World Championship Hockey Tournament: A Few Maple Leafs Still Lacing Them Up

The World Championship Hockey tournament is usually the last thing you want your favorite players to be a part of. It simply means your team isn't playing for the "big mug."

For the Maple Leafs, a team currently on the rebuild, the extra hockey really shouldn't do any harm.

From mapleleafs.com ;

"It was a good start at the 2010 World Championships for some of the Leafs' players.

Jonas Gustavsson was in net for Sweden as they defeated Norway, 5-2, in their first game. Gustavsson turned aside 19 Norwegian shots, while Rickard Wallin recorded two assists in the win.

Defenceman Carl Gunnarsson continued to carry over his strong play as he played 17 minutes and was a plus one in the win.

Nikolai Kulemin played almost 13 minutes for Russia in their 3-1 win over Slovakia, recording one assist on Maxim Afinogenov’s opening goal.

Mikhail Grabovski had a strong weekend as he had one assist and played a team-high 22 minutes in Belarus’s 5-2 win.

Two Leafs’ were held scoreless in their opening games.

Francois Beauchemin saw 13:44 minutes of action in Canada’s 5-1 win over Italy on Saturday. Christian Hanson played almost eight minutes as the U.S. lost 2-1 to Germany on Friday."

It’s good to see a few Maple Leafs still on the ice this spring. There really can’t be enough hockey for these guys to play if they really want to improve.

As key players, Beauchemin and Kulemin will garner the most spotlight of the Leafs participating. At least that’s who I’ll have my eye on the most.

Francois Beauchemin is wearing an “A” for the Canadian squad, and with any luck he can possibly talk Steve Stamkos (a “self admitted Leafs fan”, according to TSN this morning) into coming to the mecca.

A man can dream, right?

Hopefully this is the last time these Leafs players play in the World Championship for a while.

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