, coach Bob Boughner told the press "if you take anything out of this game it's the way we played in the third period. That was a picture perfect third period." But they lost their top defenceman Nick Ebert to a head injury which proved costly in their next to games. On Saturday they played in Plymouth against the Whalers. The Spitfires could not compete against the high powered Whalers and after top center Alex Khoklachev went down with an injury, the game was all but over. That game was only 2-0, but it was 2 points they needed to stay ahead in the playoffs. Their final game of the weekend was a Sunday home game versus the Saginaw Spirit and it was the worst game of the weekend. The Spirit out played and out classed the Spits for a 7-1 victory, leaving the Spitifres questioning their playoff fate. Both Khoklachev and Ebert did not play against Saginaw and the holes they created in the lineup were clear. After that big loss, Boughner wasn't as happy when he talked us. His patience was clearly thin but he still told us "there was a lot of excuses we could use but I thought we were out skilled and out classed tonight. When the wheels fall off they fall off". The Spits continue their playoff push with their final five games of the season. That begins this Thursday when they take on the Soo Greyhounds. The winner of that game will move be in the eighth playoff position and the loser in ninth. Easily the biggest game of the season so far for Windsor. I won't be able to cover that game but it should still be exciting.
These were just a couple things I wanted to write about before I go on vacation. I won't be posting the next two weeks, but after that the posts should be back to a steady pace. As always feel free to comment below, send your thoughts in an email to josh@jbenny.com and follow me on twitter at @jbenny15. I have a bunch of content I want to add to my website, www.jbenny.com, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to before my trip. Either way you can go there to see pictures I've taken and other stuff I've written. Thanks for reading.
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