No lack of enthusiasm from youngins

The Leafs have pretty much been swept clean. If Brian Burke set out to rebuild this team from the ground up, well, welcome to the ground Brian. Welcome to the ground.

Burke shipped Alexei Ponikarovsky off to the Penguins and Lee Stepniak to the Coyotes at the deadline, getting pretty much nothing in return to speak of. In doing so we became the youngest team in the NHL, and far more North American.

And for the record, I still like the Kessel trade. Love it. Once we bring in a top line forward Kessel will start paying dividends. He isn’t putting the numbers up because he has no-one to play with.

So that’s it then. Rock bottom. Just 19 games left in the season and we’re golfing. Frankly, I’m at peace with it. At least we’re not gunning for that last spot only to have it yanked away in the last 1 or 2 games of the season – ulcer material to say the least. Most of the Leafs are auditioning for jobs next year so we should see some decent hockey over the next few weeks – though wins may remain scarce.

It’d be nice to lay some smackdown on Ottawa tonight. Tender mercies.

GO KIDS GO!!!

Burning Times in Leaf Nation

Alex Ponikarovsky will enjoy his stay in Pittsburgh, even though that stay might be relatively short. The playoffs loom large for the Penguins and expectations are high. Ponikarovsky has a contribution to make there for sure. The change of scenery and the change in hockey mentality will likely impact the way he plays, and probably make him better. He never did live up to expectations in Toronto, though he did fare better than Nik Antropov. I’m a little disappointed in what we got back for him.

Burke’s purge of Europeans has real traction now. That’s 7 of them gone in the last year: Ponikarovsky, Nik Antropov, Anton Stralman, Pavel Kubina, Jiri Tlusty, Niklas Hagman, Vesa…. Vesa…… oh right, Vesa Toskala. That’s his name. Almost slipped my mind.

Carolina has been surging lately. Last night’s whipping of the Buds came as no surprise. The cane’s are still hungry and only 8 points back of a playoff spot. Not great odds, but mathematically possible. No quit there.

The Leafs fly out to Boston for a game against the Bruins tomorrow night – the first in a 3 game road trip with stops in Philly and Ottawa before coming home to a rematch against the Bruins on the 9th. While I think Burke may still have a couple of items left up his sleeve for TSN’s rabid, motor-mouth Trade Center, I don’t think there are any surprises in store.

These are the Burning Times in Toronto. It can’t get much worse. While it can get much better, there are still many fires in the time between this and that. There’s 20 games left on the schedule. Even if we won all 20 we’d still have only 89 points. This will likely be one of the worst seasons on the books… ever.

== sigh==

Komisarek gone for the season

That was short and sweet.

Mike Komisarek’s first season with the Leafs is officially over. He sustained a shoulder injury in early January that refused to respond to traditional therapy – something doctors recommended he try before opting for the surgery. yesterday, after conferring with well-known specialist  Dr. James Andrews in the U.S., Komisarek got the word.

That also kills his opportunity to play for the U.S. hockey team in the 2010 Olympics. So that’s that.

Aside from bringing in studly Dion Phaneuf earlier this week, Burke has a decision to make in order to fill the gap this creates. He could opt to hang on to Garnet Exelby a little longer, or move Jeff Finger into the role if something can be done with Exelby’s contract. From an ice-level hockey perspective it doesn’t make much difference. The Leafs’ playoff hopes are flatlined at this point – though I’m sure Leafs Nation was planning a parade route after Tuesday’s whitewashing of the sagging New Jersey Devils.

Reality check tomorrow night – rematch. On their ice. With Brodeur in net.

GO LEAFS GO!!!

Burke executes massive trades

The Toronto Maple Leafs pulled off 2 massive trades today.

Burke pulled off a trade with the Calgary Flames, shipping off Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers and defenceman Ian White in return for defencemen Dion Phaneuf and Keith Aulie, and forward Fredrik Sjostrom.

