Time for change?

Brian Burke may have to consider firing his friend this off-season.

It has been a long time since I last posted. It has been hard for me to write anything about this team that hasn't already been said, and it is difficult for me to write about this team as it continues to struggle.

Entering this 2010/11 season, I had very high hopes. With improved goaltending, a new captain, and a few more players up front, I thought this team would be competing for a playoff spot. Instead, the Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves fighting to stay out of the draft lottery.

It is hard to say if this version of the team is any better then the team we saw struggle to compete last season. Between Giggy and the Monster, our goaltending has been only a small percentage better. Our defence has Brett Lebda continuing to give the opposition opportunities to score while Mike Komisarek gets paid a boat load to be, at best, a third pairing defender. The offence has moments where they look good, but then the team gets shut out by Dwayne Roloson. Seriously, Roloson must love it anytime he sees the Leafs are coming to town. I cannot remember him ever playing poorly against us.

This is not really what I wanted to talk about, really. What I did want to talk about was the coach of this hockey team, Ron Wilson.

Throughout the last three seasons, two things have been consistent with this Maple Leafs team. The powerplay has been anemic and the penalty kill has been an absolute joke. Both of these failures, at least from what I've seen, can both be blamed on the current coaching staff of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

This has been a huge frustration for me. I am not angry that the team has struggled, but that the powerplay has continued to look the exact same over three years with Kessel replacing Mats Sundin on the side boards. The coaching staff has failed to move players around and change to look of the powerplay despite the lack of success.

I remember when Paul Maurice was behind the bench, the Leafs started out with the cross crease pass to Tucker. As teams keyed in on that move, the powerplay shifted to focus more on an umbrella with Sundin on the side boards. When the powerplay struggled, the team tried different things instead of just staying with one system.

With Ron Wilson behind the bench, the players have changed completely but the results have stayed the same. I know this current Leafs team was not expected to set the NHL on fire, but they have looked absolutely pathetic on some nights. I think a coaching change needs to happen. This team may not be a lock for the playoffs right now, but is better then 26th overall in league.

Will Ron Wilson be the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs next season?

Toskala is out, MacDonald and Hanson are in.

During the second period of the Leafs 4-3 loss to the Islanders yesterday, it looked as if Vesa Toskala took himself out of the game after letting in the last of 3 goals. Joe Bowan and Greg Millen speculated that Toskala was probably injured. Now we know that he is.

Vesa Toskala has been placed on IR with a groin injury, while John Mitchell has also been placed on injured reserve. Mitchell hurt his knee during the Islanders game. To fill the holes in the line-up, goaltender Joey MacDonald and forward Christian Hanson have been recalled from the AHL Toronto Marlies.

We have seen MacDonald already in the NHL this season for the Leafs. The interesting name to see is Christian Hanson.

In the AHL, Hanson has been producing at a point per game pace with 8 goals and 18 points in 18 games. Last season, Hanson played 5 games for the Leafs and scored a goal and added an assist. Signed out of college by Brian Burke, Hanson looked good in the preseason along with Tyler Bozak and Viktor Stalberg. With good numbers in the AHL and a big frame, could Hanson be the power forward the Leafs have been missing since the opening of the season?

I don't know if Hanson is ready for prime time yet, and I don't think it would right to expect the world from him. If he is ready to play at the NHL level (and at 23 years old, he could be) then Hanson would definitly fill a void for the Leafs. Toronto lacks a big bodied skill player that will go to the net.

I think Hanson will be a solid contributor for the Leafs one day. That day could be now if Ron Wilson is willing to give Hanson the opportunity. I think that Hanson would be a good player for the Leafs on the powerplay. Putting his 6'3, 203 lb frame in front of the goaltender could help, and having Hanson cleaning up after Phil Kessel's scoring chances would be good to see.

Of course, this all assumes he is up for the challenge now.

The Kaberle Debate

Steve says:

So with all the new additions to the Leafs, the big question now is: What to do with Kaberle?

He's a good puck moving D man with a good cap hit, and is signed on for 2 more seasons. That makes him very attractive to a lot of teams...but for that reason, should he not also be attractive to the Leafs?

