Pride, hustle, heart. An NHL 12 Leafs BAGM

[Dynasty]

Game one at Carolina

Pre game interview with coach Gilmour:

This is going to take an entirely different approach then our previous match ups. We have been pouring over video of the Hurricanes, just as I’m sure they have been doing.

After review I believe that our greatest asset will be our defence and our larger skill guys, were going to need to use our size and strength to our advantage here against Carolina and that starts with guys like Rick Nash, Magnus Paajarvi, Kyle Beach, Viktor Stalberg up front and ends ultimately with the league’s best hitter this season, Luke Schenn.

If these guys step up and use their big bodies and physical game and impose themselves onto the Carolina forwards and defence I think we can pull this out, it’s going to be a hard long battle but we can do it.

As long as Bob can continue his excellent play that he has given us, we can hold off the high powered Carolina offense.



Schenn sends Staal a notice: Ain't nothin' for free here son

Toronto Maple Leafs at Carolina Hurricanes
May 16, 2014 1 2 3 F TOR (8-2-0) 1 0 1 2 CAR (8-2-0) 1 0 0 1 Three Stars Sergei Bobrovsky 1.00 GAA .977 SV% 44 saves Cam Ward 2.03 GAA .929 SV% 28 saves Zach Boychuk 1 goal 3 hits 6 shots	Team Stats Comparison TOR CAR Shots on Goal 28 44 Hits 27 22 Faceoffs Won-Lost 14 18 Penalty Minutes 4:00 0 Power Plays Converted 0 1 Power Play Opportunities 0 2 Time on Attack 4:47 6:17
Scoring Summary FIRST PERIOD CAR 2:06 - Z. Boychuk (2), (D. Joslin, T. Ruutu) TOR 8:12 - Rick Nash (4), (Kyle Turrs) THIRD PERIOD TOR 5:59 - Kyle Beach (3), (J. Abdelkader, Paul Gaustad)
Toronto Maple Leafs - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Sergei Bobrovsky 44 43 98% 1.00
Toronto Maple Leafs - Skaters SKATERS TOI G A +/- SOG PIM Paul Gaustad 8:47 0 1 1 4 0 Rick Nash 21:26 1 0 1 6 0 Justin Abdelkader 11:35 0 1 1 1 0 Kyle Turris 22:56 0 1 1 0 0 Kyle Beach 8:30 1 0 1 5 0
Carolina Hurricanes - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Cam Ward 28 26 93% 2.03
Carolina Hurricanes - Skaters SKATERS TOI G A +/- SOG PIM T. Ruutu 16:40 0 1 -1 2 0 D. Joslin 16:17 0 1 -1 2 0 Z. Boychuk 11:17 1 0 1 0 6

Nash opens the scoring for Toronto by crushing a one timer past Cam Ward.

Post game interview with Kyle Beach:

Haha yeah, that goal was the best thing to come off my *** in a long time but we got lucky tonight because of it, not that I’m going to turn that away or something but still.

We got out played tonight and our D and Bob held us in the game, we got lucky and it happened to work, that was a really tough game now we just have to wait on word about Theo.

As if the tension wasn’t high enough, when Nodl hit Theo and he went down hard everyone just kinda stared, hoping he would get back up, we had to pick him up and help him off and he wasn't talking to us at all, really seemed to be out of it, hopefully he is going to be okay, we need him.



Schenn continues to dole out the harsness


Beach uses the bubble to score

[Dynasty]

Injury update:

D Theo Peckham was helped off the ice last night in Carolina just before the second period ended. Peckham took a devastating but clean hit from Carolina forward Tuomo Ruutu.

Peckham was taken immediately to hospital as he was unresponsive to trainers and it was discovered via x-ray that Peckham fractured his Collarbone as well as suffering what is being called a mild concussion.

Team doctors have stated that Peckham will be out for the next 7-8 weeks depending on the concussion, which means he will miss the remainder of the playoffs with the Toronto Maple Leafs, no matter how long they last.

D Mike Weaver, who has been traveling with the team all season as the seventh defenseman will be activated and put on the third pairing with Marc-Andre Bergeron. D Kurtis Foster will move into Peckham's spot on the second line with Cody Franson.

While Weaver isn’t nearly as physical as Peckham is he proved himself to not be a defensive liability earlier in the season when he played a stretch of roughly 36 games while covering multiple injuries on the Toronto squad. Weaver won't get them many points and he won't go out of his way to crush an opposing forward, he will keep them to the outside and play a very sound defensive game.

[Dynasty]

Game two at Carolina

Hello fans and readers, for TSN I am hockey inside Bob McKenzie.

Most people have given the Carolina Hurricanes the nod in this series and believe they will advance, much to the ire of Leafs fans everywhere, but I’m going to give this one to the Leafs.

