budblog

he NHL released the schedule for the 2008 - 2009 season yesterday. A few surprises but nothing huge. One change they implemented is that all teams play at least one game against each other, so that’s kinda nice.  The Leafs are starting the season on the road at the Joe. Nice for me and my SO, a rabid Wings fan.

Still no word on the Leafs TV schedule, but you can bet there will be as many or more games exclsuive to the fledgling channel this year. I’m still undecided as to whether or not I’ll subscribe. It bothers me to no end that I have to fork out more money to support a team that has basically done SFA in the least 40+ years - I may wait until the last minute, wait until I see if I can manage having a Leafs game being played and not be able to tune it in.  ==sigh==

The Leafs have paid a hefty price sitting on their behinds waiting for Sundin to decide if we wants to make $7m this year, or $10m this year. I mean, if ever there was a no-brainer decision to make, there it is.  All their really is to decide is “am I playing this year”. The rest of the equation is simple mathematics that they teach in grade 1. Ten is greater than seven. Ten million is a LOT greater than seven million.

Hello?   Hello?

Ah. So there is hope that Sundin will be the valiant white knight and sign on for $3m and 1 year less. Yeah. Ok.

In the mean time any chance of bringing in some other heavy hitter ( that might not be so invisible in the last 1/3 of the season ) dwindles away. It was rumoured that Jagr had a very short list of NHL teams that he would play for once the Rangers cut him loose. The Leafs could have igned him for 2 years at half what they offered Sundin and got about the same player package. That’s if going out and spending big bucks on an aging, depleted veteran is what wins Stanley Cups in this era of salary caps and young legs.

The Clemmensen Experiment is over by the way. Back to the Devils he goes. Hey, who would you rather back up; Toskala or Brodeur?

To Go (NOW) or (NOT) To GO (Later)

So is the writing on the wall for Bryan McCabe? Alright, so call this post the “post of no-brainers”. He’s so gone. I can’t imagine why he would even want to think about playing for the Leafs next season. He’ll wind up being the next Larry Murphy. Booed right out of town, into the loving arms of a cup contender.

So Long Tucker

I’m shocked the Leafs let this guy go. I liked our team with this guy in the room. Sure he had a bad season, but it wasn’t like he was having a bad season on a roster with 22 guys having banners years, or on a team headed for the finals. Anyways, he’s gone. We’ll likely see him in the playoffs next year kickin’ ass. After a 35 goal regular season campaign.

For crying out loud, GO SUNDIN. GO.

With the departure of Ferguson and Maurice - and hopefully Sundin - I find myself with the urge to bring budblog.com back to life. Excuse the mess while I recover some files and bring the schedules up to speed.

I’m not sure what to make of bringing Cujo back, but however good or bad he is he’ll be a site better than Raycroft I’m sure. I’m particularly happy about bringing in Ron Wilson as coach. I liked Paul Maurice. Just not as coach.

And who the hell is Jeff Finger?

GO LEAFS GO!!!

Well, it’ll make for an interesting final 2 weeks of the schedule.

As of today:

7. Boston 84
8. Philadelphia 84
9. Washington 82
10. Buffalo 81
11. Florida 81
12. Toronto 80

Toronto plays Boston twice this week. There will be a turn of fortunes. The only other game that matters as much as those 2 is the game against Buffalo on April 1.

Oh Oh.

Leaf Nation clings to hope on life support.

Me? I’ve cancelled Leafs TV and NHL Centre Ice. I’m more interested in what MLSE will be doing in the next 4 months. Particularly around Mats Sundin and Paul Maurice.

GO MLSE GO!!!

Not that I’m going to give the guys an F for effort these past few games. Gutsy wins against Philly, fun games to watch…. that make you imaghine what it would have been like had they played with that much passion all year long.

Alas, as the abyss draws near and the brutally tough lineup of opponents lick their chops at the easy points the Blue & White squad offer, the only thing the Leafs can really mess up now is their draft pick.

