nothing to say

I literally do not have the words to talk about the Leafs these days. We're last in the NHL, have played eight games and lost them all, and have one point. One point. Florida, who is directly above us in the standings, has five. I am shutting this blog down until there is something that is actually worth writing about because this team is pathetic.

the worst in 90 years...

Worst start to a season, that is. With our dismal 7-2 loss to the Rangers tonight the Leafs are off to a 0-4-1 start, are 30th in the NHL standings, are last in goals against, and are frankly just completely sucking. I actually thought this season I'd be able to hold my head up proudly and say that I supported a team with some guts, but instead I want to bury my head in the sand and pretend that I'd never fallen in love with the Blue & White. Our goaltending is shambles, our defense is poor, and there isn't a damn player who can score a bloody goal!!!! We were utterly walked on by the Rangers tonight and it was 100% deserved! Something has to change and fast! My first suggestion would be to bench Toskala and find a goalie who can stand up to some shots (Jonas Gustavsson, I'm looking at you!) and then perhaps look to the Marlies for some inspiration (Bozak, Christian Hanson, anybody?).

This team has been an embarrassment so far...


We'll see what happens tomorrow when they face the Avs at the ACC...

0-2-1

Well, so far it has been a less than auspicious beginning to the Leafs' season. We've lost all three games and have given up 12 goals--only the mighty Vancouver Canucks have given up more with 13. Opening night was easily the best we've played, losing in overtime to the Habs. In the second game, the Caps had us down 6-1 until we pulled it together enough in the third period to score three more and make it a far more respectable 6-4. And last night in the Battle of Ontario we played some sloppy defense and lost 2-1, though admittedly we pressed well in the third period and Komisarek would have had a goal, but his blistering slapshot caromed off both posts behind Pascal Leclaire. I must applaud Jonas "The Monster" Gustavasson because he looked very strong in the net and I really can't blame him too much for how he was beat by Daniel Alfredsson on the penalty shot (oh, thanks for that Luke Schenn!).

Wilson called out his team in the media after the game, saying that "they stunk" and that he is going to be skating them hard on Wednesday morning.

I hope to see some improvement boys...

Kessel, Kadri, and the start of the season

Well, I've had a number of people pestering me to weigh in on the Kessel trade since I've been pretty mum about it (on the blog at least) and so here goes. I think Kessel is a very good player and there is a part of me that is excited for him to be a Leaf. However, I don't think that he's "two firsts and a second" good and I admit that I'm a bit choked with Burke over this trade. What Burke is banking on is that the Leafs are going to do far better this year and next year (which they very well may) and thus those two first rounders will be late draft choices. However, as much as I think the Leafs will be a better team this year (and if the pre-season is any indication, they will!), will they be a top ten team? I highly doubt it. Thus, I think Burke has traded away a big chunk of the future in order to get an injury-prone forward who won't play until November and who has been known to disappear when the pressure is on. And in the NHL, the Toronto hockey market is the definition of pressure. This move screams "we're going to make the playoffs come hell or high water" and, to me, contradicts all of his talk about the slow building of the team and thinking long-term rather than short-term. However, I hope Kessel proves me wrong and I'll be pulling for him, even if I am not a big fan of the trade.


On the opposite side of the coin, I think it was wise of Burke/Wilson to send Nazem Kadri back to junior for more experience, ice time, and strengthening. He had a great camp and his future in Toronto looks bright (provided they don't trade him away). He's wily, quick, has great hands, is a fantastic skater, and has some pretty sweet moves (based on his shootout goal against Pittsburgh). I look forward to seeing him up with the big club in the next couple of years!

As for what this season holds, it's tough to tell. The Leafs had a great pre-season, The Monster and Toskala both looked good, and even thinking about the defensive corps gives me bruises! The question mark is going to be whether we're going to be able to fill the net or not. The addition of Kessel should help that, but is there any guarantee that he's going to stay healthy?

Some predictions: Will the Leafs make the playoffs? Yes. Will they be the eighth seed? No. Will Phil Kessel stay healthy? No. Will the Leafs spend a lot of time in the penalty box? Heck yes.

