Toronto Maple Leafs

We’re always quick to toss them away…

What a joke. We always give a guy very little time before we want to toss him away because he sucks. Toskala is a very good goalie. Is he struggling? Yes. But that doesn’t mean we just toss him out. Montreal better trade Price too, because he’s been absolutely horrid recently. Relax. The guy has seen a huge change in front of him and it sometimes takes time to adjust to new systems and teammates. Especially if you’re the goalie as there is no one else on the ice who is on your team who does your job. You are it.

Submitted By Falcon37 at 12:48 PM Sunday, November 16 2008 - Toronto Star

Unfortunately I hate to disagree with Falcon37 (by the by, do we think this is a transplanted Atlanta resident? or just someone with a love of falconry?), but this is NOT a quick decision that we’ve reached.

It’s been stated here on many occasions that for the Leafs to succeed, Vesa Toskala would need to have an IMPROVED season in 2008-09.  Unfortunately, the opposite has happened.  The current Vesa Toskala is beginning to make the days of yore, when Andrew Raycroft manned the pipes, like a fond wonderous memory.

Ok so I exaggerate a tad, but seriously, when Andrew Raycroft tied the Leafs single season record for wins by a goaltender with a 37-25-11 record, he had a GAA of 2.99 and a SV% of .894.  Last season, when he crapped the bed with regularity, en route to a 2-9-6 record he sported a 3.92 GAA and a .876 SV%.

Guess what Leafs fans, Toskala is doing almost exactly the same as Raycroft did last season when he achieved cult status as a welcomer of pucks and let nothing short of a beachball stick to the outer reaches of his domain.  Thus far this season, Vesa Toskala has a 3.24 GAA, and a .878 SV%.  The goals against average isn’t quite there yet, but the SV% is damn close.  The only thing saving his bacon at this point is the team in front of him has cut down on the number of shots against.  As for all that “change in front of him”, the new defenders in front of Toskala amount to four players out of the nine D men the Leafs have on the squad: Jeff Finger, Jonas Frogren, Luke Schenn and Mike Van Ryn, and last I checked those guys were NOT the weak links on the Leafs blue line from a defensive standpoint.

If that were actually a valid point, would it not make sense to have made it LAST season when he was playing for an entirely new team, with entirely new D men in front of him?  It didn’t seem to result in such atrocious numbers last year did it.  Systems issues? His new coach was his old coach in San Jose.  His new assistant coaches were the old assistant coaches in San Jose.  Frankly I’m not buying the whole “he needs time to adjust” argument.  As arguments go that one is pretty lame and doesn’t hold much water.

One point Falcon makes that I do agree with is, there’s nobody else on the ice doing Toskala’s job.  That’s part of the problem though, as a result there’s NOBODY on the ice doing his job.  He doesn’t seem to be doing it that well either.

In this evening’s match-up with the Boston Bruins, Toskala gave up one BRUTAL goal, and had continuing issues with his rebound control in giving up another.  Considering the team lost 3-2, that pretty much sealed their fate.

Not all of this can be laid at Toskala’s doorstep, as the team as a whole needs to weather the occasional storm, but it’s hard to fault the skaters for nights like this past Saturday in Vancouver where they outshoot the opposition 13-2 over the first half of the first period, but they’re down 1-0 because the very first shot Toskala faces happens to find the back of the net.

It’s demoralizing, inhibiting, and frankly makes it all the more impressive that this team doesn’t quit on itself.  They often find themselves behind the proverbial 8-ball when it comes to the third period, and the trend has been a defining one for this squad so far.  That being said, as bad as their early play seems to be, it’s pretty much balanced by how well they perform in the end of games.

In a brief summary of their period-by-period results, it should be noted that the Leafs have the 25th ranked goals for number in the first period of play with 12 goals for.  On the other hand, they’ve given up the most goals in the NHL in the first period, at 25.  The next closest is 21 by the St. Louis Blues.  The average for the entire league is 15 goals against in the first period… they’re pretty abysmal.

In the second and third periods they fare much better offensively.  In the second period, they’ve scored the 5th most goals in the NHL in the second period (27), and they’ve scored the most goals in the NHL in the 3rd period (25).  Unfortunately their goals against continues to be a problem in the second period as they’re giving up the second most goals in the NHL at 27.

Oddly they appear to be one of the best defensive units in the NHL during the 3rd period of play, giving up only 11 goals in the 3rd, tying them for the 2nd lowest total in the league.

The fact that there is a period of play where their goal differential is +14 shows they are capable of excellent stretches of play.  Unfortunately they are -13 in the first period, and 0 in the second, so it all seems to come out in the wash.

If the Leafs hope to improve, they need a HUGE improvement in their goal-tending, and they need it ASAP.