TORONTO (Sep. 28) -- It is beyond laughable to think that the Toronto Maple Leafs are having trouble deciding on a starting netminder for next Wednesday night’s regular season opener against Ottawa. I mean, how can this possibly be? After giving up one of the top goaltending prospects in the world [Tukka Rask] to acquire Andrew Raycroft from Boston a year ago June, the Leafs’ issues in net were said to be solved. When three high draft picks were then sacrificed for Vesa Toskala this past June -- and the Leafs rushed breathlessly into guaranteeing Toskala $8 million, sight unseen, on a two-year contract extension -- the issues were said to be solved again. With an exclamation mark. Now, we’re to believe that there’s a “battle” going on to determine which goaltender is suitable enough to play against the Senators when the lights go up at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday? What do the Leafs have to do? Give away every prospect and high draft choice for the next 10 years before they arrive at a puck stopper they can trust?

Believe me, it would be the Maple Leafs’ worst nightmare if Toskala were unable to cleanly wrest the No. 1 position away from Raycroft. That’s because the future of every person in the organization between ownership and the players [GM, Assistant GM, coaches, scouts] hinges on Toskala not only becoming the undisputed starting goalie, but -- minimally -- leading the defensively-inept Leafs into the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2004. As is evidenced from the pre-season games we’ve seen thus far, which look like the vast majority of regular-season games from a year ago, it will require a Herculean effort for Toskala to move this club in a different direction.

But, don’t think for a moment that he won’t get the chance. GM John Ferguson got away with the failed Raycroft experiment. Neither he, nor anyone beneath him, has so much as a prayer of surviving a similar misstep with Toskala. The Finnish goalie will be thrown to the wolves -- repeatedly -- ’til he either gets it right, or ownership determines another costly error has been made. Then, the stick of dynamite will come out. Body parts will be flying in all directions -- the composition of Leafs’ management, unrecognizable.

Don’t, for one minute, take the bait if either Ferguson or coach Paul Maurice expresses pleasure over the prospect of a goaltending “tandem”. They both know, as well as anyone, that if Toskala fails to grab the No. 1 mantle, he’ll take everyone down with him. This is Vesa Toskala’s team. It says so eight million ways, starting next season. Not a single person in management or coaching will be around to see the beginning of that contract extension if Toskala hasn’t proven -- well in advance -- that he can be a premier starter in the NHL.

There are no more chances. The Leafs cannot win with Raycroft. They must win with Toskala… or everybody loses.

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