The blundering Maple Leafs of Toronto

Of course my first article should absolutely be about my beloved Maple Leafs who unfortunately are mired in the worst display of ineptitude in franchise history. So I guess I can't write about how they could win the Cup this year or even who they should draft next year since they don't have a first round pick. Nuts. I suppose I'll have to write about just how much they suck.

The truth is they actually don't suck. They also don't win as many game as most of the other teams in the NHL, but really they're a decent hockey club. They're young, they have star players and they have a Stanley Cup winning goaltender. It's hard to ask for much more than that. The problem, if it can be considered a problem, is that there is little difference between professional hockey teams. Certainly there is a wide gap between the best team in the league and the worst team in the league, but between the 11th team and the 8th? Not so much. Luck and one or two players can really be the difference between making the playoffs in the NHL and not.

The Leafs haven't made the playoffs in five years, this year will mark the sixth straight year. Before this current stretch of non-playoff years the longest the team had gone without making the playoffs was four years. Add the lockout year and there hasn't been a Leaf playoff game in six years and 277 days (if my calculations are correct). That's 2467 days since a Leaf playoff game, thankfully there's only been one leap year in that time otherwise the number would be even bigger. Assuming they don't make the playoffs this year that number will be close to 3000 days by the end of the 2011-2012 season, and they're not guaranteed to make the playoffs that year either. Yes it's hard times for Leafs fans indeed.

The organization has tried a number of things to get the Leafs back into the playoffs since the lockout, of course using the draft isn't one of them, but just about everything else is. Slow expensive forwards (Jason Allison comes to mind) that thrived in the hooking and grabbing era of the NHL were employed after the lockout which ensured that skill and speed would be required to win. That didn't work for the Buds. Who could have possibly guessed that? They tried throwing money at an old goaltender (Ed Belfour) before the lockout hoping that they could grandfather his salary, that didn't work and neither did having an expensive goalie will past his prime. They tried signing average players and players with one good season (Jason Blake) to huge contracts hoping they would suddenly become defensively responsible and start scoring more goals. That, surprisingly, didn't work either.

The most recent attempt to improve the team's fortunes looked good on paper, but hasn't turned out very well for the the team. At least not in the standings part of the game, the only part the fans really care about. Phil Kessel was traded from Boston for two first round draft picks and a second. It wasn't a bad move. Who knew the Leafs would finish second last and hand Boston the second overall draft pick? That pick would have been the second highest pick in franchise history. Once they had the first overall pick and once the third, but never the second. Oh by the way the guy they drafted with that first overall pick was Wendel Clark. The Bruins won't be getting quite as high a pick this year, but they've already replaced Kessel with Tyler Seguin (the player they drafted with the Leaf's first pick last year). Seguin may not ever be as good as Kessel, but he's expeceted to and he probably will be.

So that trade didn't work out as well as they had hoped, Kessel still has 49 goals in 119 games for the Leafs, that's not too bad. It just isn't helping them win. The same can be said about the Phaneuf trade. No one doubts that the Leafs won that trade, but it wasn't quite the fleecing it was when Cliff Fletcher stole Doug Gilmour from the Calgary Flames, and more importantly the team is still not winning. Unlike Kessel however, Phaneuf isn't putting up the numbers he was expected to, 21 points in 59 games.

There are a host of other players that are under performing this year, Tyler Bozak, Jonas Gustavsson, Mike Komisarek among others, but there are also a number of players over performing like Mikhail Grabovski and Clarke MacArthur. There just aren't enough over performers to compensate for the under performing.

There's no immediate fix for the team, no magic pill that will get them winning. They're young and they should improve, but that doesn't mean they'll make the playoffs next year. For that to happen both veterans and young players need to play their best hockey at the same time. It doesn't help much if Kessel scores four goals if the goalie lets in five, nor does allowing one goal help if the team is shutout. This team needs time to grow.  The problem is no one wants to wait that long, I certainly don't, and if Brian Burke takes a risk and loses, the wait will just be that much longer.

Where's the puck?

Until I find a paying gig writing sports I'll be trying to put as much sports related content as I can on this blog. Not only is it good practice, and I must say fun, but hopefully I'll be able to use it as portfolio of sorts. Or maybe I'll get the job I applied to today and this blog won't last longer than a day. Personally I hope I get the job and this blog fails. The job posting said applicants must be willing to travel. Perhaps to Dallas? Perhaps to the Super Bowl? Highly unlikely, but a guy can dream can't he?