TORONTO (Nov. 30) – Professional hockey’s most loyal turncoats appear to be waving the white flag on the 2010-11 NHL season. Given the increasingly lop-sided arithmetic needed for the Maple Leafs to end their record playoff drought, it’s no wonder countless “fans” are abandoning ship. To attain the post-lockout average of 92 points required of a playoff team in the Eastern Conference, the Leafs must garner 73 points in their remaining 60 games. Does this club appear capable of performing at a clip of 13 games over .500 the rest of the way?
I didn’t think so.
Still, I find it alarming how a gargantuan mass of followers can lose its collective will so early in the schedule. Isn’t that the aim and purpose of the dastardly media? Doesn’t all the “negativity” and “bashing” come from those who get paid to talk and write about the Leafs? Jeez, you’d never know it by poking through cyberspace these days. I could have sworn it was only six weeks ago that all of Brian Burke’s moves were solid gold. The Leafs were coming off a dominant rookie tournament and pre-season – pivotal events each autumn. A 4-0-0 “start” to the regular schedule proved the rookie gathering was no mirage. THIS team was different.
Now here we are – not even into December – and the necks of Burke and Ron Wilson are figuratively poised beneath the guillotine. Wilson, everyone’s YouTube anti-Berger hero, is now dirt among the fan-base. The 22nd person to stand behind the Leaf bench since 1967 must be exiled to his golf home in the Carolinas, making way for that sure thing: coach number 23. Without question, this is the prime stickler in the near-half-century Cup famine. Once the Leafs finally unearth a man that can “motivate the players,” they’ll be on their way. Obviously, Wilson – seventh all-time in victories among his peers – isn’t the answer. Bring in Ken Hitchcock… ALFRED Hitchcock… anyone that can put some “Psycho” fear in the opposition. Heck, this team is for “The Birds.” The players seem to be suffering “Vertigo.”
What comes as a mild surprise (nothing in this deranged hockey town can be a major surprise) is the multitudes that have leapt from the Burke band-wagon… one-third of the way through his six-year arrangement with the Leafs. Everyone’s white knight when he burst into town 18 months after raising the Stanley Cup in Anaheim, double-B is now apparently a fraud. Imagine the gall of this blowhard, not being able to convert the equivalent of a lousy expansion team into a playoff contender in two colossal years. Never mind that he inherited a club with the back-bone of a marshmallow and had to tear it apart at the same time he was assembling a new group. Anyone can do that.
Forget the widely-accepted notion that “things will have to get worse before they get better.” We want a winner NOW!
Ahhhh, but it’s not your fault. Fans have no stake or accountability beyond their emotional investment, and the shinny world is aware of the digestive fluids the Leafs have agitated through the years. Pump-inhibitors were said to originate in our local hospitals. Antacids are swallowed by the fist-full across the GTA each winter. The McDonald’s corporation is apparently planning to test a pink milkshake – the McPepto – in this region. Studies indicate that countless hockey fans have chosen to forgo sedation while having colonoscopies, figuring they’ve taken it that way from the Leafs all these years anyhow. Why not stay awake and enjoy the spectacle?
I wrote a blog a few weeks ago suggesting the Leafs are treading on sacred ground – that there’s a limit to almost everything in life, and the bumbling Buds are beginning to test that demarcation point. To be honest, I’ve never witnessed such widespread grief and submission from Leaf fans this early in a season. Much – to no one’s surprise – is contradictory in nature. It is the essence of a fan to be hopeful; buoyant; even Pollyannaish. Such qualities are in overwhelming supply before every Leaf season… and were, again, prior to this one.
Every decision has a rosy side to it. The disenchantment over Burke refusing to trade Tomas Kaberle was quickly replaced by the notion that hanging onto the veteran defenseman was the proper move after all; that Kaberle would have his best season in a “contract” year.
Dealing Viktor Stalberg and two intriguing prospects to Chicago for Kris Versteeg had champagne corks popping in the summer. The Leafs were getting an established player that scored 20 times in a third-line role with the Stanley Cup champions. Surely, he’d be good for 30 to 35 in a front-line role with the Blue & White. Remember that one?
Moments after Colby Armstrong signed as a free agent on July 1st, he was being lauded as the prototypical “Brian Burke player”. Another big step in the pursuit of truculence.
Brett Lebda left Detroit to sign with the Leafs. “Great move,” the fans gushed. “He’s here as a safety net in case we lose Kaberle. How can we go wrong with a guy that played 78 games for the Cup champions in 2008?”
There was similar glee in the wake of the Mike Komisarek and Francois Beauchemin signings a summer earlier. Though typically overpaid in free agency, both were tough hombres that fit the Burke blueprint. Komisarek was a crasher and banger that would toughen the Leaf defense. Beauchemin had been the steady middle-man on the deep Anaheim blue-line that captured the 2007 Stanley Cup. He also had a rocket from the point.
Colton Orr was the brawler the Leafs had lacked since Tie Domi. His decisive kayos of opposition bullies would embolden the entire team.
What a coup it was for Burke to out-maneuver his colleagues and land Tyler Bozak from Denver University. Double-B had the Midas touch when it came to U.S. college free agents.
No one could say “Luca Caputti” without spraying saliva in the early days after his acquisition from Pittsburgh for Alexei Ponikarovsky. But, damn, the kid’s a comer… he was easily the best prospect in the Penguins’ organization.
Fast-forward to the common sentiment among Leaf fans today and what to you get?
“Kaberle is a turnover machine who looks like he’s playing out the string.”
“Versteeg could be standing on a dock with a pail of pucks and he wouldn’t send one of them into the lake. How could we have traded Stalberg AND the two prospects (Philippe Paradis and Chris DiDomenico) for this stiff?”
“Armstrong’s okay, but why did Burke waste money on him when we needed scoring?”
“Lebda couldn’t make my kid’s house-league team.”
“At least Orr gives us something to cheer about most nights.”
“Bozak is a No. 1 centre the way Tiger Woods is a loyal mate.”
Much of the aforementioned is valid, mind you. Or, potentially valid. But, I’m not certain all is lost.
For instance, I wouldn’t ascribe the Versteeg-Stalberg trade a failure on the Leafs’ part just yet. Maybe give it another month… or two. Armstrong does provide the club genuine sh-t disturbance. He can also hit a soccer net now and then, unlike the bulk of his teammates. Orr punches well, but sometimes too often at the wrong time. Picking his spots more carefully would be helpful. The Lebda/house-league crack is ridiculous. He could easily make Select. And if Bozak has the inner-strength to withstand the misadventure of his first full season in the NHL, his skill and hockey intellect could ultimately prevail.
Why pull your hair out now, Leaf rooters? We’ve only had a brief dusting of snow in the area. There are still mega-tons of sushi to be devoured at the Air Canada Centre. Kaberle could easily bump into someone by accident one of these nights. It’s conceivable, at any time, that Phil Kessel could fire a puck through a screen from closer than 40 feet. John Mitchell’s first goal of the season is right around the corner… and the next corner… and the next corner… and the…
So, c’mon you turncoats… get with the program. You know, damned well, you’ll be pounding your car-horns if the Leafs beat Tampa Bay on Tuesday.
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