Toronto Maple Leafs

Leafs Can’t Get Much Worse

There’s some good news coming for Leafs fans.  They’re soon going to see less of the likes of Garnet Exelby and Jeff Finger on the blue line.  They might actually see some more scoring up front amongst their forwards.  They might even see some wins in the near future.

All of this is likely to come to pass when Carl Gunnarsson and Mike Komisarek return from injury, and hopefully not far in the future when Mikhail Grabovski rejoins the team.  Tyler Bozak looked like a solid producer on the top line with Kessel and Kulemin, and despite what Bill Watters thinks of his size problems (which I too have some concerns about), he was actually quite decent in his own end, and he set Kessel up with some gift wrapped offensive opportunities against the Hurricanes.

So let’s see, the Leafs will replace Finger and Exelby with Gunnarsson and Komisarek, thus reducing the minute load on Luke Schenn, Tomas Kaberle, Ian White, and Francois Beauchemin in the process.  That should help the squad out a tad defensively.  It might not cure all their problems, but it certainly won’t hurt to have another competent puck handler on the back end, and a shut down D man with size that blocks a lot of shots.

When Grabovski gets back, I suggest that Wilson does some line juggling for the foreseeable future.  I envision the Leafs forward units being restructured as follows:

L1: Kessel, Bozak, Kulemin

L2: Ponikarovsky, Stajan, Stålberg

L3: Stempniak, Grabovski, Blake

L4: Hagman, Wallin, Orr

Jamal Mayers and John Mitchell haven’t served much of a purpose with the club this season (in my opinion).  Longer term though, I imagine Brian Burke envisions dealing away Stempniak, Stajan, and perhaps Ponikarovsky or Hagman, so I wouldn’t be shocked to see Mayers and Mitchell regain their spots in the line up, as well as the call up of possibly Rosehill or Hanson.

Thus after the trading deadline, the lines might look like this:

L1: Kessel, Bozak, Kulemin

L2: Hagman, Grabovski, Stålberg

L3: Hanson, Mitchell, Blake

L4: Mayers, Wallin, Orr

Those lines are unlikely to scare any NHL franchises offensively right now, but if they improve over time, it isn’t the end of the world.  Considering some of the success Grabovski and Kulemin have had with Hagman, and the fact that Bozak and Stålberg have clicked together in the past, the top two lines might need to be rearranged.

Defensive pairings might be in question also since Schenn has played with Kaberle recently, so I expect things to shift to something like this:

D1: Komisarek, Kaberle

D2: White, Beauchemin

D3: Gunnarsson, Schenn

Realistically that would be the top 3 pairings the Leafs have been able to ice all season long.  If they play well as a group, they may actually see some consistency in the last half of the year.  Staying healthy will be an issue though, as the team doesn’t have any depth in the forward ranks if Stajan, Ponikarovsky, and Stempniak are dealt.

Let’s see how things shake out, but try not to lose ALL hope at this point Leaf fans… it really can’t get much worse than it is right now.  We have virtually the worst PK team in NHL history, and our goaltending is palpably softer than it’s been since the days of Peter Ing.  Not to blast on Gustavsson’s efforts recently, but he’s looked far more human in recent games than he did earlier on in the season.  I’m beginning to wonder if the tight schedule is wearing him out.  Hopefully the Olympic Break is one where he gets to decompress a bit and polish his game alongside his Swedish countryman Hendrik Lundqvist.