Toronto Maple Leafs: Anticipating, a Fundamental Failure

There are several heated debates as to why the Leafs seem to be in a never-ending free fall. Fingers point at everyone from Brian Burke and Ron Wilson to Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf.

The fact of the matter is it is Ron Wilson, and only Ron Wilson who is to blame for his team's play, but the problems aren't X's and O's.

These are all professionals. Every last one of them know how to play fundamental hockey, they know how to skate, shoot, check and on occasion, fight.

The Leafs don't seem to be able to anticipate their opposition. Anticipation is more a fundamental of good hockey than being able to tie up your skates. Wayne Gretzky is arguably the greatest player in the history of the league and what made him great was mostly his ability to visualize and anticipate where the puck was going to be and get there first.

That skill is something that you need to want, one that you need to teach yourself and have the desire to get better at. It isn't one that you can force on someone.

We can argue "talent level" and "potential" all day long. The fact is, the Toronto Maple Leafs are as capable of beating anyone on any given night as anyone is capable of beating them, they just don't know it.

Think about it, do you think it's an accident that teams that had struggled recently almost invariably suddenly find their game against the Leafs?

It might be, but it's more likely that the Leafs opposition go into the games against the Leafs believing they are better than the lowly Maple Leafs.

The Edmonton Oilers are the second youngest team in the league, they were playing they're third game in four nights, they should have been "easy pickins."

But, as was alluded to earlier, you can teach all the X's and O's you want, and sometimes it just doesn't matter, and confidence doesn't come from what you do, but how you think.

The Leafs need to start with what's between their ears.

Ron Wilson's job shouldn't be to teach his team how to play, but how to think.

The chance the Leafs had early in the first last night where Kessel made a great pass to Kadri is a good example. That should have been a quick one timer and may have resulted in a goal, instead, Kadri took a second to settle the puck down and try to pick a spot.

Over-thinking.

Kadri, can score, he knows how, he's proved it over and over again. For some reason, he doesn't trust that right now.

The first Edmonton goal last night was a direct result of Kaberle not respecting Eberle's speed. Had Kaberle done so he would have thought to turn sooner and likely been able to box him out more effectively.

More importantly though, Kaberle has to know that he can.

The Toronto Maple Leafs won their first four games this season and looked as though they could be anyone, the only reason they aren't now is because they don't think they can.

A good coach can coach a team out of this normally, but if Ron Wilson doesn't believe his team is good enough, guess what, they won't be.

Everything comes down to how you think. If you wake up in the morning and stub your toe, you are likely to have a bad day. Unless you find a way to laugh it off and make a conscious effort to put the stubbed toe out of your mind.

The Leafs stubbed their collective toe during game five this season and now 19 games latter, Ron Wilson still hasn't been able to get them to laugh it off.