Burke then put the Vesa Toskala experiment out of its misery, shipping the goalie that never lived up to expectations off to Anahein with fellow under-performer Jason Blake, getting veteran goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere in return.

A lot of this is salary dump and face-changing. One telling aspect of the Anaheim trade is that Burke appears to no longer have confidence that Gustavsson can be a number one in the short term.

I’m sure Burke isn’t done just yet.

GO BURKIE GO!!!

Troubled Buds hit bottom

So that was that. Not sure what sound effect I should use to illustrate the Buds’ freefall to the bottom of the pack in the East, overtaken by  the Carolina Hurricanes by virtue of their four game winning streak and Toronto’s horrendous collapse last night at the hands of the Canucks. There was irony aplenty just to make the loss more brutal for Leafs Nation.

After pounding 3 past Roberto Luongo in the first period, including 2 from the enigmatic Phil Kessel, the Canucks pulled Luongo to start the second, in favour of….. wait for it….. Andrew Raycroft. So right away, you know this is going to go one of either 2 ways. Raycroft will be, well, the Raycroft we booed out of town. Or, he will suddenly become, you know…

SUPER GOALIE!

So the irony there is Raycroft was bought out by the Leafs. As he was in the Canucks net deflecting pucks like, you know… SUPER GOALIE… his salry was being paid by… wait for it… the TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS.

Wait. Wait. It gets better.

Up in the stands amongst the military guest of honour are a dozen or more scouts from various NHL clubs circling the Leafs like turkey buzzards. One of them is none other than… okay okay okay… ready….. John Ferguson Jr.

I still love the Phil Kessel trade. He’ll pay dividends for quit some time once he gets his conditioning back to where it was and the schedule uncompresses.  I think he’ll see a coaching change soon enough that’ll impact his level of play greatly.

It can still get a little worse. The Edmonton Oilers are still 7 points back of the Leafs for dead last in the league, but of they start suddenly playing like the Carolina Hurricanes or something… well… we have that to look forward to.

Wilson losing “…that lovin’ feelin…”

“Whooaaaa-ohhhh that loooooooovin’ feelin’….

Now it’s gone… gone… gone….

Damien Cox has never been one to mince words about the beloved maple leafs an what ails them. This morning he wasted no time at all calling out Ron Wilson on thestar.com.

Things won’t get better any time soon. Look at the next 5 games. LA in town, Canucks in town, and a weird little schism in the schedule that sees the Leafs play 3 games against the New Jersey Devils in 8 days.

Oh me. Oh my.

Thankfully the Carolina Hurricanes can’t win a hockey game either, so that’ll be a nice little cushion that’ll keep the Leafs off the basement floor. But they are close… and it’s still cold down that low. You don’t have to hear the thud to know you’re in trouble.

Have the Leafs given up? I don’t think so. They may have lost some of the fire, but I don’t think it’s competely out just yet. The March trade deadline approaches but it’s a soft date because of the Olympics. With only 3 days separating the closing ceremonies and the trade deadline, you have to wonder if a lot of the trade action is going to happen mid-February.

Hot Stove last night suggested Stajan, Ponikarovsky and Kaberle are sure to move before the deadline. Perhaps Hagman too. Hagman’s light only appears bright because the of the surrounding darkness. Burke is taking calls on Hagman and eventually he’ll tire of saying no. I’m not so sure. Ponikarovsky is a big forward and Burke likes them that way. I think the only reason he’s underachieving is he’s caught whatever malady that struck the Leafs after training camp.

So there you have it.

Paul Maurice – last place in the league. Pat Quinn in second to last. Ron Wilson in third last.

And Martin Brodeur sharpening his stats pencil….

GO LEAFS GO!!!

The Basement: padded for the Leafs

Oh… the basement approaches. But it is cushioned. Softened by the presence of the Edmonton Oilers and Caorlina Hurricanes. Curious isn’t it… that the two teams, the only two teams, directly below the Leafs in the NHl standings are the teams coached by the two previous coaches of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Gotta be something in that.

