[MikeS]

Did you guys see Malik's shoot out goal last night!

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Yeah, that was awesome...moreso when you consider the guy's a defensman who's never scored more than 7 goals in a season and that it was the 15th round of the shootout! hock:

The Leafs' Kyle Wellwood tried something similar during a game vs. Florida earlier this week and was stopped...Gotta love PQ's comment below (source: Globe and Mail last Friday)... :lol:

Timing is everything

Like most rookies, Kyle Wellwood has a little to learn about timing. As in he picked a bad time on two fronts to display a little sleight of hand that most players limit to practice.

Late in the Toronto Maple Leafs' game against the Florida Panthers last Monday, Wellwood found himself with the puck in front of goaltender Jamie McLennan. He had a little extra time to shoot, so he decided to show off and fired a shot from between his legs, something he admitted later he had been working on in practice.

McLennan, like just about any other National Hockey League goalie, was not fooled and easily stopped the trick shot. The score was 1-1 at the time, and even though the Leafs went on to win 2-1, head coach Pat Quinn was not impressed.

"He'll end up in the stands if he fools around like that," Quinn said. "There's a time and a place for tom-foolery.

"It was a 1-1 game and it was a chance for us. It might have been the only chance we were going to get. You have to approach it a little more seriously than that."

The second reason Wellwood's timing was bad is the imminent return of Mats Sundin from an eye injury. When Sundin is added to the lineup, probably for Saturday's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, somebody will have to go. Wellwood is one of the candidates since he was called up from the farm team when Sundin was injured.

As a rookie, Wellwood can be sent to the Leafs' farm team, the Toronto Marlies, without being placed on waivers. Ditto fellow rookies Andy Wozniewski and Staffan Kronvall.

Luckily for Wellwood, who ran up seven points in 11 games, Quinn was a little more mellow about him on Tuesday when the subject of who will get the axe was broached. It looks like either Wozniewski or Kronvall will get the demotion.

"Kyle's done very well," Quinn said. "He's much improved in his overall play. It's going to be a hard call."

As for the trick shot, you can be sure that Wellwood will limit it to practice from now on.

Anyone who watches NHL teams practice will see all sorts of tom-foolery, as Quinn calls it. Players love to amuse themselves with between-the-legs passes and shots, picking up the puck and carrying it aloft on the blade of their stick, or seeing how long they can bounce the puck off the blade of their stick.

Often, there is a wager of lunch on these little displays although, as Wellwood discovered, the stakes can be somewhat higher.