Eat Sleep Leafs

Forwards
Blake Mitchell Kessel
Ponikarovsky Grabovski Kulemin
Hagman Stajan Stempniak
Primeau Wallin Orr

Defense
Kaberle Komisarek
Beauchemin White
Schenn Finger

Goalie
Gustavsson

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It’s like playing with fire and still managing to not get burned—all the time at least.

For the fourth game in a row, the Leafs charged from behind and for a change, got the win in Carolina.

“We had a good start to the game, the first five or six minutes we were skating and dictating the play and then whenever they scored we seemed to sag at that point, maybe feeling sorry for ourselves,” Ron Wilson explained following the game.

“We had to get mad at some point. I said to the team ‘we’ve only got one win in thirteen games, when’s somebody going to get upset here’.”

Trailing 2-0 after a period, the Leafs jumped on the struggling Canes with goals from John Mitchell and Nikolai Kulemin, the first for Mitchell this season.

“I didn’t put [Mitchell] on the line [with Kessel and Blake] to get him going,” Wilson said. “I thought he’d be a help to the line with his speed and his physicality when he wants to and tonight he did.”

It was a Carolina shot-fest in the third as they pounded 18 Jonas Gustavsson’s way, but the rookie netminder stopped every one.

“Gustavsson made some key saves at key times that were game-changers,” Jason Blake said.

Blake appears to be re-energized playing alongside Kessel, and he notched the winner on Friday night.

“It obviously helps with Phil on the line,” he said. “He’s got so much speed. It’s obviously fun to play with him and he’s got tremendous amount of talent, so yeah it was fun.”

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First Marian Hossa, Jiri Hudler and Mikuel Samuelsson depart in the offseason.

Then Johan Franzen and Valterri Filpulla get hurt.

And all of a sudden the daunting Detroit Red Wings don’t look so daunting.

Only they do.

The Wings roll into town winners of three straight and four of five as they continue to play without many key pieces from their Western Conference winning squad.

So how do they do it?

“It’s a system in the organization,” Pavel Datsyuk said of the development philosophy of the Red Wings. “Lots of support and confidence in our farm helps us a lot too and this is why we have more confidence than anyone else.”

Wings forward Darren Helm said it best.

“Detroit stays patient.”

As in patient with its prospects, bringing them along at just the right speed so that when they finally suit up with the NHL club, they’re ready for anything.

“It kept me hungry,” Helm said of biding his time with the Grand Rapids Griffins in the American League.

Although he was there for just two seasons, the transition to the pro game became less onerous because he wasn’t thrown in there prematurely like so many prospects who fall by the wayside.

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Patrick Eaves will miss tonight's game with a foot injury.

-J.Siegel
Follow me on Twitter: jonas640