The reason why I think the Leafs will ultimately prevail in this series is they are a bigger more physical hockey team, with a strong defence and offense, combined with nothing short of spectacular goaltending that Bobrovsky has been providing up to this point, even though Carolina is the highest scoring team, and by a fair margin this post season I really believe Toronto will be able to silence those big guns, or at least muffle them.

There are a few factors to consider here, with the Loss of Theo Peckham, D man Mike Weaver will be stepping back into the line up. Now Weaver is solid defensively and he proved that in the 36 games he logged during the regular season as Toronto's 7th defence man and go to guy if injury cropped up.

The difference between Weaver and Peckham, and it's a large one is physical play. Now Weaver doesn't necessarily shy away from the body, he just doesn’t go out of his way to hammer anyone if he doesn’t see the overt need to do so, the loss is large but not over whelming and I believe will be covered by the overlap of big body strong guys this club posses all the way through out their line up.

As the season progressed here in Toronto more and more people began to see how excellent this combination of size, grit and talent really is, and now in the playoffs faced against a team that on paper, should calk walk over Toronto, it is proving to be the diamond in the ruff.

Now on the flip side of things Carolina has to make use of the bigger bodies in their line up as well to at least force entry into those hard areas of the ice and make space for some of their smaller skilled forwards, if Skinner and Staal need to have a series of their life, it's this one, I truly believe that Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice knows the potential for disaster that this Toronto team retains, not to mention if the Canes go down 2-0 tonight.

Whichever way this series ends up going, it's going to be a trench war of body pounding, fight for every inch for both teams, sure Toronto wants to play that way, I just don’t see the Canes getting away from it, not only are they matched for speed but Toronto also has the skill to hurt you on the score board.

For TSN I am hockey insider Bob McKenzie.


Pre game interview with coach Gilmour:

I think the strongest message to the guys this morning was patience, and stick to the plan, if we can execute those two things tonight then we will force Carolina into a position where they have to fight for everything they get and that’s a battle we have won many times before, and it's a battle we can win here in game two.

These guys have had an easy time getting to this point, they weren’t banged up and didn't have to play a high stakes physical game, I think we pushed them back on their heels in game one there with our in your face game and capped that off with skilled moves and plays.

Don’t get me wrong here, if we had any other goalie other then Sergei in net our ship was sunk, he has provided stellar play no matter the situation on the ice and the guys don’t even look over their shoulder at him, they know he’s there, they know he’s ready and they know he is going to make the saves when we need him to.

The guys are going into this game confident and hungry, each and every one of them.

To Loose Theo at this time really hurts us, don’t let that escape you. But at the same time Weaves did a bang up job during the season while he replaced multiple people who were injured, he played 36 very solid defensive hockey and that’s exactly what we need from him right now

Toronto Maple Leafs at Carolina Hurricanes
May 18, 2014 1 2 3 F TOR (9-2-0) 1 1 1 3 CAR (8-3-0) 1 1 0 2 Three Stars Anthony Stewart 2 assists 6 hits +2 Nick Leddy 2 assists 2 hits +2 Sergei Bobrovsky 2.00 GAA .926 SV% 27 saves	Team Stats Comparison TOR CAR Shots on Goal 33 27 Hits 28 30 Faceoffs Won-Lost 12 19 Penalty Minutes 2:00 2:00 Power Plays Converted 1 0 Power Play Opportunities 1 1 Time on Attack 4:04 4:15
Scoring Summary FIRST PERIOD TOR 11:01 - Paul Gaustad (2), (Kurtis Foster, Cody Franson) CAR 12:12 - D. Joslin (2), (N. Leddy, A. Stewart) SECOND PERIOD CAR 4:59 - A. Nodl (1), (N. Leddy, A. Stewart) TOR 11:57 - Magnus Paajarvi (4), (Nazem Kadri) THIRD PERIOD TOR 18:56 - Rick Nash (5), (Phil Kessel, Luke Schenn)
Toronto Maple Leafs - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Sergei Bobrovsky 27 25 93% 2.00
Toronto Maple Leafs - Skaters SKATERS TOI G A +/- SOG PIM Kurtis Foster 20:26 0 1 -1 1 0 Paul Gaustad 11:27 1 0 1 1 2:00 Rick Nash 23:17 1 0 -1 7 0 Magnus Paajarvi 15:21 1 0 1 7 0 Nazem Kadri 14:07 0 1 1 1 0 Phil Kessel 22:10 0 1 -1 8 0 Cody Franson 22:15 0 1 0 0 0 Luke Schenn 22:41 0 1 0 1 0
Carolina Hurricanes - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Cam Ward 33 30 91% 3.02
Carolina Hurricanes - Skaters SKATERS TOI G A +/- SOG PIM A. Stewart 18:59 0 2 2 1 0 N. Leddy 16:17 0 2 2 0 0 D. Joslin 17:08 1 0 2 3 0 A. Nodl 11:34 1 0 2 4 0

Gaustad fires a wrister that somehow fools Ward

Post game interview with Eric Staal:

No, we have to be better out there, plain and simple. We got this far by playing our game and now we being dragged into a slug fest and that's not where we need to go.