Kaberle has said on many occasions that he likes to play in Toronto. Now, media training aside, I believe that to be the truth. Not sure why I think that...it must be something about the way he carries himself during interviews, etc. He seems to be the kind of guy that likes to stay put. He has been here for a while now and has probably laid down some pretty deep roots in Toronto. He knows his role on the team and executes it quite well. He is dependable in his position and well liked by management, and the fans. He makes a good living playing hockey...why leave and risk all of that?

Now the flipside to this discussion is that last season, Kabs had an average season. It wasn't great, but it also wasn't terrible. If he were to have a repeat performance this season, his stock would likely lower. But does that mean that we should cut bait and get a trade for him while the iron is hot? Or do we sit back and look at the team and decide if we are better with him or without him.

There are options for the Leafs with regards to the logjam at the blueline. White played a part of last season as a forward, and was actually pretty good up there. Could he (would he) move back up to the front lines and maybe provide some defensive minded offense?

What other options are there? Could we move the Finger contract? He played a solid season, but now it seems ridiculous to spend that much money on a 5/6 Dman...

Leafs beat Brodeur 6-5

Steve says:

Considering that this is the 2nd game in as many nights, I'd say this game was won due to the coaching of Wilson. He recognized that not all of our guys had legs for the whole night and he played the 4th line more than usual to make up for it and let his 1st line rest a bit more...the result was some great hard fore checking that led to a lot of scoring chances.I wasn't surprised that we looked a bit slow at times, but for the most part, Brodeur kept the Devils in this game. There were at least 5 times that Marty pulled out some magic tonight including one save where he snagged it with his blocker hand as the puck headed towards the goal line.Stajan and Moore had incredibly good games, and again, Schenn played a solid D game. The penalty at the end was bad luck. The reason we looked slow in the OT was because we were on the PK, and it took them a bit of time to get out of that mode.Great game...thanks for the win on my B-day boys!

Theme Song

Chris says:

CTV just bought the rights to the Hockey Night in Canada theme. That's the corporate equivalent to knocking the other guy down and waving your reproductive organs in his face.

Way to go CBC, a classic piece of Canadiana has just been traded away to a corporation, who will milk that sucker for every last penny, because you were to cheap to pay royalty residuals anymore.

You'd rather pay 100,000 dollars to come up with a new theme song that won't have a fraction of the emotional resonance. The asking price couldn't have been that much, because less than one business day after your negotiations folded CTV was ready and willing to step up where you chose to fade away.

Congrats CBC, another step towards irrelvance. You make it really hard to support you.

Oh. And Ron Wilson is now the head coach of the Leafs. We'd better hope like hell Burke wants to coach here. Otherwise we run the risk of having another dysfunctional relationship between our GM and our head coach.

Steve says:

yeah the CBC screwed up...but ya know what...I dont care...I thought I would...and maybe I should...but TSN will have it on before every game...and they are showing more hockey this year than CBC ever did.. and every game will have at least 1 Canadian team..and a lot of the games are Leafs games..
So I think it is clear that TSN understands Canadians love of hockey more than the CBC ever did...even though HNIC has been the highest rated show on CBC since...well...ever as far as I know...I imagine having Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy will fill the void on CBC...ha ha ha ha ha

someone should be fired.

Here we go again!

Steve says:

Hey Leafers!

I'm gonna start writing on here again after a few months on nothing major happening. Now there is finally something to discuss.

Fletch has made some decent deals to get the Leafs some more picks and cleared up some cap space.

He wasn't able to achieve the BIG TRADE we were all hoping for due to the NTC's that JFJ handed out like candy. But, now the gloves can come off. Basically now, if you are unwilling to waive the NTC, Fletch is either going to buy you out, or send your ass down to the Marlies (who did really well this year!).

Sundin is still on the fence about his return...his latest comments indicate that he wants to see the Leafs make some real changes towards putting together a winning team. It looks as though Fletch is about to make the first big move.

A lot of rumours are pointing towards Ron Wilson (ex. Sharks coach) taking over the bench duties in Toronto.

I think this is a big upgrade from PM who could never really adapt on the fly during a game. He was also a soft coach who seemed really interested in being liked by the media more than disciplining his team for shoddy play.

Wilson is not like that. He's been known to bench star players when they don't perform. He calls players out in the media for poor work ethic.

I think the Leafs are about to say goodbye to the country club at the ACC.