A little over 30 minutes to play the fist period. A wild wild period, incredible pace. Jonathan Toews scored the only goal of the first frame to put Canada up. It’s the first time Team USA has trailed all tournament. Amazingly, the guys calling the game said that the USA players had their flights booked home prior to the start of this game. This is handled by non-team members, but is still funny nevertheless.

On to the second period.

Change clearly is in the air. Let’s see:

First the Maple Leafs. How many contracts are expiring at year’s end? How many players currently on the roster do you expect to be here for training camp next year? No matter what is being said publicly, if the Leafs continue at the same clip as they are right now for the rest of the season, there will be tremendous pressure to change the coaching staff. The only thing that could make that easier for Burke is if the US Olympic team shits the bed for what is perceived as coaching errors.

Toronto Blue Jays. Good, bad or indifferent, AA is going to overhaul his roster too. Does that mean they will be any better? Who knows. Beeston and company aren’t exactly instilling confident feelings in me, that’s for sure. From my perspective, it’s pretty damn telling when trading Roy Halladay is seen as a positive thing if only for the the hope that there will be multiple usable assets coming in return. Add to that the fact that this will be Cito’s last season as manager and well, change is coming. We may have a better idea of how fast this coming Monday when the annual derby of players begins.

Toronto Raptors: Oy! No, really, Oy! Brian Colangelo’s boys lost their 5th in a row tonight and it was UGLY. How ugly, they gave up 146 points! Ummmm, wasn’t the plan to keep Bosh here to place him in a winning environment???? The only reason the seseason isn’t a total disaster so far is that there are worse teams in the league right now (thank god for the NJ NETS). The Raptors are 7-13 after 20 games, 8 games back from the leader in their division and are in second place!! At this pace change will have to be considered by Colangelo and soon. Chris Bosh- who has been on fire so far this season put up 2 points tonight.

Toronto Argos: 3 and 15. I am not going to pretend that I know the first thing about this team. I do know that their owners aren’t going to put up with the results they have seen in the last couple of years. A product like this won’t sell anywhere near the tickets they are hoping to sell regardless of where the team plays.

Fan 590: William Houston broke the news today that Nelson Millman is leaving the station that he built for greener pastures at Sportsnet. While Houston correctly says that any rumored change is merely speculation one has to think that it’s better than a 50:50 bet. In the past couple of months Millman has had to terminate some long time employees including Norm Rumack. Millman is a people person. He likes and supports his team. Change wouldn’t come easy with him still at the fan and it is likely to be easier for a new person to make changes that Nelson would rather not make. The challenge for whomever the new boss is will be talent location. This isn’t exactly a market full of young talent. Getting rid of any of the current on air personalities is easy. Finding better alternatives in this market right now will be more difficult. Either way, anyone not named Mccown should be worried at the Fan.

Houston also mentioned that Steve McCalister has left the Globe and Mail to run Yahoo Sports Canada’s sports team. That is fascinating. For the first time an internet portal in this country is taking sports seriously. Be certain to keep an eye on that change.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the health of Maple Leafs goalie Gustavsson. While there is lots of speculation out there right now, it is just that. In either event there will be a change in net and let’s hope that he is okay soon not for hockey sake but for his own health.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Wins and losses right? In the end that is how coaches and mangers in the sports world are judged. There is no good effort, or nice tries, in the end they get judged and perhaps fired for their in ability to win. Seems pretty simple right? What about coaches who are in the most impossible situations, burdened with untalented talent, no real way to win, is it fair to judge those coaches on wins and losses?

Not easy questions in a results oriented game. Look at our beloved Maple Leafs, last year, Ron Wilson’s first, no one was going to judge him based upon wins and loses. The score at the end of a game, certainly at the beginning of the season was almost immaterial right? What about this season? Should it be any different because the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs said that he expects his team to compete for a playoff spot? Is the fact that the GM made lots of changes to a lineup badly in need of changes enough to change the expectations on that same coach?

Let’s look at the cards dealt Wilson. The goalie who couldn’t stop a puck shaped like a 747 last season has been no better this year. The rookie goalie has played just like one. The savior defencemen brought in to shore up a very weak blueilne haven’t faired anywhere near expectation and the rookie sensation who was the apple of everyone’s eye last year is struggling as many 2nd year NHLers do. His only bright spot so far has been that the guy he benched early last season, Ian White has been his most consistent player and the guy that his GM thought he had traded to Boston to get Phil Kessel is a scoring machine.

Upfront, the team can’t find proverbial water even when falling out of a boat in the ocean. They simply can’t score. Only 7 teams in the NHL have fewer goals for than the Maple Leafs thus far. Only 2 or 3 players are scoring at a pace that will take them close to the 20 goal marker. Kaberle has 2 goals and 19 assists! How incredible is that. Of the goals he hasn’t scored (44) Kaberle has assisted on 19 of them, a whopping 43%. On the powerplay it’s even more all about Kaberle. Of the power play goals that he didn’t score (18) Kaberle has assisted on 12 of them over 66%! Talk about a one man scoring machine.

