Musings With Me, The Big E: Five Questions for Leafs Heading Into Regular Season

With the regular season set to open this Thursday against storied rival the Montreal Canadiens, there is much optimism surrounding the Leafs.

However, while a bad preseason isn't exactly an accurate barometer of the overall talent you have, it does tend to instill a sense of unease in the eyes of the coaching staff and fans alike.

That being said, the Toronto Maple Leafs did not have a bad preseason, going an overall 5-4. There are, however, questions that need to be addressed.

Goal Tending

This is a contract year for seven-million dollar man JS Giguere. That in and of itself should be enough to quell the concerns about goal tending; however, with an offense that though it has looked very good to date, yet is still suspect, Giguere needs to do better than allowing an average of three goals per game.

The "Monster" has not looked like the dominating force between the pipes that we started to see glimpses of last season either. In a preseason that should have seen him shine against other teams second and third stringers, he was easily outplayed by other Leafs prospects like James Reimer and Jussi Rynnas.

Should this be cause for alarm? Perhaps not, but the goal tending will have to be solid and often spectacular in order for the team to make a legitimate push for the postseason.

Power Play

The Toronto Maple Leafs started strong on the power play last season despite their record coming out of the gate so it was some what of a surprise when it started to unravel as it was noted to be one of the teams few strengths early on.

Full seasons from several new players, including Dion Phanuef, Phil Kessel, and younger players such as Kulemin and Bozak, should make a good deal of improvement on that front. The key to a successful power play with this young team will be their often surprising speed.

Penalty Killing

Another department that the Leafs sorrily lacked in last season was the penalty kill. Thirtieth in the league in this department is something that has to be greatly improved upon.

Many people are of the opinion that the addition of PK specialists Fredrik Sjostrom and Kris Versteeg will certainly help, and they would be right, however, nothing would help more than taking fewer penalties.

With an average of 13.3 penalty minutes per game last season they certainly weren't the leagues most penalized team but with the addition of more "truculence" this past offseason and a healthy Mike Komisarik, that trend could change.

Team Defense

The team defense is the one area that should be of the most concern to coach Ron Wilson and the rest of the Leafs coaches. The talk of the offseason in Leafs Nation was how great the team was from the blue line back and how the only real concerns were likely to be the depth of the forward lines.

Almost on the eve of the regular season though, virtually the opposite is true.

In all fairness though, team defense is just that, team defense. While the defensive corps as a whole has looked average for the most part, save for some occasionally impressive individual games in the pre season, it has been for the most part the forward contigent who have been the hardest working in the defensive zone.

Dion Phanuef  is already well known for a couple of things in a Leaf jersey. His words of inspiration written on the butts of his sticks and his communication skills on the ice. There needs to be a lot more of it this year if his team is to improve overall defensively.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have already shown marked improvement on special teams during this preseason, so with that in mind there is no real reason to suspect that both the power play and penalty kill won't be greatly improved this season.

With the regular season upon us and the endless questions about Kaberle, Kadri, D'Amigo et all mercifully put to rest, at least for now, it's time for the new age ' Bay Street Bullies ' to take the fight to the regular season once again.

This year, more than recent years for certain, there is hope. Go Leafs Go!