A lot of people were laughing at Paul Maurice when he came out of his usual Maple Leaf press conference, at the beginning of the year.
No, they weren't laughing at his lazy right eye, or the fact that he got drafted last overall by the Philadelphia Flyers back in the 1985 NHL Entry Draft (five spots after John Ferguson Jr., in case you were wondering).
Nor were they teasing him about how his team failed to make the playoffs for the second year in a row, after Richard Park's unlikely heroic performance to put the New York Islanders into the eighth and final playoff spot. Of course, it hurt to know that the New Jersey Devils elected to bench Martin Brodeur for their final regular season game but the Toronto media (and Leaf Fans alike) had already gotten over their latest shortcoming.
It had more to do with his lousy prediction. One that could probably put more pressure on his squad than they already needed too, heading into Maurice's second year as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
In his own words, he claimed that the Toronto Maple Leafs would "make the playoffs and compete for the Stanley Cup." He even said that this year's addition was the "most talented hockey club I've coached," in spite of the fact that he had been a Stanley Cup contender with the Carolina Hurricanes, making the Stanley Cup Finals back in 2001-2002.
Well, low and behold, the 'talent' that Maurice saw in the 2007-2008 Toronto Maple Leafs wasn't enough to lead him to the playoffs—let alone competing for the Stanley Cup. They were back where they started: at home watching the playoffs on TV and without a playoff spot for the third consecutive year in a row.
A season plagued by injuries, defensive breakdowns, lack of offensive production out of Mats Sundin, and a crowd that seemed lifeless at times was enough to spell doom for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Bryan McCabe couldn't keep the puck out of his net and Jason Blake's goalscoring prowess that saw him score 40 goals with the New York Islanders the year before had all but vanished. Andrew Raycroft was banished between the pipes for Toronto but it wasn't enough to save the blue and white from the embarassment despite Vesa Toskala's valient efforts.
The turbulent season had Leaf Nation crying out for a total overhaul. Of course, it never helps when your biggest traditional rival (Montreal Canadiens) is flourishing with their own draft picks in the Kostisyn brothers (Sergei and Andrei), Chris Higgins, Carey Price and Tomas Plekanec.
As for Toronto's draft picks? Well outside of Jiri Tlusty and Anton Stralman, there isn't all that much to brag about. Alex Steen and Matt Stajan look as if they will never turn out to be the first line centers that everyone anticipated that they would be. Nik Antropov is still in Toronto but there's still a great majority of fans that don't really appreciate his contributionciti—ng that he's too slow to make a difference in a new league that requires speed and quickness.
With all this to consider, Mats Sundin just had to be the one taking the heat during Toronto's fall to the basement of the NHL. Tough times called for desperate measures and some fans were calling for Mats Sundin to be traded in order to start this rebuilding process.
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