Little Help Please? Is The Maple Leafs Closet Bare?

(Photo by Abelimages/Getty Images)

Written By: Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter

It was 92 years in the making, never before have Toronto Maple Leaf fans witnessed as poor a start to the NHL season as they have this year, but now, to the dismay of Leaf fans everywhere, it has happened.

Through six games the Leafs have compiled an 0-5-1 record. To nobody’s surprise the Leafs are the proud owners of the 29th ranked penalty kill, the 17th ranked offense and 30th ranked goals against amongst NHL teams. Add it all up and what you have is the last place team in the entire NHL.

The season that started with so much promise has quickly deteriorated into a nightmare. The goaltending is off, the scorers are not scoring and the defense has looked completely out of sorts all season.

Special teams have not fared much better. The Leafs power play, while ranked 8th overall, has seen Matt Stajan, a player that was benched for last nights game against the Colorado Avalanche, score three of it’s five goals thus far. The Leafs penalty kill has given up a league leading 10 goals in six games, simply put, that’s just not going to get it done.

As it stands right now, nobody on the current roster is playing with any confidence. Fact is, the players the Leafs were going to rely upon the most, have been the biggest disappointments. Vesa Toskala, Mike Komisarek, Francois Beachemin, Lee Stempniak, Jason Blake, Mikael Garbovski, to name a few, have been awful.

So, with little to build on from the current core of players, where do the Leafs turn?

Thus far, the Leafs have turned to lesser known/younger players such as Viktor Stalberg, John Mitchell, Tyler Bozak, Nikolai Kumelin and Jay Rosehill to fill the void. To date, they have have combined to dress for a total of 20 games and all they have to show for their combined efforts is one goal and five assists and a minus 15 rating.

To sum it all up, the veterans are not getting it done. The new acquisitions are not getting it done and, for the most part, the youngsters and rookie’s are not getting it done.

Down on the farm with the Leafs AHL affiliate Toronto Marlies, highly-skilled forward Jiri Tlusty has scored three goals and four points, hard working Andre Deveaux has two points and a plus two rating and Christian Hanson, a player many within the Leafs organization felt would make the team, has two assists and a minus two rating, all through three games.

To be fair, it’s still early, but, outside of Tlusty, who has failed to stick with the Leafs when he has been called up, no player/s are impressing anyone with the Marlies right now, clearly, none of them deserve a call up.

Further down the totem pole, 2008-09 first round draft choice Nazem Kadri has been playing well with the London Knights of the OHL. His three goals and two assists in six games is encouraging, but his lack of size (he stands 6’0" and weighs in at 177 pounds) and defensive shortcomings do not make Kadri a good candidate to be called up at this time.

It would be foolish to suggest the Leafs closet was completely bare, but to suggest it is flush with emerging talent would also be a mistake. There are no immediate answers, improvement, it seems, will have to come from within.

The Leafs play host to the New York Rangers on Saturday night, a team they lost by a score of 7-2 on Monday evening. Barring a miracle, the Leafs are libel to be 0-6-1 after that tilt, further positioning this team, it’s coaching staff and, to a lesser extent, it’s general manager Brian Burke, behind the eight ball.

Fortunately for the Maple Leafs they will have six days off before they will play their next game, October 24th, in Vancouver to face the Canucks. I am sure there will be an emphasis on practice, implementing systems and going over each players defensive responsibilities over those six days.

And that, my friends, is the Leafs best shot at improvement. Practice, practice, practice.

There is no Messiah coming, no miracle to be had, no magic wand. Bottom line? The Leafs coaching staff and it’s players will have to improve through hard work, dedication, blood, sweat and tears, nothing more, nothing less.

To expect anything different, would be an act of stupidity...Sadly, the fruit of Brian Burke’s offseason labour is not ready to be picked...

Until next time,

Peace!

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