Toronto Maple Leafs: Way Better Than You Think

Alright, so you think the Toronto Maple Leafs can’t possibly make the playoffs, or will have a hard time even competing for a playoff spot. 

WELL, LET US SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT WITH SOME FACTS.

Toronto does not need Marc Savard.  The guy is done, past his prime.  Certainly he is not worthy of Kaberle being traded for him.

Kessel…he still scored 30 goals, while missing 15 games, fat and recovering from shoulder surgery.  So please, can we end the Marc Savard rumours.  This is still better than Hall or Sequin.

Toronto, has a killer TOP 4 defense in the East, this is not even arguable.

Toronto was the 7^th best Eastern Conference team after the big trade Jan 31^st, 2010

Goaltending improved vastly with Giguere over Toskala.

Bozak will not play worse than his first 37 games, so he is a legit 55-65 point centre

Kadri is Toronto’s largest centre at 6’0” and 194 lbs (he gained 17 lbs), so let us get over his size (aka Datsyuk, Bergeron, Oshie, Nokelainen are all 194 lbs and about the same height)

Every team needs another 30G forward…it’s nice but not required.  What Toronto needs is a BIG third-line 20G  centre to replace Grabovski.

Toronto was 22 goals from being in the TOP 10 for goals for….anyone doubt that Toronto will not score 22 more goals this year..please,  Bozak, Versteeg, Armstrong alone add 22 goals.

Where Toronto leaked last year was on goals against, they were 41 too many from the top 15.  So, we know that Toronto’s defense is really good and  goaltending improved.  Here’s the kicker…Toronto added two-way forwards (Versteeg, Mueller, Armstrong, Sjostrom,)…this by the way adds to an already impressive defense and makes the team and easy TOP 15 goals against.

Burke is a genius.  He has completely addressed the major fault of the Maple Leafs (in defense) and could he really have picked up better two-way forwards?  This is where the Maple Leafs have improved by leaps and bounds….and needed too.  There was absolutely no reason to trade Kaberle without getting a 30G forward, so Burke was completely right to keep him, anything less is no improvement.  Kessel will outperform Hall and Sequin for at least 3 years, and may still be better so what is the issue (he’s already ahead 1 year)? 

Stop the whining, Maple Leafs fan start cheering.