NHL Monday Morning Musings with Me, The Big E: Toronto Maple Leafs Need Help

The Toronto Maple Leafs woke up this morning to find themselves tied for 17th place in the NHL overall, tied for eighth in the Eastern conference and third in the Northeast division.

Is it too early to panic? Yes and no.

The Toronto Maple Leafs' season is only 10-games-old, and they are playing a solid style of hockey for the most part. However, the need to address the lack of depth up front is a little more obvious than it was before the season started.

The Leafs offense has been impotent over the last two games and hasn't scored in almost 123 minutes. That being said, while this is certainly no excuse, they have run into both Tim Thomas and Hendrik Lundqvist over that time span.

While the Maple Leafs have enjoyed solid goaltending from both J.S. Giguere and the Monster, Jonas Gustavsson, Thomas and Lundqvist are two of the best in the entire league.

A lot is being made of the Leafs' inability to score as of late and rightly so. Three of the team's six leading scorers are defensemen, but with a combined total of 19 points from the defensive corps, with only one of those points being goals, something has to give.

Dion Phaneuf has so far not been the answer everyone thought he might be, and if he doesn't find a way to help get the ship turned around, this could be one of the shortest lived captaincies in club history.

That isn't to lay all the blame at his feet, however. With a plus/minus that is easily among the worst in the league, Phaneuf may be a better player without the C in front of his name. The Leafs need him to be a better player; they don't need him to be captain.

It is and isn't too early to panic. It isn't too early to add some depth either. One of the biggest troubles with the team is that if Phil Kessel gets injured, where does this team turn for offense?

As a Toronto fan, I find the mere thought of this very unsettling.

The rumor mill started to heat up last week before the two-game skid started, and one such rumor had, a-so-far-exceptional, Tomas Kaberle headed to the surprisingly bad New Jersey Devils.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have a great chance to regain some of their scoring flair from earlier in the season when they face provincial rival Ottawa Senators Tuesday night at the Hanger, as the Sens are still giving up more goals per game than the Leafs.