There was never any doubt. The Leafs just aren’t good enough. Not this year, and not for the foreseeable future. In this new NHL, rebuilding the Leafs won’t happen over night. And there is always the risk that the dysfunction that is MLSE, which is currently lying sleeping like a miserable bear in April, will rear its evil head and rip apart any good work Cliff Fletcher inspires.

Ah me.

Go Leafs Go already.

Nice schedule.

There’s 15 games left for the Leafs, but they play only 7 teams.

3 games each against the roaring Bruins and the enigmatic Sabres.

1 game against the Isles.

2 games each against the Devils, Flyers, Senators and Canadiens.

Some anamolies worth mentioning here. First, the games against Buffalo and Philly are very special. Both those teams have struggled and both those teams sit right at the line drawn for playoff spots. Philly is in by the slimmest of margins and Toronto is 5 points back. Buffalo is 2 points back. The Isles are right behind Bufflo 4 points back.

Boston is lighting it up in the east. Goaltender Tim Thomas is hot, 3 - 0 - 0 with a 0.97 GGA and a .962 SP in his last 3 games. They’ve won 7 of their last 8. Hot.

After a 10 game losing streak Philadelphia has won 3 in a row. The Sabres are playing .500 hockey right now which must be driving Lindy Ruff bonkers.

Then we have the Leafs. Points in 7 of the last 8, winners of 6 of their last 7. Sundin is on a tear.

Leafs Nation is in tatters, and Cliff Fletcher’s hair has turned snow white.

Well, it was white when he got back in the driver’s seat here but you have to imagine that the view from his side of the bus doesn’t look rosy. He’s going to blow it up this summer for sure. The current state of affairs with the club simply pisses on his dynamite.

So just for one second let’s pretend that the whitewash by Florida didn’t happen. The game was never played. It was all just a rude nightmare born of inconsistent, no… lousy… hockey.

Now look at the last dozen games.

Seven wins there. An OT loss.  And all the losses are 1 goal games against tough opponents. Oh, and the last 3 wins are against the top 3 teams in the league.

Good grief.

It’s exactly this kind of thing that washes over management like a soft warm blanket. Like that blanket is going to protect them from anything except a light breeze. Certainly not against the impending storm that’ll break when we fall short of the playoffs, frittered away a better spot at the draft trough, and hung onto a bunch of dead wood that’ll get us nowhere fast.

Surely Cliff Fletcher isn’t that stupid.

Sure Darcy Tucker has picked it up a notch in the last 2 games, but his play on the season has made him expendable. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve defended Tucker’s spot on the blue bench since day 1 and though his new contract was bang on. But when you don’t live up to the new contract, you gotta go. Same goes for Raycroft, Blake, and others.

All kinds of speculation out there about what Sundin will be doing 2 weeks from now.  That’s all it is. Speculation. He has a contract and a no trade clause. For all intents and purposes he’s holding all the cards - no 2 ways about that. Even if they do manage to find a spot for Raycroft they’ll have to eat a ton of his salary to do it. Blake is a gamble for anyone I’m sorry to say. A fine pickle, especially when you potentially have management thinking “hang on a sec… we won some games, maybe we can take a run at the playoffs.

As if.

We have 2 more losses than wins. That’s sub .500 people, with 25 games left. We’re 3 points out of last place in the east.

Now…..

Remember the Florida game……

One of interim GM Cliff Fletcher’s first announcements was that Paul Maurice would at a minimum finish out the season nehind the Leafs’ bench. Smart move. Either give the vote of confidence or drop the axe - waffling on that decision does far more damage than the other options.

Brian Burke has already flatly denied he’s even remotely interested in the GM post long-term. Bowman said he’d do it if he had total control (which you just know isn’t going to happen any time soon). So I’m thinking Fletcher will likely fill the role for the rest of ‘08 and may not have anyone in place for the July 1 free agency sweeps. Which isn’t all that bad provided he takes the right tact with the team. As in, forget the short-term and start building now for the future.

That has some implications.

