If you’re ever looking for some Mike Komisarek bashing, you won’t find it here.
After tossing Francis Lessard into Pierre McGuire’s grill in Wednesday night’s game against the Senators, it’s probably tough to find any Komisarek haters right now. Though they weren’t too hard to find last season.
In what was considered an “off year” for the Leafs defenceman last season, tons of critics jumped all over Komisarek for poor play after signing a fairly large contract last summer. But injury aside, Komisarek wasn’t really headed in that bad of a direction.
With only 4 points in 34 games last season, we heard a lot of “he’s getting paid a million dollars a point.” I must have missed all those years when Komisarek was an offensive threat from the blue line. It’s not his game, so why expect it from him?
It’s nice to see a player like Komisarek or Luke Schenn chip in from time to time on the score-sheet, obviously. The idea of the game is to, after all, score more goals than the other team. But criticizing Komisarek based on his offensive stats is foolish.
Komisarek plays with an edge that’s tough to emulate in the NHL. Coupled with his size and strength, that edge translates into big hits, blocked shots, broken sticks, and some smashed faces (sometimes even his own.)
This will be a season for Komisarek to come back strong and win over the Leafs fans who’ve doubted him given his 2009-10 performance. In Wednesday night’s game versus the Senators, Komisarek looked to be in good form. In just over 17 minutes of ice time the Leafs d-man stayed even on the score sheet and contributed a few rattling hits. As usual, Komisarek was always in the mix every time things got a bit rough, but that’s his role with this team. Some would even argue that he needs to take it down a notch, but last night’s game was his first in months. I’m sure there were a lot of nerves, along with adrenaline flowing full force.
Komisarek is a true leader and a guy who will stick up for any of his teammates, which bodes well for the forward corp as they are a little undersized.
The Leafs cannot afford to lose any scoring in the ways of a Kessel, Bozak or Versteeg injury situation. It’s defencemen like Komisarek, Dion Phaneuf and Luke Schenn who will have to let the league know that if people are going to go after any of the Leafs forwards, they’re going to pay a steep price. That type of protection is what the young guys will need in order to have confidence with the puck and play with a bit of swagger.
It’s a new season, with a new attitude. As long as players like Komisarek can be leaders and do their part in making other teams fear playing the Leafs, the blue and white can play with the confidence needed to win, as opposed to the rotten feeling of looking at 29th league-wide last season.
—-
Quick Note: Great game between the Leafs and Flyers in preseason action. Luca Caputi continued to look good, James Reimer was sensational, and I was really impressed with Danny Richmond as well. Kris Versteeg remained the best player on the ice, and it really looks like this guy could go for a career year with the increased playing time he’ll see as a Leaf. Nothing new about that, plenty of people already predicted this could be Versteeg’s big year, but it’s good to see him head and shoulders above the rest in these exhibition tilts. The Leafs will definitely need his skill this year.
Email maplestirup@gmail.com
- Blog this on Blogger
- Subscribe to the comments for this post?
- Share this on Facebook
- Post on Google Buzz
- Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon
- Tweet This!
- Share this on del.icio.us
- Digg this!
- Share this on Reddit
Original Story:
http://maplestirup.com/2010/09/komisa...