Not since the decline of Pat Quinn in Toronto have the Maple Leafs amounted to anything more than a bottom feeder scraping past other bottom feeders.

The measure of the Leafs’ futility thus far can only be dulled by the pure misery ‘Canes fans are enduring under Paul Maurice. I can’t imagine him hagning on to his job much longer. We’ve 6 points on them and they look rather cuishy right now, lest that basement floor get much harder. Now there are 9 points separating our Buds from playoff glory. Count’em. 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8… and…. 9. Even the Flyers have kicked it up a notch and threaten the Habs and Sens – 8th and 7th respectively. Best watch out.  Calgary is hanging on to 6th in the west for dear life, Vancouver 7th.

If those teams slip Canada could well be shut out of playoff contention.

When was the last time that happened?  As far as I can tell, it hasn’t.

Leafs! Go…. just go.

Sabres rattle Leafs

Seems to me that when you have the worst penalty kill in the league one of the first rules of engagement becomes “stay the hell out of the penalty box”. The Buds had trouble with that one last night in Buffalo, and the Sabres made them pay – 3 times no less. Three power play goals killed any chance of the Leafs breaking the jinx with the Sabres last night, despite some heroics late in the 3rd period.

I can’t imagine Brian Burke sitting still for this much longer. As a point of pride he needs to put some heads on the chopping block and, you know, chop some off. That’s just for pride, without giving much thought about making the team better.

…aaaaaand we’ll play Pittsburgh tonight just for the heck of it.

GO LEAFS GO!!!

Leafs stink up Philly

Gotta love that Carcillo character. Don Cherry had it right. He is absolutely a goof. The only thing that separates him from Sean Avery is… well… different DNA. But that was a very pretty goal he scored last night. Which goes to show you he’s capable of playing hockey. Either he just doesn’t know any better or he’s just plain common-sense challenged.

There’s a rematch coming up at the ACC in a few days’ time – that one should be a doozy.

Meanwhile, the Leafs continue their decent towards the basement yest again. With Buffalo and Pittsburgh on the horizon, doesn’t look like it’ll get any better in the short term. Unless of course the other Leafs show up.

I know the Leafs aren’t the most talented team in the league but you have to wonder if the problem isn’t behind the bench. Have these guys tuned Wilson out? Sure as hell looks like it. We have a lot of guys that do have talent that are just doing nothing. They’re not scoring, they’re not skating well – seems like they just don’t want to compete on a day-to-day basis. Maybe they’re not worried about their jobs? I dunno. Burke needs to do something to wake this team up. The season is damn near lost anyway – if he’s planning on rebuilding and changing bodies anyways, now’s the time. Nothing like a blockbuster move to shake things up.

Let’s go Burkie. Get something done buddy.

Boo birds ride McCabe

It seems kind of funny and a little awkward when former Leafs ride into town and have a great game. We got a lot of good hockey out of Bryan McCabe, and he came back to the ACC last night and delivered a little more good hockey. But for him to get booed this far out from his days as a Leaf? There was only a smattering of them pesky boo birds. Some folks have persistent memories I suppose.

Take 3 of those losses in the last dozen games and mark them as wins and the standings look entirely different. That’s how tight the east is near the basement. The only reason why playoff hopes remain alive is not because the Leafs are doing well or can over-achieve themselves into contention. It’s because so many teams in the east are doing as bad or worse than they are. Which I’m sure is all fine with Leafs Nation. Squeaking into the playoffs then going deep and taking at run at the cup has happened before. Just… not… that often.

The injury bug is peaking its evil head into the Leafs’ dressing room these days. I suspect with the compressed schedule we’ll be seeing more and more of this. Can’t remember what that was like at the last Olympics… that was a forgettable season too (tongue in cheek people, tongue in cheek).

 Flyers – Sabres - Penguins stretched out over the next 4 days. Want to see if your team has what it takes to do the 1 – 2 sidestep into the playoffs? There you go.

GO LEAFS GO!!!