The powerplay is the only thing that the Leafs can actually feel good about these days. They are tied for 3rd in that department (thank you Tomas Kaberle). I would like to say that we should credit the coaching staff with a successful powerplay, however that same coaching staff is dead last when it comes to penalty kill. That’s as close as we will come to a wash.

Damien points out that under Ron Wilson, the Leafs are a horrid 37-63, certainly not a record that Wilson can be proud of. However, what the hell did anyone expect? As cocky, condescending, or whatever other label we want to slap on Wilson, can anyone really look the guy in the face and say, you should be doing more? From my perspective, Wilson’s job still is not about wins and loses. He is supposed to have a younger team and his job is to ensure that his younger guys are learning to win. His job is to change the culture of a team that has been too comfortable losing for a LONG time. Where Wilson is responsible is those games where his team doesn’t appear to be prepared for the task at hand. What does that mean? To me, it’s when his team looks eerily like the team that used to be coached by Paul Maurice. One game early in Maurice’s last campaign the Buds played Carolina at home in Toronto and got absolutely shelled. That was the look of the team that wasn’t ready to compete. When Wilson and Burke came to power here in Toronto, those were the nights we weren’t supposed to see anymore. Unfortunately, this season we have seen the return of that team on more than one occasion.

In response to Damien, hell yes the honeymoon is over. It’ been over a long time. No, Burke won’t fire his coach until he makes several roster moves. Burke is too loyal to gun WIlson down. He also doesn’t appear too proud to admit that moves he made were mistakes. Unfortunately, as painful and yes uninteresting as the Leafs are so far this season, its probably not going to get any better any time soon. Brian Burke is going to have to pull numerous rabbits out of lots of hats to get this team righted any time soon. I’m betting that Wilson will be around for at least a good part of the ride. The alternative, at least this early stage just wouldn’t be right.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Ok, now that the disclaimer is out of the way, let’ talk about Phil Kessel, whom the MSM is ready to appoint on our behalf as the man who is going to deliver us to the promise land. Forget for a second that the Buds have actually won a game. Before the savior arrives, the Toronto Maple Leafs will have played games against Buffalo and Montreal. So the best the Buds cold be is 3-7-2 when Kessel is rumored to appear. At worst, 1-9-2. Either way, Kessel is, at least the last time I checked mortal. The expectations by the MSM on this guy (allegedly on our behalf) is going to be insane. Can you imagine the horror if he doesn’t score a goal in his first game? Sheer panic if that extends to 2 and god help us if it goes even further.

Sportnet has the Kessel Returning? (returning? what is he returning from? He has never appeared!) story on the cover of their website as we speak. Other outlets will, if they already haven’t follow.

Now, to be clear I am not bashing the guy in any sense. We have to be realistic though. In 3 NHL seasons (yes he is that young) Kessel has never scored at a goal per clip rate. Last year was his best where he averaged .5 a goal per game (again, I am not saying that isn’t alot or an accomplishment). In those same 3 years he has never scored at a point per game clip . Last year he came close, .85 pts per game, preeeeeeeeeety damn good. Ironicaly enough if Kessel comes back when he is rumored to do so he will be able to play in just as many games as he played last year, 70. In those 70 games he scored 36 goals for 60 points.

Where would that 60 points fit in to this club? Well, I think we have to assume that Tomas Kaberle isn’t going to stay at his current pace, which would take him to just under 90 points. Hagman is on a pace to score around points. Stajan is next at around 60.

So, I don’t think there is anything wrong with hoping for the best. Hell I hope he breaks every record out there. We do have to be realistic. He is one guy on a what has all the makings of a mediocre team at best right now. Hopefully he shows up and he has the Gretzky effect; making everyone around him that much better (and no I am NOT comparing him to Gretzky). I just think we need to all cheer the guy on like crazy, but realize that he is one guy. He alone isn’t going to but this team on his back (and I never mentioned his injury) and carry them by himself. The onus will be on the rest of the team to over perform. The onus will be on the coaching staff to over perform and perhaps more importantly, the onus will be on Brian Burke to deliver the best supporting cast to this stud. Kessel isn’t the Messiah the MSM is going to make him out to be. He also isn’t going to be the goat they will make him out to be should be stumble.

I love this quote by the way in tomorrow’s Globe and Mail:

“You’ve got to have confidence in all your teammates, especially your goaltender,” Leafs defenceman Ian White said. “If you bobble a puck, you know he’ll be there to make a save for us.”

That is precisely what you have been reading here. No matter what he does short term, Vesa has lost that confidence from his teammates. They are so sure that every “bobble” is going to end up in their net that they are “bobbling” way more than normal. Gustavsson, despite his age and inexperience has earned that confidence. That tells me a ton about the psyche of the players in the lockeroom but that’s a different discussion. The truth is, this team, at least right now plays with a ton more confidence in front of Jonas then the did at any point with Toskala last season or this. That, for Brian Burke and Ron Wilson is a HUGE problem.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Ian White’s quote is from this article in the Globe and Mail

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