Toronto Maple Leafs

Where To Begin?

Ok so recently I’m batting .000 when it comes to my predictions or assessments of what the Leafs need to do to make themselves better.

Luke Schenn is staying on, at least for the early going.  While I still feel he is far from exceeding expectations, and I think another year of seasoning in junior where he can play the role of leader and push his team-mates as the go-to player with Kelowna would be benificial, I do see why they’ve kept the kid around a bit more.  Giving Schenn more experience at the NHL level shouldn’t really hurt his development.

That being said, I can’t help but think if they keep him up too long, they’re sort of leaving him as a tweener with both his junior squad, and with the Leafs.  If on the other hand, they decide to give him big minutes, and he thrives in the role as both a player, and a potential leader on the team, then perhaps none of my fears will amount to anything in a few months.  Considering the development of players in recent years like Milan Lucic, Patrice Bergeron, Sam Gagner, David Perron, and others, I don’t think it beyond the realm of possibility that Schenn can play in the NHL at the age of 18.  I also think it will be a more difficult transition for him as a Defender than it was for any of those forwards.  Here’s hoping the ride is relatively smooth, and if there’s any serious bumps in the road, they can send him back to junior.  Hopefully they also send him to the World Junior Tournament to participate as a leader with the Canadian side yet again.  Where better for him to pound the opposition into submission and practice beating up on Senators, Sabres, Bruins, and Habs prospects.

Now on the other side of the coin we come to the situation of Mark Bell.  I personally don’t know how much of a shot he’s ever really been given by Ron Wilson.  I can’t speak to what happened during their time together in San Jose, but it seems apparent to me that Wilson holds little respect for him as a potential top 6 forward.  Perhaps the issue is personal, perhaps it remains solely in the realm of how he plays the game, but whatever he’s done, he’s not really going to find success by playing less than 10 minutes a night with 4th liners anyway.

If the Leafs send him to the minors, and then later in the season another team gets desparate for a sizable, veteran winger with a physical edge (or two!), maybe we can ship him and Bates Battaglia out in exchange for some draft picks or something.

Since I doubt that’s likely to happen, I think the Leafs will hope he contributes to the team with the Marlies, and see where things go down there.  If he plays the role of leader well, he may yet see himself return to the NHL, and he can help the younger Leafs down in the minors as they work to become full NHL’ers.  It isn’t ALL bad for either side.

So since my predictions have been so dang awful thus far, I suppose that means the Leafs will struggle to come close to 30 wins, Toskala will lose 80% of his games, and the Leafs will pick first overall.

Or maybe the predictions we’re talking about thus far don’t really make a huge difference… only time will tell.

On the glass is always empty front:

Damien Cox has a number of axes to grind but this comment is more than a tad disingenuous:

No other NHL team came close to giving up as many goals as the mighty Maples this fall, and not once did the club surrender fewer than three goals. That, combined with an attack that will struggle to top the 200-goal plateau this season, certainly makes opening against Detroit and Montreal this week a bit of a daunting prospect.

So we should all fret seriously about the Leafs D that gave up more goals than every other team in the NHL during the preseason.  Let’s just ignore the fact that almost every team played fewer preseason games… and the fact that the Leafs didn’t actually have the worst GAA in the NHL preseason.  Atlanta actually let in 29 goals in 6 games which works out to 4.83 goals against per game.  The Leafs let in 38 goals in 9 games, which works out to 4.22 goals against per game.  And the whole not surrendering less than 3 goals ever… Chicago did the same thing en route to letting in 30 goals in 8 games.  I guess the Blackhawks should be crossed off all of those lists of teams making the playoffs?

Oh, and while were on the subject of preseason statistics, why are we ignoring offensive stats?  The Leafs not only let in more goals than a lot of other teams in the League, they scored more too.  31 goals topped Chicago’s 29, St Louis’ 30, and Detroit’s 24. Often bad teams will score a lot to compensate for bad defense, but considering all those “fears” of the Leafs struggling to top the 200-goal plateau, why are we ignoring the output of 3.44 goals per game?  I mean if we’re going to argue that 4.22 GAA means the Leafs are destined to give up 346 goals against (4.22 x 82 = 346 OMG!) then we should argue just as feasibly that the Leafs are bound to score 282 goals this season… and 82 goals above 200 is pretty far above that imposing 200 goal plateau.

Personally I don’t think they’re liable to score 282, but I don’t think they’ll let in 346 either.  Suffice it to say, Damien needs to wait until the numbers mean something before using them as justification or indication of how bad the Leafs are bound to be.