With a number of players available in Toronto, the Maple Leafs could be inching closer towards pulling the trigger on another trade this season.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, the Lightning is thin on the blueline and has had interest in Maple Leafs defenseman Ian White.

Leafs GM Brian Burke has been working the phones and is in constant talk with several of his counterparts.

White is among several players available for trade, including the likes of forwards Nik Antropov, Alexei Ponikarovsky and Jason Blake, defensemen Tomas Kaberle and Pavel Kubina, and goalie Vesa Toskala.

Watch him, as he micromanages a 72 year old hockey man on his first day (back) on the job.

Clearly, Peddie wrote this speech for Cliff Fletcher.

Video available HERE

Goals coming from Kaberle, Kilger, Stajan, Poni, White.

Game Summary here

LOS ANGELES-With the club having all but quit on head coach Paul Maurice after two one-sided losses in California, the Maple Leafs are in full panic mode today.

GM John Ferguson refused to comment last night after the Leafs were hammered 5-2 by the NHL’s worst team, the Los Angeles Kings, but it is believed the latest emergency strategy of the free-falling club will be to summon blue-chip goaltending prospect Justin Pogge from the minors as early as today.

Ferguson huddled with Leaf assistant GM Mike Penny, also the GM of the AHL Toronto Marlies, Justin Pogge’s team, after the game.

“I’m not getting involved tonight,” said Ferguson after the shockingly one-sided defeat to the Kings, the 30th place NHL club.

Justin Pogge almost was requested to make the start last Saturday against Philadelphia, but instead the Leaf management team had second thoughts and Andrew Raycroft started against the Flyers and dropped a 3-2 decision.

It’s believed that if Justin Pogge is summoned from the AHL Toronto Marlies, it will be because No. 1 netminder Vesa Toskala has suffered a relapse in his ongoing battle with groin problems after being recklessly forced into action for the final two periods of the embarrassing loss to the Kings on Thursday.

Toskala was expecting to have the night off, but played after former starter Andrew Raycroft surrendered four goals on 11 shots in the first period against the Kings. It’s believed Toskala may have re-injured himself in the loss to L.A., which could pave the way for Pogge to make his NHL debut Saturday night against the Sharks in San Jose.

If that happens, it will be a difficult task indeed for Justin Pogge, with all evidence suggesting the club is no longer responding to the direction of Maurice after 10 losses in the past 12 games. All political antennae are on high, and even the Leaf players are aware team president Richard Peddie is hovering over the club in what is turning out to be a disastrous California road trip.

A smarter decision would be to bring back veteran Scott Clemmensen, who left the club on Thursday and returned to the Marlies. But with the entire hockey organization expecting major changes because of the dreadful results of late, recalling Pogge is likely to make a bigger splash, perhaps the last ditch effort of the Ferguson regime to put the club into a playoff position.

The Leafs were nightmarishly bad Thursday night, managing only seven shots on the L.A. net in the opening 27 minutes of action as the Kings cruised to a 5-0 lead. It was only after the game was decided that the Leafs got busy, putting 43 shots on Jason Labarbara in the Kings net after the game was already decided.

Maurice denied that his team has quit on him.

“If they’d quit you’d have seen three periods like the first period,” said the Leaf coach.

Truth was, the lazy, disinterested manner in which the Leafs played the opening 27 minutes was much more reflective of their attitude towards their coach than the final half of the game.

“Trust me, we’re under a lot of pressure,” said centre Matt Stajan. “We know what’s going on.”

The Toronto Maple Leafs (last 10 games: 6-2-2) take on the Tampa Bay Lighting (last 10 games: 4-5-1) marking the halfway point in the Maple Leafs longest road trip of the season.

A meeting against the Tampa Bay Lightning may be just what the Toronto Maple Leafs need to bounce back from one of their most disappointing losses this season.

The Maple Leafs continue their season-high seven-game road trip on Thursday looking to win their seventh straight game over the Lightning.

Toronto (14-13-7) had a 2-0 lead over Carolina on Tuesday, before allowing two goals in the final 1:25 of regulation. The Leafs lost 3-2 in overtime.

“It’s a tough loss for us because we played a solid game except for the last two minutes,” defenseman Pavel Kubina said. “With two minutes I thought it was game over.”

Toronto is 1-1-1 so far on its road trip, and it tries to rebound at Tampa Bay, where it is 18-4-1 with one tie all-time.

The Leafs beat the Lightning 6-1 at home on Dec. 10. Toronto is outscoring Tampa Bay 27-12 during the winning streak in the series.

Leafs captain Mats Sundin had a goal and an assist in the win over the Lightning last week, giving him three goals and seven assists during a seven-game point streak against them. Sundin leads the Leafs with 16 goals and 24 assists this season, but has been held without a point in each of his last two games.

Sundin, the franchise leader in goals (404) and assists (545), hasn’t gone without a point in three straight games since March 19-23, 2006.

Nik Antropov is second on Toronto with 15 goals and 20 assists, and has recorded a goal and an assist in each of his last three games against Tampa Bay.

The Leafs’ Vesa Toskala made 26 saves in last week’s win over the Lightning to improve to 2-0-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average in two career games against them. Toskala, though, has allowed seven goals in losing his last two games after giving up just six goals in his previous five

Tampa Bay (14-17-3) fell to Atlanta 6-2 on Tuesday to drop its third straight and fifth in its last six. The Lightning have allowed the third-most goals in the league (113), and have given up 18 during their three-game skid.

“We have to keep on trying. We just have to find a way to grind through this,” Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella said.

Johan Holmqvist yielded three goals on nine shots against the Thrashers before being replaced by Marc Denis.

Holmqvist is 0-3-0 with a 6.64 GAA in his last four starts and has been pulled from three of them. In his first career game against Toronto last week, he gave up four goals on 22 shots before being replaced midway through the second period by Denis, stopped five of seven shots.

Denis is just 1-5-0 with a 4.05 GAA in 10 games this season, and 1-4-0 with a 2.95 GAA in seven career games against Toronto.

Vincent Lecavalier, who leads league in scoring with 51 points, was held scoreless on Tuesday after recording three goals and three assists in his last three games. Lecavalier looks get back on track at the St. Pete Times Forum, where he has six goals and eight assists during a seven-game points streak.

The Lightning have dropped three straight games at home following an 11-3-1 start.

“Obviously, the fact that Cristobal hasn’t been successful the last three games against Toronto certainly got into the decision,” coach Guy Carbonneau said Monday.

This declaring an obvious weakness in their starting goaltender is not a good sign for any club. Speaking of which, Toronto will announce their goal tending decision closer to game time. Conventional wisdom says the goalie with the shut out as his last start, will get the call. Perhaps that should have been the wisdom when choosing the starter against New York. The facial expressions from Andrew Raycroft would indicate that he agrees that his play warranted a start the next game (shutout, 27 shots, 1st star selection). More to come…