Pass or Fail: For the Toronto Maple Leafs, It's as Simple as That

Now, we will be getting to the Leafs and their disappointment of a 2008 season in a minute, but first I'd like to thank someone.

Thanks Elliotte Friedman for giving away Bryan Smolinski's surprise for his son Max—a copy of The Hockey Sweater autographed by three Montreal greats (Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard and Rejean Houle). I don't know if the Smolinski household watches Hockey Night in Canada (I'm assuming they would be seeing as Brian was playing tonight) but whoever's idea this was (Bryan's or Elliotte's), way to spoil the kid's surprise.

I know that when my dad went away on business trips (granted not as many as a professional hockey player goes on), the thrill of him coming home, as well as the surprise of, well, a surprise is one of my fondest memories. I don't know how I'd take it if that surprise was exposed in front of a large portion of the country of Canada. To each their own I guess, but I just don't get it—kind of like the first half of Vantage Point.

Ok, so it's not that I didn't get the movie so much as I was fed up with the fact that it keeps resetting. It was good, but only once the entire story came together and Dennis Quaid embarked on the most inspiring car chase since the opening credits of the Naked Gun series.

Disruption of treasured childhood memories and popular culture references aside, there was a hockey game to be played—the last of the Toronto Maple Leafs' season—against the storied Montreal Canadiens.

And they lost. I mean, what more would you expect?

Andrew Raycroft, (who "played a solid game except for the two goals he'd like to have back"—that from your rousing play-by-play/color commentary duo of Bob Cole and Greg Millen) rolled over against the Canadiens in the season's final game.

Wait that sounds kind of like last year doesn't it?

Needless to say, fans of the Buds weren't surprised with the outcome.

I mean did anyone really expect them to beat the best team in the Eastern Conference?

All this loss did was punctuate this season—a failure of a season—for the Blue and White.

Now over the next few days, you'll probably read five or six Maple Leafs' columns on "grading the season" and their "final report card". Just so you know, I don't think that way.

The way I see it, you enter a season with goals, and you do one of two things: achieve your goals and pass, or miss your goals and fail—no A for effort or whatever, if the goal isn't achieved then the season is a failure.

Sure there are bright spots that you uncover on the way to your goals, but ultimately you did fail no matter how bright those spots are.

In Paul Maurice's mind, the Leafs could legitimately make the playoffs this season. They didn't do that. Therefor, the season (based on the fact that they didn't achieve their goals) is a failure.

But what of those bright spots?

Mats Sundin had one of his best, most dominant seasons in years and I'm of the belief that if he had stayed healthy, the Leafs would be in the playoffs (And yes, I forgot to renew my perscriptions before March—that's why I think that way).

Vesa Toskala proved to the rest of the league that he is a legitimate number one goalie, and has given the organization some time to let Justin Pogge truly develop (instead of rushing him to the NHL and ruining him...not like that would have happened before right?).

Add in to that Tomas Kaberle's continued emergence, Dominic Moore actually producing at the NHL level (14 points and a +9 in 37 games with the Leafs compared to his 3 points and a -11 with Minnesota for 30 games earlier this year), Anton Stralman's emergence (saw him at the Rookie tournament back in September—even then I thought that it's him, not Tlusty the Leafs will be building around—barring them getting something better), Nik Antropov staying healthy (kind of), and Alex Steen finding his stride, and the Leafs had a few bright spots to steer the fans away from...the rest of the roster.

Although when Bryan McCabe starts tripping over (and scoring on) his own net and coughing up overtime winners, Pavel Kubina turns it on five months too late, Jason Blake scores fewer than 20 goals for the first time in five years, and Darcy Tucker is kind of like Neil Patrick Harris in Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle (just sort of showing up from time to time and not doing much), the rest of the roster and its ineptitude starts to hog a little more of the limelight.

(And we haven't even touched on—nor will we—the Andy Wozniewski, Mark Bell, and Bates Battaglia experiments, why Alex Ponikarovsky wasn't playing with Mats Sundin more (it's the only way he'll score),or the fact that Kyle Wellwood and Carlo Colaiacovo got injured...again! It's Toronto Maple Leafs hockey...FEEL THE MAGIC!!!)

So now that I'm depressed by the fact I follow a team mired in piddling management who can't look past the bottom line on the yearly budget (and exclaim: We need to make more money still! Raise ticket prices!!!), as well as the fact that I've wasted another 7 months of my life following a team that doesn't know hockey tape from duct tape, and announced to the whole world that I endorse them as a failure, what do I do now?

Plan for next season of course!

But where to start?

Well for one, the roster needs to be (and hopefully will be) gutted. Tucker, McCabe, Blake, and Kubina are just a few of the names that need to be done away with through either buyout or trade.

Then, this team needs to clean up at the draft. Package together whatever it takes to pry that number one overall pick away from whomever has it (or in other words: Win the Surge for Stamkos—I just had to say it) so that you can get a solid building block for the future (As much as I like Steen, Stajan, Kulemin, Earl, Newbury, Tlusty, Boyce, and Williams I'm not sure how many will ever be a first line player. Tlusty maybe and Steen in an injury situation, but they need that stud up front.).

And then? Stay quiet on free agency.

I've argued about this in bars, on the radio show, over the phone, on Facebook, MSN, and all the rest, but my opinion has finally been swayed—there is nothing out there this year that could help the Leafs.

I mean, do you really want Sean Avery suting up in Toronto or Brian Rolston sitting here just getting older?

Maybe key on a few RFAs (Jeff Carter?) but aside from that, just stay out of the shopping aisles for the summer.

But maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Let's just take a minute to reflect on what was a failure of a season with a moment of silence.

FORE!!!