In the last week, the winless Toronto Maple Leafs have been occupied by a number of different activities by coach Ron Wilson and his staff. They have played a few games of dodgeball, gone through some 3-on-3 drills to go along with numerous practices. Tonight at GM Place in Vancouver, the Leafs will attempt to do something else different…….win a game.

Goaltenders Vesa Toskala and Jonas Gustavsson are still sidelined with knee and groin injuries respectively, Toskala appears to be a couple weeks away from being able to jump back into the lineup, whereas Gustavsson is practicing and may be able to see game action as soon as Monday in Anaheim against Brian Burke’s former team, the Ducks. Joey MacDonald will get his third consecutive start tonight. Reports earlier in the week indicated that defenseman Luke Schenn was going to be kept out of the lineup for tonight’s game, based on his below-par play so far this season, but Wilson refuted those reports by saying that Schenn had practiced well this week. No other lineup changes are expected.

The game tonight has enough drama with the Leafs off to a dismal 0-6-1 start, but contributing more to the atmosphere is the tension between the Leafs hierarchy and the Canuck organization. After the reports of tampering regarding Ron Wilson’s comments about the Sedins’ before free agency started in July and the complaints about Burke referring to a rumored deal involving two Canuck players during a behind-the-scenes video snippet on their website, it is unlikely that the two management groups will be gathering together for a pre-game meal or a cup of coffee.

The NHL has told both teams to cease and desist from any further snipping and comments about each other, but according to Matthew Sekeres column on the Globe and Mail website, that has not been successful.

Burke, the former Canucks GM who is returning to his former haunt for the first time since assuming leadership of the Maple Leafs in November, admitted yesterday that he erred in allowing a team-produced video – in which he floats inaccurate trade rumors about Vancouver players – to appear on the club's website. But Burke also insinuated the Canucks are responsible for the brouhaha, and that the whole incident could have been settled privately had Vancouver GM Mike Gillis called him and not the NHL head office. “All the commentary on this has come out of Vancouver,” Burke said on the eve of a showdown between the teams at GM Place tonight. “Not a word out of Toronto.” Gillis has said Leafs executives are intentionally trying to disrupt Vancouver players by expressing interest in their services and circulating false trade rumors.

“The league has asked us to let this go, and I would respect that except to say that it's absurd,” Burke said. “And I'll leave it at that. It's an absurd allegation. You're talking about footage that was shot when I was talking to my scouting staff. And I passed along a rumor – and said it was a rumor – and I don't know how that got through the editing process. I saw the rough cut and I missed it.” In the video, filmed at the entry draft in June, Burke said his second-hand information was that the Canucks were pushing to acquire the second overall selection from the Tampa Bay Lightning and were offering first-line winger Alex Burrows, top-pair defenceman Kevin Bieksa and the 22nd overall draft choice. After it was posted online, Gillis cried foul to the NHL and argued Burke was too smart and experienced in hockey matters to reasonably believe Vancouver would trade two of its best players going into a season in which it fancied itself a Stanley Cup contender. Because of that, Gillis concluded, Burke must have had an ulterior motive in mentioning the players by name.

The Canucks boss also said he was protecting the interests of his owners, the Aquilini family, which was an important clue in getting to the root of this feud. “I said to the league right away that if the Vancouver Canucks had called us and said ‘Look, there's something up on our website...'” Burke said yesterday. “Instead of Mike calling me, he went and talked to a bunch of reporters… I called the league and said: ‘It's a legitimate beef and we'll take it down immediately.'” Gillis would not comment yesterday, citing the league's request for silence.

The 5 game road trip continues with games next Monday against Anaheim, next Wednesday versus Dallas, next Friday in Buffalo against the division rival Sabres and ending the month of October as it had begun, playing the Canadiens. For the team to pull out of the death spiral they are currently in, they need to get improved effort from every aspect of the team. The best case scenario is for the Leafs to have a winning record on this road trip and be infused with confidence that can be carried forth for the remainder of the season. The worst case scenario would be if the Leafs fail to win a game, then the unthinkable of going 0 for October will become reality.

From the desk of Mike “In Buffalo” Augello

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