Yeah it's been a frustrating couple of games for us (Skinner and Staal held pointless) but we need to find space out there, were letting their close quarter game suffocate us and we need to be more creative and get open, find the quiet areas of the ice and make them pay.

We lost both our home games here, this is supposed to be our strength but that doesn't matter now, we need to go into Toronto and beat them, we have been close and they got lucky a couple times in both games so we just need to keep it up and the bounce will go our way, there’s no time for mulling it over or hindsight, got to look forward and focus on what we need to do out there, then get it done.



Paajarvi walks out from the corner and burys one far side past Ward


***Note: I don't know what happend to the replay of Nash's goal, was pretty sure I saved it but, geuss not. Sorry guys.***

[Tazer19]

Sitting in the drivers seat after stealing both on the road to start the series. Both of those games could of went either way.

[johnnyrocks]

Wow, taking 2 games already, on the road. That's going to definitely take their energy down. Make them play like boys.

Win the stanley cup. I think you can take out the Carolina Hurricanes for sure.

[Dynasty]

Game three in Toronto

Pre game interview with Coach Gilmour:

This one is all about boxing out and giving no one the space they need to do anything but fall to the ice after a good hard check. As always we need to key on Staal and Skinner and force the puck away from those two guys, if we lapse in this Carolina can easily push back into this series and that isn't something were going to let happen.

Were in our own barn tonight and we need to take advantage of that, feed off the crowd and give them a good show.

Carolina Hurricanes at Toronto Maple Leafs
May 20, 2014 1 2 3 F CAR (8-4-0) 0 1 0 1 TOR (10-2-0) 4 0 0 4 Three Stars Sergei Bobrovsky 1.00 GAA .968 SV% 31 saves Paul Gaustad 1 goal 1 shot +2 Magnus Paajarvi 1 goal 4 hits 2 shots	Team Stats Comparison CAR TOR Shots on Goal 31 22 Hits 30 25 Faceoffs Won-Lost 20 17 Penalty Minutes 3:00 4:00 Power Plays Converted 0 0 Power Play Opportunities 1 2 Time on Attack 4:50 4:18
Scoring Summary FIRST PERIOD TOR 5:18 - Magnus Paajarvi (5), (Nazem Kadri, Mike Ribeiro) TOR 7:47 - Paul Gaustad (3), (Unassisted) TOR 10:02 - Kyle Beach (4), (Mark Streit) TOR 14:11 - Kyle Turris (4), (Marc-Andre Bergeron, Mike Weaver) SECOND PERIOD CAR 15:28 - T. Ruutu (3), (J. Skinner, J. Corvo)
Carolina Hurricanes - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Cam Ward 22 18 82% 4.00
Carolina Hurricanes - Skaters SKATERS TOI G A +/- SOG PIM J. Corvo 22:49 0 1 -2 0 0 T. Ruutu 21:29 1 0 -1 3 0 J. Skinner 19:12 0 1 0 2 0
Toronto Maple Leafs - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Sergei Bobrovsky 31 30 97% 1.00
Toronto Maple Leafs - Skaters SKATERS TOI G A +/- SOG PIM Paul Gaustad 9:13 1 0 2 1 0 Mike Ribeiro 20:48 0 1 0 1 0 Magnus Paajarvi 18:47 1 0 0 2 0 Mike Weaver 17:09 0 1 0 1 2:00 Mark Streit 26:45 0 1 0 0 0 Kyle Turris 16:25 1 0 1 2 0 Marc-Andre Bergeron 16:09 0 1 1 0 0 Nazem Kadri 22:14 0 1 0 2 0 Kyle Beach 6:35 1 0 2 2 0

Ribeiro, Kadri and Paajarvi show off some offensive excellence

Post game interview with Marc-Andre Bergeron:

Well simply put, they came out in the first looking tired and slow. The guys seen that and jumped all over them, putting in four first period goals.

That really took the wind out of their sails and we just played a close checking game after that really, it was an easy win and we will take that. We have battled hard to get to this point and we will take all the easy wins any team wants to throw us.


Gaustad pokes the puck for a clear cut breakaway on Ward


***Note: I lost connection to EA server so I couldnt upload the last two goals scored***

[Dynasty]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tazer19

Sitting in the drivers seat after stealing both on the road to start the series. Both of those games could of went either way.

Quote: Originally Posted by johnnyrocks

Wow, taking 2 games already, on the road. That's going to definitely take their energy down. Make them play like boys. Win the stanley cup. I think you can take out the Carolina Hurricanes for sure.

Thanks guys, those first two games were really hard wins, tight games all the way but the third in Toronto was over in the first period

[bthomp05]

Already 3 games up, way to go. I hear Stanley Calling, they are already preparing on front st....