You know, I spent a long time trying to find something to write about this evening. The sky is falling only works so often you know. The good news is that the good folks over at the Globe and Mail were able to speak to some Maple Leaf players today and well, that’s all it took.

“As players, we’ve got to believe in ourselves and prove all the doubters wrong.” Matt “Stayon” Stajan

WOW

WOW

WOW

Matt Stajan can’t really be this stupid can he?

Oh, I get it, he’s joking right- he’s a regular John Candy

Doubters?????????

Doubters?????????

Matt- your team stinks.

Look in the standings, look in the papers, look in your dressing room. It doesn’t take a Harvard education to figure out what you got…

“I’m frustrated that I can’t do more,” said Leafs coach Ron Wilson, adding that losing his job is “the last thing” he’s concerned about. “I’m just going to do the best job I can – if I’m not good enough, someone will come down and tell me that.”

Now, on the other side of the island, reality has set in for Mr. Wilson. He can’t do more because his lineup is so devoid of talent there isn’t any coach alive or dead could do with this squad of losers.

“What’s hard to believe about this Leafs team, however, is just how unchanged its lineup has been all year. All of the 21 skaters who played or were scratched in Toronto’s season-opening loss to the Montreal Canadiens are still part of the team, with the only newcomers consisting of minor-league call-ups Tyler Bozak and Carl Gunnarsson.”

Damn straight. I was thinking the other day how our GM- and maybe the others around the league should only work from say March to October. They don’t appear to do ANYTHING the rest of the year. ( I know the f’n cap the owners wanted- killed everything)

“And despite the fact the Leafs sit dead last in team save percentage for the second season in a row, their situation in goal also remains the same – aside from the fact rookie Jonas Gustavsson has wrested the No. 1 role away from Vesa Toskala.”

Hey, even, the oldest, fattest, slowest cat still wants to eat a mouse from time to time. Stealing the number one spot from Toskala is no feat.

“Burke, in other words, cast his lot in the summer, spending up to the cap to add sniper Phil Kessel, a pair of defencemen and Gustavsson in goal, additions that have led Toronto to a worse record (15-23-9) than they had at this point last season (17-22-8) when they finished 24th overall.”

Now that gives us something to really look forward to on draft day- I mean UFA day.

“The Leaf GM’s only cards left to play will involve tearing down this roster after the Olympic break, selling off whichever of his eight unrestricted free agents who prove to have some marginal value and perhaps dealing defenceman Tomas Kaberle to bring in a late first-round pick from a contending team.”

Ah yes the dog days of spring.. I am really waiting for the first interviewer to ask Burke is he ever dreamed/imagined that his team – the one he built this year could finish below his team from last year. Hell, he was PISSED they made the playoffs then….What’s he going to be like this year when they are worse off????????

Awesome piece Mirtle….

TSM

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Last night’s game with the Ducks was a breakout for many Maple Leaf players. Hagman and Kaberle come to mind as obvious choices. Clearly the monster allowed the Buds to relax a little enroute to 11 power plays. It is not going to be easy if they have to rely on 11 powerplays every night to win a game. I am pretty sure that the Maple Leafs out of the first period were just under 10 minutes in time with the man advantage.

So with a few guys appearing, at least for night to get their game on, there is one guy who just clearly is out of it. His play, for lack of a better word, sucks. That would be none other than whipping boy Jason Blake. Forget for a small second the amount of cash he is earning. Forget the number of years he is playing and just look at the stats through the first several games. Through 9 games he has 1 goal, 2 assists, he is a -7 with 6 penalty minutes and 31 shots on net. At this pace he should be thanking everyone alive if he gets close to 20 goals this year let alone the 25 he had last year. It has become more and more apparent that the guy simply can’t play. He looked totally lost and disinterested throughout the entire game last night. Talk about a guy destined to play for the Marlies right now. I can’t for the life of me understand why Burke hasn’t followed through on his promise to bury guys who aren’t performing irrespective of their contract. Here is a guy who makes big bucks for no, not little, no bang. There has to be someone down on the farm who can produce as well as he can with a small percentage of the salary cap hit.

As demoralizing as it can be for a team to have a goalie let in easy shot after easy shot, it has to be equally as troubling to see a guy as untalented as Blake is get 12-16 minutes per game. Hell Luke Schenn has seen his ice time rocked back under 10 minutes and this clown is nearly averaging 15? Schenn’s a rookie. Enough is enough Brian, swallow hard, bite the bullet and bury JFJ’s wonder boy. Perhaps, not likely you can do something with him on re-entry waivers. Blake is totally ineffective offensively. He is a liability defensively. And to top it off he makes a lot of money.

All of those things to me scream of demotion. So far, in this respect Burke has yet to walk the walk. He has said he would do it. We are just waiting for him to do it. Let’s hope that Blake is the first to go, setting an example of the others who are out there floating.

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So, time flies when you are having fun. Hard to believe it was a year ago that Bryan Mccabe was ummmm, taken from us in a deal for Mike Van Ryn. This was, in Blue Jays terms and with all due respect to Van Ryn, equivalent to letting Alex Rios go on waivers. Mccabe, once the sweetheart of the Maple Leafs and fans was let go for a guy with ummmm injury problems. Not quite getting nothing in return, but this was a cash dump of massive proportions and also giving a guy in desperate need of a new start tha chance to renew his career.

