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It figures to be an interesting goaltending match-up Tuesday night when the Toronto Maple Leafs open their western Canadian trip in Calgary to play the Flames. Not only do the Flames' Miikka Kiprusoff and the Leafs' Vesa Toskala both hail from Finland, they were both groomed in the San Jose Sharks' organization and both traded away so that Evgeni Nabokov would be that organization's clear-cut No. 1 netminder.

Kiprusoff and Toskala are considered among the NHL's goaltending elite, but their numbers don't reflect that at the moment – with goals-against averages over 3.00 and save percentages below .900. Kiprusoff was off to his annual slow start for the Flames, but in a six-game span in which Calgary went a perfect 6-0, allowed only nine goals. Since then, however he's given up back-to-back six-goal nights – one a win over Nashville, one a loss to Chicago – and even got a night off Saturday. Until then, he was the only goaltender to have played every minute for his team this season.

Toskala, meanwhile, is coming off a 6-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday and my lingering overall impression from that night was that, if you didn't know the Leafs were supposed to be a real bad team, you'd think they were pretty good. They move forward all the time, they're quick, and they were able to take advantage of a Montreal defence that was caught flat-footed a number of times.

Of course, that's been one of Calgary's weaknesses in an up-and-down season; when things are going well, their defence relies on Kiprusoff to make the first save and then efficiently clears the puck away. When things are going badly, they're giving up oodles of second chances, many of which end up in the net behind Kiprusoff.

More parallels: Ron Wilson coached both goalies during his San Jose years and Curtis Joseph, now the back-up to Toskala, played behind Kiprusoff in the latter stages of last year after signing a free-agent contract with Calgary.

Watching the Leafs steamroll the Canadiens – live for the first time at the Air Canada Centre after only seeing them on television – you can't help but like the way Wilson has them playing. There may not be a lot of star power there, but they make up for that with tempo – and kept up nicely against a speedy Canadiens' team that had not run into too many bumps on their road this season. Nor did Wilson appear to be stewing over the fact that the Leafs are probably giving up more goals than he wants – or that he's used to, given that he had the Sharks as the No. 1 defensive team in the league last year.

“I could go trap, trap, trap and try to win every game 2-1; what's that going to do?” Wilson explained. “Is that going to make us a better team? We're trying to teach guys how to score – and we've got a long-range view of our team; and where we're going to be, at Christmas time; and in two or three years.”

The Flames are only one point ahead of the Maple Leafs in the overall standings, but because the expectation levels of the respective teams are so different, there seems to be a lightness surrounding the Leafs these days that is missing from Calgary's dressing room.

“It's a fairly light atmosphere,” said Joseph, “but we outshoot every team, so it seems to be working. We still make mistakes because of our youth, but every time you're playing this well and you have a young team like this, the upside is exciting. It's a good group. We push each other.”

Even though Toskala is far more approachable than Kiprusoff, Joseph suggested the two were “very similar in terms of their personalities. Their styles are different, but they're good friends. I knew Vesa before I got here through Kiprusoff. Both are good partners, really enjoyable to play with, very professional, very easy to get along with so that makes it fun.”

Based on the way Toronto is scoring and Calgary giving up goals, it could really be a fun night for the Leafs – a prediction which will now probably doom the game to a 2-1 check-a-thon.