I'm looking forward to the season opener against the Habs tonight...

pre-season thoughts thus far

I don't have a lot to say about the pre-season thus far other than that I am impressed with how the team has looked/played. The Buds have won the majority of their games and, in many cases, have looked pretty convincing doing it. Nazim Kadri looks like he has the makings of a very good NHL player, but I think he should be sent back to junior to develop more before they bring him up to the pressure-filled fishbowl that is the Toronto hockey market.

being a Leafs fan

I take a lot of stick for a number of different things (including my profession), but not for anything as much as being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. Admittedly, because the Leafs are the biggest punchline in the NHL (and don't think I won't admit it, because I often do) this is deserved. However, I know that if I were to suddenly switch allegiances after all these years as a result of how badly they stink, I'd hear about it even more. I have a number of friends who are Canuck fans and who always tell me that the Canucks are a "real" team (see note below). The thing is, my body would really pay the price if I switched allegiances and became a hard-core Vancouver fan--Canucks supporters have really really bad knee and leg problems from jumping on and off the bandwagon so many times...

My connection to the Leafs is pretty much down to one person. His real first name is Norman, but he goes by a shortened form of his middle name (William): Bill. He is also known as my father. My dad has always loved the Leafs and he passed on that love to me, a love that grew in my teens to what it is now at age 30. Because I didn't live with my father, the Leafs are a real bonding thing for us and thus a team on which I am still not willing to fully give up. My dad and I are real Leafs fans, not the pie-in-the-sky, uncritical type that a lot of so-called fans are. As Dave Feschuk and Michael Grange point out in their brilliant new book Leafs AbomiNation, the problem is that Leafs fans don't love their team too much, they love them too little. They are willing to settle for whatever mediocre crap is thrown on the ice season after season and treat the players like heroes just because they wear the Blue & White. My father and I do not really fit that mold and we would be the first people to lambast the Leafs' torturously poor decision making in the post-1967 era. Many a phone call have we shared where my father and I have derided the team and there have been times where they've been so bad (pretty constantly) that we've essentially ignored them and focused on other sporting loves (I am a passionate Liverpool FC supporter and thus have another club to focus on that is far more successful while my father loves the CFL's Hamilton Tiger Cats and the Toronto Blue Jays). My dad remembers 1967, remembers when the Leafs were great. I know the stories and have studied the history: from Barilko to Baun, Keon to Sittler, from the agony of "the Ballard Years" to the corporate B.S. of the MLSE era, I know all about it. Which brings us to the concept of loyalty...

I love you Dave Keon:


There is something to be said for loyalty, though I consider my/our loyalty to be "loyalty with discernment". I am willing to admit to being a Leafs fan, will sport my jersey or t-shirt, but I refuse to make excuses to others for a team that has missed the playoffs for the last four years, has made incredibly bad trade decisions (you readers don't have three hours to hear the post-67 list--it would make you cry), rewarded mediocrity with ridiculous contracts (Brian McCabe??? Lord helps us, he had a good one-timer and that's IT), drafted like Helen Keller, and generally put profits ahead of winning (are you listening, Richard Peddie!?), just to mention a few symptoms of general malaise. Garbage management (i.e. John Ferguson Jr.???), poor scouting, bad ownership, blind fans, and a number of other factors have contributed to making the team the laughingstock it is today; I, for one, would love to see it end because it's tiring. However, there is a glimmer of hope...

Say what you will about Brian Burke, but love him or hate him, he knows how to get results and he has a long-term vision for the team, something the organization has lacked for....well, a hell of a long time. The Leafs are starting to scout far better, draft better, and not trade away picks under the Burke regime. Is he perfect? No, not at all and he will probably make mistakes in the fishbowl that is the Toronto hockey market. However, he knows the symptoms of what Feschuk and Grange call 'Blue & White Disease', as does his hardass coach Ron Wilson, and I don't see this malady continuing--in fact, the vaccine is being continually developed. I am so pleased they picked up Jonas Gustavsson ("The Monster") to challenge Vesa Toskala ("The Tepid Finn") for the top goaltending job, hopefully shoring up what Burke calls 'hockey's most important position'. Nazim Kadri looks like he could be a very good NHLer if he continues to develop, and Burke's other additions make him look very smart and savvy, including the scouting and signing of college players such as Tyler Bozak and Christian Hanson. Add Francois Beauchemin, Colton Orr, and Mike Komisarek (to name but a few) and no other team is going to want play the Leafs this season for fear of being steamrolled! I hope the message Burke is sending is "Enough of the no-trade clauses and cushy treatment. If you want a spot on this team, you earn it through your play!" We'll see what the 2009-10 season brings...

