First Game Will Determine How Fast Leafs Fall

Hey all,

I'm back, and I'm back with a vengeance. In fact, I have a few articles coming over the weekend.

It's an important one for me in terms of sports, with more FA news coming every day in the NHL...but this article won't be about free agent wheelings and dealings. It also will certainly not be about the greedy one, whom I'll discuss in another article.

No, this article will be about the Toronto Maple Leafs. I dare say, it'll be the only one on the team with the angle I'm taking, after receiving my Hockey News Yearbook as part of subscription.

Rather than discussing the season as a full preview, this piece is all to do with one game. The opener.

Leaf fans are few and far between here in the home of the Big Nickel, and likely dwindling more and more across the province, which is a sign of the times.

For a team who have won 13 Stanley Cups, including 11 as the Maple Leafs, the state of this team is in very bad shape...even for them.

It's a tough sell: Come see a team with a tough new GM, a brand new Captain, a new goalie tandem entering its first full season, play in a conference which is called the weakest...and yet, this team has missed out on the playoffs a team record five seasons. Undoubtedly, the era of full houses despite the on ice results are over.

Which brings me to the hope. Brian Burke has stated that it's a badge of shame to him that this team missed the playoffs last year. They definitely never had a chance, winning one in their first 13 games.

So, that's why many who still support the blue and white actually believe in Burke-because it shows he cares.

And when a man joins up who has experience leading a team to a Stanley Cup who once had no chance of even dreaming their way there, the fans listen. It's just a question of when.

That's where the Hockey News Yearbook records come in. According to the mag, which features Leaf forward Phil Kessel on the cover for us Ontarians, Toronto has a very unique mark coming into this season: their next win or loss will begin a new era.

What I mean by that is, the next win marks their 2,600th, add another loss, and T.O.'s prime franchise will have seen its 2,500th defeat.

So, with that said, one can potentially look at this season as good or bad, just by looking at what team shows up for the first game. It will likely be in all the papers which way that game, against the hated Montreal Canadiens, goes on Oct. 7.

In recent years, Toronto has shown a lot of toughness, in the media, on the ice, and in the news. But they haven't matched that to their scoring touch.

It can't be easy for anyone to suit up in a Leaf jersey these days, with all the press on them on a nightly basis up until they're eliminated. But then Leaf fans look to Burke, and his past. He's a motivator, plain and simple.

He's dealt with the Hartford Whalers, seen a few hard playoff defeats in Anaheim, followed by the ultimate triumph in 2007, about 15 years after the franchise's debut in the league.

There's another reason Burke's connection to success shouldn't stop in Toronto. His goaltender is a man he knows very well: ex-Whaler draft pick, ex-Cup losing (and Conn Smythe-winning) Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Let's not forget he was in the net again a few years after that loss, not crying in his Conn Smythe (Scott Niedermayer took that award) but hoisting the Stanley Cup.

In 1999 and 2002, not to mention 1993, the Leafs have had singular defeats mean they failed where they should have succeeded.

Each caught them by surprise, one was marred by a bad call, one should never have happened, and the other was all due to a goaltender. And a backup named Dwayne Roloson. And each prevented them from playing in the Stanley Cup final.

It was a tough pill. I, for one still curse the name of Kerry Fraser.

But that is how the season goes for many, one win here and there means little. But when the playoffs start, each win and loss means the sky is blue or the sky is crashing down.

Perhaps, a short look at their overall record will motivate them in ways Burke can't.

Perhaps it's time that Leaf Nation stopped worrying about April and pushed their players to play like April was the new name for October.