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By HOWARD BERGER

LOS ANGELES (Aug. 15) – Though it could be somewhat intriguing to watch the Maple Leafs early in the 2008-09 season – owing to a mandatory, long-overdue shuffle in personnel – the mystery isn’t likely to extend much beyond mid-November. This is a bottom-three team in the Eastern Conference, and the pattern of mediocrity that is widely expected of the Blue & White will establish itself before long. Riding out the season minus the impulse to try for an impossible quick fix will be paramount for whoever is managing the club, and doubly so for the people that employ the GM. The Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment directors will find themselves in a familiar situation — marching into a quiet dressing room after most games – and it won’t be easy on the executive ego.

Of far greater import in 2008-09 is the seed of a meaningful identity under new coach Ron Wilson – a process that is attainable even in the absence of results. The Leafs have made a long-term commitment to Wilson, and he is renowned for galvanizing teams that are not in the forefront of expectation. That won’t happen in Toronto in the coming season, but Wilson must be able to quickly put his stamp on the club. If it merely serves to reverse the trend of losing games as disgracefully as the Leafs have in the past two years, that will be a telling advancement. If it results in the Leafs becoming a competent defensive outfit, the step will be even bigger. But, history indicates the latter objective will be difficult to achieve.

The Maple Leafs are perennially, and justifiably, measured against the franchise’s last Stanley Cup winner – in 1967 – and there are precious few examples of reliable team defense in the past 41 years. Of the 18 men that have coached the club since ’67, only two have shown an ability to reverse the usual trend. Roger Neilson did it spectacularly for one season [1977-78], and Pat Burns coerced a generally Spartan club to mind its own end for a couple of years in the early-‘90s. The good Leaf teams under Pat Quinn were known for their creativity on the attack, and were made to look better defensively on many nights by the brilliance of goalie Curtis Joseph. So, Wilson isn’t up against tradition in his attempt to mould the current Leafs into a responsible group.

What he confronts is a team entirely devoid – at the moment – of an elite skater. Neilson had front-line players such as Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald and Borje Salming to work with. Burns went to war with a middling blue line, but with arguably the best two-way forward in the NHL – and, undisputedly, the league’s top defensive centre – Doug Gilmour. On Gilmour’s flank was a 50-goal shooter in Dave Andreychuk. Quinn benefitted from Joseph, and the prime years of Mats Sundin.

Wilson has no such commodity. Goalie Vesa Toskala is his brightest asset, and that’s a good start. But, the Leafs will need to gradually assemble a nucleus of top-level forwards and defensemen if they are to become a juggernaut behind centre-ice. Or a force in the offensive zone. Teams that are capable of doing both compete for the Stanley Cup, and are routinely comprised of three to five All-Star-caliber skaters. That grade of personnel will not materialize overnight in Toronto.

In the interim, Wilson can stamp an identity on the Maple Leafs by simply giving them some jam. That doesn’t equate to Ryan Hollweg and Jamal Mayers looking to pick fights each game; or to Wilson having a conniption behind the bench every 10 minutes. But, the Leafs absolutely must become sore losers before they can develop into winners.

The appearance of testiness and angst – particularly in defeat — has to completely overwhelm whatever trait that prompted this club to capitulate so shamefully the past two seasons. If Wilson can at least develop that aura of contempt through the struggle of the coming season, he’ll have the Leafs pointed in the right direction.

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