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.

@yyzsportsmedia

Quick article review and then Ron Wilson’s potential shot…

If you only read one article on the state of the Maple Leafs, make it Bruce Arthur’s column. It really is a fair and accurate assessment of the where we are today:

“Let’s go over the checklist. What general manager Brian Burke wanted was a team that created a fear-free environment for the skill players; what he has is a fear-drenched environment for his goaltenders. What Burke wanted was a team that played an aggressive, no-Leaf-left-behind style of physical play; what he has is a group often reduced to tentative pylon imitation, afraid to take a penalty on a team that can’t kill penalties.
Oh, and this team still needs work on shooting the puck down the ice on the penalty kill – they failed three separate times on Colorado’s first man advantage. No, seriously, they have trouble shooting the puck down the ice.”

That’s a pretty good summary wouldn’t you say??? Seriously. Where the hell is the team that was fun to watch during exhibition season? I mean Kadri is gone and Bozak back on the pharm, but was Jason Allison the gel holding this team together? Seriously what the hell was in the water up at the Deerhurst?

“Throw in the regression of Luke Schenn, the unwise grittiness of guys like Mike Komisarek – who took a boneheaded elbowing minor 50 seconds after the Leafs cut it to 2-1, leading to a decisive Colorado goal – goaltending only slightly better than that provided by a fire hydrant, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.”

It isn’t pretty, that’s for sure. On the Schenn thing, how come I haven’t read sophomore jinx yet? Seriously??? Can someone smarter than me tell me that already this season his minutes are down? I mean why else is this guy choking the splinters out of his stick?? He is playing as if he screws up on a shift he will be send to the Marlies…..

“But panic, frankly, is a perfectly reasonable response to this. Before last night’s game the deckchairs were rearranged, in the hope that it would motivate the entire crew. MacDonald and Tyler Bozak and backup goalie James Reimer were elevated from the Toronto Marlies; Toskala – he of the .812 save percentage after the Monday night massacre – was sent for a rather convenient MRI, which was expected to detect his badly sprained confidence

I am so glad he wrote that. What else do people want from Leaf fans? Apathy? Would the media be happier if people were saying gosh gee wilikers, will get the next time????? It’s ok to see things for what they are.

“We don’t seem to have much resilience,” said Leafs coach Ron Wilson, whose sarcastic condescension isn’t playing so well, just now. “So I think right now getting some younger people in there that don’t carry a bunch of baggage around is the way to go.”

Baggage, six games in? Oh, boy. And forwards Matt Stajan and Nicklas Hagman, who had combined for five of Toronto’s 12 goals in the first five games, were benched. Why them?

“Why not?” answered Wilson. “It has to be significant changes. To sit out guys who play on the fourth line but have given a really good effort makes no sense to me.

“We have to shake things up … It can’t always be like the movie Usual Suspects.”

This team already seems shaken enough, thanks. And it certainly looks like there are a lot of the usual suspects hanging around. For all the talk of change, nine of Toronto’s forwards were here last year, mostly on the top three lines, along with more than half their defencemen. Unsurprisingly, this team hasn’t figured out how to play a Burke style, which makes sense, since they’re not Burke guys.

That’s right. 100 percent right. There is a lot of work left to be done by the GM. Unfortunately he is in a bad spot. There clearly aren’t reinforcements on the farm. If there were, they would have made the team. He can send down some vets, however in doing so he has to replace them. Say he goes and gets more experienced (older) players. Then those players will be taking ice time from the kids. We know the battle cry, we have seen this movie before. There is only 1 thing that solves this, or maybe 2. First, is SOLID goaltending. I don’t care what anyone else says, a team plays differently when it plays in front of a goalie that they trust. If you fear that every mistake is going in you will take less chances and make more mistakes (which do in fact end up in your net). Second is time. WIlson and this group need some time.

Ron Wilson’s Shot?

Now, riddle me this batman. Last night Steve Simmons, during Wilson’s post game press conference suggested that nothing is really going right for this team. Wilson’s response surprised me. His response was “well, your right, that is what happens when you set high expectations.” Now, maybe most people didn’t catch it. Maybe too few in the room were paying attention. From where I am sitting, there is only 1 person that set high expectations and his initials are BB. You can watch the video right here. The media didn’t set expectations. I am pretty sure that Ron Wilson didn’t either. Who else could Wilson be referring to? Maybe it matters. Maybe it doesn’t. I am going to file that under the hmmmmmmmmm column. I think it’s worth keeping an eye on.