I love the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club and the reason I am still a fan is because of a yearning to see respectability and glory returned to what was once a proud franchise with a tradition of winning. Conn Smythe would roll over in his grave if he knew what the Buds had become since their last Cup in 1967 (FYI, the Blackhawks have been waiting even longer for a Cup, their last win being 1961 when Mikita and Hull were their big guns!). For me and my father, it's about seeing some dignity and a winning tradition restored to a franchise that he remembers and I dream about. My father and I don't care about profit margins, corporate sponsorship, good branding or any of that crap. Like the real fans we want to see winning, a team that has guts, passion, and a never-say-die attitude rather than the whiny, spoiled, Muskoka Five-type attitude prevalent of late, where you love being a Leaf because of the social perks and treatment by myopic fans who do not care enough about seeing the Cup return to the Leafs. And if it happens in my lifetime, a Cup win for the Leafs will make it all that much sweeter because I will have stuck it out rather than giving up. I hope my dad gets to see it too!


* To my friends who are Canucks fans: Your team is by far my favourite team in the league outside of the Leafs; I always sincerely hope for their best and love to see them succeed. However, please stop comparing the Leafs and Canucks based on playoff performance (the most common comparison you bring up): if you examine the stats, the Canucks have really had little better playoff success than the Leafs in the the last 20 years or so, not withstanding the miracle run in 1994. In the last two decades the Leafs have made it to the Conference Finals four times and Vancouver has made it...once, where they beat the Leafs in five games. Yes, in general, the Canuckleheads have had more success in the regular season, but what counts is how you do when you're not playing for a salary anymore. And based on that measure we've shown more stones than you have in the last couple of decades, in my humble opinion. We've missed the playoffs for four straight years now, a fact you never stop reminding me of, but funnily, so did YOU between 1996 and 2000 (not to mention 2005-06 and 2007-08). Have your teams been better than the Leafs in general? Absolutely. Do you have some of the most hot and cold fans in professional sports? Heck, yes. Have you wilted like violets in the playoffs? Yup. Is the Luongo-Sedins axis getting it done for you? Not in a million years and it's not looking likely in the future either, despite Luongo's long-term deal. So, please cut the mockery, because when it comes to playoff performance comparisons, you don't have a leg to stand on. End of rant. Bing Man out.

what you've been waiting for: weighing in on the draft and more

I've been chastised for not posting my thoughts on the Leafs' first round draft pick, Nazem Kadri, as well as the team's other pre-season moves and so I am taking the time to quickly do so now.

The first think I'd like to say is that I like Kadri and what he can bring to the team the more I read about him. He's quick, offensively-minded, has great hands, is a wickedly fast skater and is especially impressive in his ability to find the net shorthanded. As a London Knight, he finished second in team scoring behind John Tavares with 78 points--not too shabby. If I wished one thing about Kadri, it's that he was a bit bigger (at 6'0, 167 pounds, he's not that physically imposing), however he is still just a kid and will beef up as he gets older. Interestingly, he was ranked 11th at midterm by NHL Central Scouting and his final rank was 15th, however he ended up going 7th overall. Kadri turns 19 in October and I'm curious as to whether he will be able to crack the Leafs lineup this coming season or whether he'll be back with the Knights.

Burke has definitely toughened the team up with his signings in the off-season (Komisarek, Beauchemin, Orr, Exelby, etc.), but I am not seeing much offensive power in the lineup outside of Jason Blake (who isn't getting any younger!), though new acquisition Rickard Wallin may help with that. I am also hoping that John Mitchell will step up even more this year after a good season with the Buds last season--he has potential to be a good second or third line forward with the team, much like he was last year.

Goaltending is going to be interesting for the team--Vesa Toskala has a more-than-ample challenger in Jonas "the Monster" Gustavsson and I am curious to see whether the Finn is displaced from the number one position! At least, no matter what happens, we should have a highly competent backup 'tender, which has been lacking for a good long time.

Our GM has done a good job this off-season and our team is not going to be one that is easily intimidated. Heck, I think that they are going to be a difficult team to play and more difficult still to push around, which is encouraging. That being said, however, who is going to put the pucks in the net? This is my main concern as the 2009-10 seaspm approaches. Does Burkie have a few more tricks up his sleeve?

We shall see...