Salaries for the overpaid players will need to be dumped. That’s often hard to do because, well, they’re overpaid vets with contracts. The Leafs will likely have to bite the bullet on portions of their contracts to make them attractive. Raycroft is in this category. Certainly Jason Blake though he has an asterisk next to his name. There’s speculation that Darcy Tucker is being shopped because while his play his good his numbers are not.

It’s unlikely Sundin will finish the season a Leaf, and rightly so. He deserves a few kicks at the can before he retires and he won’t get them in Toronto. Rumour has it that Cliff Fletcher came to the Leafs with a side deal attached: if Toronto puts Sundin on the block Phoenix gets first dibs. The only questions there are, can Phoenix afford to pick him up, can Phoenix afford NOT to pick him up if their rise in the west continues, and would Sundin play hockey in the desert under Gretzky for the last 2 or 3 years of his career.  I’m liking the idea of Sundin going to the Coyotes. Oh, one last question. What do we get back from Phoenix that can even remotely help us.

The February trade deadline looms large. With any luck our sick bay will clear out a little before then. Ponikarovsky will likely stay a Leaf. He’s young and talented. Steen will likely stay as well. I wouldn’t be too surprised if we see the “C” on his shirts should Sundin be traded. The only other candidate for the captaincy would seem to be McCabe, and this being Sunday I’m not liking McCabe today. Ask me tomorrow.

So here we sit at the all-star break 3 games short of .500 and 22 more goals against than for. We have a solid goaltender, a reasonable backup in Clemmenson, and Pogge being groomed for the future. Our defence is fairly solid now but will have major holes in it in the next 2 years. Our offence is getting older and the newcomers on deck now are risks in terms of their talent. There will need to be changes and improvements made there for sure. The next 4 weeks will be interesting.

And for the record, I hate the all-star weekend. Total waste of time.

GO FLETCH GO!!!

It’s no secret Scotty Bowman was approached in the past to run the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey organization. There is only one reason he said no. That would be the dysfunctional reporting structure of MLSE. If Scotty is hired, Scotty runs the ship. No Peddie. No Tennenbaum. No board. It’s him and the team. Period.

Last night on HNIC Bowman rekindled speculation that MLSE is considering giving in to his request and bringing him on - cutting itself loose from the day-to-day decision making that has run this team into the ground in the last 5 years. Now that JFJ has been effectively castrated as Leafs’ GM and the season all but lost, it makes sense to bring in a real hockey man and give him free reign.

In the meantime, the Leafs showed sufficient grit last night to entertain the notion that they haven’t given up. Not on the coach. Not on the season. Noble. Required. You don’t give up. Not when you make that kind of money in a career path with less than 1000 job openings world-wide. Players who give up are labeled cowards and can wind up on the unemployment line fairly quickly. Think Shane Corson.

Rumours have it that JFJ is shopping Blake around the league with little or no interest being shown. Ya think? No offence. We know he’s not well. But if you subject yourself to a multi-million dollar paycheque, you subject yourself to multi-million dollar scrutiny and expectations. In that light, Jason Blake is a failure of monstrous proportions.

Last place in the league looms large.

Someone needs to do something.

GO…Go… oh, never mind….

Up and down in just 3 weeks. Just when the Leafs looked like they were playing their way out of whatever funk [of the day] gripped them, another losing streak overtakes their parade route and lo and behold… we sit in the bottom of the division. And 13th in the conference - despite there being only 4 points  separating them from 5th. Four points, it seems, is no easy feat in this conference.

Some good things came from the pasting the Rangers handed them last night.

Scott Clemmensen made his roster debut - and he’s someone we’ll probably see more often now that Andrew Raycroft’s bubble has burst completely. It was his forst NHL appearance since helping eliminate the Leafs from last year’s playoffs. Vesa Toskala has shown his worth. Out with a groin injury (oh oh), the Leafs haven’t won a game since.

The current losing streak doesn’t help JFJ either. Once again, there are calls for his head on a stick. One of the moves he could pull the trigger on soon is moving Raycroft. Pittsburgh Tampa Bay and L.A are all runoured to have shown interest.

So we close ‘07 out with a whimper.

And a sketchy parade route.

GO DAMMIT GO!!!