Mccabe: 2008-09 Florida Panthers NHL 69 15 24 39 41
Van Ryn: 2008-09 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 27 3 8 11 14

Fletcher was never going to get value for Mccabe, everyone knew he wanted to deal Mccabe. So it may not be entirely relevant what he got back, Van Ryn got off to a pretty good start before getting hurt again. One has to wonder what he could do if he stays healthy. One has to wonder what he has to do to stay healthy. By the sounds of things, Brian Burke and Ron Wilson have challenged all the Maple Leaf players to report in the best shape of their lives or risk playing for the Marlies if at all. This is his last year on his deal so, it’s put up, stay healthy or shut up time.

I wonder if Burke where here at this time last year if he would have dealt Mccabe. Something tells me he would have tried to make Wilson work with him. However, I thought the same thing about Pogge and his new goalie coach. Mccabe represented the last of the Maple Leaf problem children as described by Cliff as guys who had to move on. Not bad number by Mccabe however certianly not a return to what he once did. Are the days of ex-maple leafs performing better than when they were here finally behind us???

It is a different time for sure. There is more hope this year than last. Last year we were waiting on Burke. This year we are waiting to see if it was worth the wait.

TSM

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I love reading all the theories of why the interest in hockey across Canada, Ontario and Toronto is on the steep decline. I especially love when the blame is put on the Maple Leafs for their losing ways. The reality is there are a lot of reasons why interest is down, but it says here none of them has anything to do with our loveable losers. I suggest that interest in the Maple Leafs may be down but there is no correlation between that and the decline in hockey.

Let’s take the easiest answers first. Hockey is expensive. The equipment, the ice time, the leagues all cost a fortune. This is not buying a pair of soccer shoes or basketball shoes or even a tennis racket. There are a ton of barriers to playing hockey that don’t exist in the other sports. After economics, there is the simple answer of time. Learning to play the game isn’t as simple as basketball, soccer or other sports. You have to teach a kid to skate, and that takes a long time. There are hockey skills and all that comes with learning the game. Parents don’t have the time it takes to deal with school and all the other programs that go on, there isn’t enough time to spend multiple hours at the arena.

So you take an expensive sport, two parent working homes with little time and then you have a larger foreign population in our backyard and you can quickly see how interest in the game is on the decline.

Now having said that I can tell you this. Little TSM is about to turn 7. If we don’t register him for hockey and related programs within 24 hours after registration begins for the programs we want, we won’t get in. There are four or five leagues in our area and they are all the same. There are a dozen or so skills programs around us too and they are all the same, jam packed within hours of registration being open.

Now, where the Leafs get killed in my opinion and I have said this before is that young kids, at least those I know, have no interest in the Maple Leaf players. Little TSM loves Crosby and Ovechkin. One of his cousins told me this passed weekend that his favorite players is Tavares and Sharp. The Maple Leafs failures on ice don’t matter nearly as much as their inability to produce or attract players that capture the minds or attentions of our youth. Little TSM wouldn’t want any one Maple Leaf jersey. Not one!

So as we try and figure out how to build the sport in Canada and Toronto I think we need to keep perspective of the world around us. When I was a kid we came home from school and played road hockey for hours. Today kids play on their DS, xbox or ps3. More parents are working and have less time to spend with their kids. We are in a bad spot economically and hockey is expensive. All the other reason are noise in my opinion.

TSM

Here’s your bikini of the day from bikinibeat.org:

On Fan 590 Tonight- thanks to Mike S.

- open phones with McCown from 4:05 to 4:40
- co-host from 5:00 to 7:00 is John Shannon
- Talking baseball, Adam Rita & Daryl Jones from 4-6.

James Deacon joins for the Monday Roundtable after 6pm

On 640 with Brady and Watters:

440 – Phil Kessel
510 – Patrick Sharp
540 – Dave Randorf

TSM TAKE:

Mccown is still working, must be fear of swine flu or something! I like John Shannon, and really respect his knowledge of hockey and other sports from tv perspective. I assume talking baseball means Blue Jays and Roy Halladay. Interesting to hear Mccown’s take only because he, alone, predicted big things for team Blue Jay in 2009. Adam Rita has to be worried. His team has not looked all that good in it’s new regime. Daryl Jones wants to buy the Coyotes, who? you know the team that what’s his name at RIM thought about buying! Over at 640, Brady is going to talk to 2 potential Maple Leaf players. Kessel was supposed to be here for Kaberle and there is a ton of talk of Sharp somehow ending up in Toronto. I have to assume that Randorf will also be talking about the early trials and tribulations of the good ship Argo.

TSM

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So, here I am back in the Motor City. Quick stop over this type, got in around 6pm tonight and will be back in Toronto Sunday night. With it being dead quiet tonight, or all week in Maple Leaf land I thought it was a good time to look at some Maple Leaf/Red Wings moments. In recent memory this has to be right up there no?

This next one was a game I was lucky enough to be at:

I am not sure of a Maple Leaf player who played for such a short time as Mike Foligno did but had such a quick love affair with Leaf Nation:

There were some epic battles between Probert and Maple Leaf players, here is a quick summary of Probert v Clark and Probert v Semenko:

Wendel and Probert had some beauties, this is one of the best I remember:

Long before my time, the Leafs actually won a cup, here in 1964 :

Got any of your own?

TSM