TORONTO (Oct. 5) — The usual mantra of Leafs Nation at this time of year — “Hey, it was only an exhibition game” — has one more day of shelf-life before fresh excuses are required to explain fiascos like Saturday night’s loss to a glorified Detroit farm team. This embarrassment, at the Air Canada Centre, occurred at a time when the Maple Leafs should be rounding into so-called regular-season form. Then again, given how the multitudes have predicted such form to resemble what we saw on Saturday, perhaps the Leafs are performing to expectation.

The Red Wings came to town without arguably seven of their top eight players. Nick Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Holmstrom, Johan Franzen, Brian Rafalski and Valtteri Filppula all stayed in Detroit. Only Marian Hossa was dressed among the Wings’ best skaters. The Leafs, conversely, iced a line-up that is very close to the one coach Ron Wilson will deploy at Joe Louis Arena for the regular-season opener on Thursday. Defenseman Pavel Kubina was the only front-line player on the Toronto roster to sit out the game. The big difference might have been in goal, where Curtis Joseph continued to look as if he hasn’t covered an angle in 15 years. But, that doesn’t explain why the Leafs — with virtually all of their regular forwards in uniform – failed to record a single shot on goal in the second period. Nor does it jibe with the one promise Wilson has made about his initial season behind the Toronto bench… that his players, regardless of the opposition or the odds against winning, will not be out-worked.

With just one practice game left — a 5 p.m. start against Columbus today at the ACC — it’s difficult to pin-point a Leafs player that is standing out. Certainly, Luke Schenn has proven that he’ll be worthy of his No. 5 draft ranking, and farm-hand John Mitchell has put forth an honest effort in every practice and game. But, no one in the Leafs’ organization should be excited that Schenn and Mitchell are the club’s best players heading into the regular season. What about Matt Stajan and Alex Steen – both looked upon to raise their performance levels in the absence of Mats Sundin? Have they given any indication of offering something different from what we’ve been accustomed to in prior years? Is there reason to believe that Alexei Ponikarovsky can stop flubbing easy scoring chances late in close games? Certainly not based on his spectacular muff against the Red Wings.

With Sundin out of the picture, Tomas Kaberle is said to be the Leafs’ best player. Is he providing even a hint that he’ll be able to step into a leadership role for the first time in his career? These are questions that will plague the incumbents on the hockey club — players that have virtually no concept of winning at the NHL level. It will therefore likely be up to the newest Maple Leafs to provide a spark. And, though it hasn’t resulted in anything tangible on the scoreboard [Toronto is 2-5-1 in the exhibition schedule], additions such as Niklas Hagman, Mikhail Grabovski and Jonas Frogren are supplying promise.

But, the Leafs will be thoroughly humiliated this season on nights when they show up without their work-boots. As they did through most of Saturday’s tilt with the quasi-Red Wings.

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