By HOWARD BERGER
TORONTO (Nov. 28) — It will be a pleasant first anniversary, after all, for Maple Leafs’ general manager Brian Burke.
On this Saturday, a year ago, the Leafs ended months of rabid speculation by unveiling Burke as their latest hockey savior at a press gathering in the Air Canada Centre. With his club scraping the NHL pavement earlier this week — and having to deal, publicly, with a family matter — it appeared Burke might wish to forget the approaching calendar milestone. But, alas, the Maple Leafs took the opportunity to string together road victories for the first time this season, ending double-B’s initial year in our city on a triumphant note.
Consecutive wins in Tampa and Sunrise, Fla. enabled the roller-coaster Leafs to double their 2009-10 victory total in the past seven days. The club went into last Saturday’s home tilt against Washington with a 3-11-6 record – compiled in the first six weeks and two days of the regular schedule. One week later, the Leafs are 6-11-7… still nothing to crow about, but a substantial improvement in a short period of time.
It has certainly been a whacky first quarter of the season for the Blue & White, who seem intent on digging enormous holes, and then trying to scramble back to the surface.
Consider the up-and-down pattern:
Oct. 1st to Oct. 24th: 0-7-1
Oct. 26th to Nov. 7th: 3-0-4
Nov. 10th to Nov. 19th: 0-4-1
Nov. 21st to Nov. 27th: 3-0-1
Clearly, it’s that initial tailspin the Leafs will be fighting all season. Since the catastrophic 0-7-1 start, the team is a respectable – if bizarre – 6-4-6. Anytime a hockey club loses just four of 16 games in regulation, it is doing something right. In this case, however, it has enabled the Leafs only to escape the NHL basement; the club sits 29th overall today, four points up on last-place Carolina. That’s how damaging the first 3½ weeks of the season have proven to be. With 19 points, the Leafs are still eight points and seven teams removed from playoff territory in the Eastern Conference. Five of those teams [Atlanta, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, New York Rangers and New York Islanders] have 27 points – the eighth-place standard right now; the Thrashers, Flyers and Lightning all with games in on Toronto.
But, the Leafs are showing legitimate signs of life – on the ice and behind the bench. You’ve got to believe it was tempting for Ron Wilson to quickly jack Jonas Gustavsson from the net after the Florida Panthers scored dubious goals in the opening minutes Friday night. In fact, I was expecting Wilson to throw Joey MacDonald over the boards; the coach’s usual pattern is not to tolerate an immediate lack of focus with his goaltenders [think back to two weeks ago, against Calgary, at the ACC]. On this night, however, Ron made the right call, and it’s one that I’ve been advocating for several weeks now: enabling Gustavsson to work out his difficulties on the ice.
At the moment, The Monster is unquestionably the Leafs’ goalie-of-the-future; at 25, he’s not exactly a kid anymore, and he’ll learn absolutely nothing about himself and the North American game by getting chained to the bench at the first sign of trouble. So, kudos to Wilson for his patience in Sunrise, which was quickly justified when the Swedish rookie made a game-rescuing breakaway stop moments later; then performed acrobatically in the pivotal waning moments of the second period.
Wilson has taken a similar tack with the struggling Luke Schenn. Though he’s vastly and appropriately reduced Schenn’s ice time from a year ago – when the rookie seemed un-fazed by a leap from junior to the NHL – Wilson has refused to banish the young defenseman to the press box. Additionally, he’s provided Schenn an immediate chance – on most occasions – to rectify an error, no matter how blatant it may be. That was emphatically the case two weeks ago, in Chicago, when Wilson put Schenn “back on the horse” seconds after a dreadful giveaway to Patrick Kane for an early Hawks’ lead. And though Schenn hasn’t yet regained the composure from his freshman campaign, he is showing subtle indications that the second half of the season will be better.
For that, Wilson deserves credit.
And, for all the grief hurled at Cliff Fletcher during his pinch-hitting role between John Ferguson and Burke, how about a tip of the cap for signing Niklas Hagman as a free agent? At the moment, that acquisition stands alongside Gustavsson and Phil Kessel as the Leafs’ most prominent in the post-Ferguson era. Hagman should be a prime candidate for NHL First-Star-of-the-Week honors after a splendid stretch in which he’s erupted for seven goals in six games, with a pair of two-goal performances.
Happy first anniversary, Brian Burke.
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HOward; Now that Gunnarson is playing so well on defence,I think it may be time for Mr. Burke to approach Kaberle about moving him in the near future. Kaberle is totaly lost in our end and Gunnarson is just as good with the puck and on the power play. He’s also much better in our end. Watch Burke eventually do his magic and recoup a first round pick plus a good young player. Patience is all that is required. Ron
- RON.
Good analysis Howard.
After watching last night’s game, I’d like to throw another possible scenario regarding the Kessel trade into the mix:
We’ve all considered that we are getting a legitimate goal scorer and a real game breaker with Kessel. We may be getting much more than just that however.
Obviously on his first goal, Kessel showed a level of willpower - and skillpower - we haven’t seen in a long time. It was a tremendous individual effort.
Less noticed, but maybe even more notable, were the three excellent defensive plays that Kessel made by hustling back and using his speed and quick stick to break up an opponent’s rush.
Which leads us to ponder this:
What if the kid (and he is a kid after all) BLOSSOMS here?
What if he becomes a more complete player, a leader, and a legitimate 50 goal threat?
Surely he doesn’t need to be a physical bruiser to become a legitimate franchise cornerstone, and a lynchpin in a very strong Leaf team in the future.
With Kessel, Hagman, the Monster, and what is suddenly becoming a very solid defence corps, the glass is definitely somewhat full here.
- DavidHoward, goal scoring should not have been a problem with the Leafs this year - as it wasn’t last season. Even before acquiring Kessel, they had five guys - Blake, Ponikarovsky, Grabovski, Stempniak and Hagman - who had hit the 20-goal mark in the NHL. Three other guys - Stajan, Kulemin and Mitchell - are capable of contributing (at least) 10-15 goals each. Number 15 isn’t much of a goal scorer, but he nonetheless contributes to the Leafs offense.
Obviously, the confidence necessary to score goals was missing earlier this year, and I think Burke and Wilson have to take at least some of the blame. Playing hockey in Toronto means playing in a fishbowl, and the GM’s rhetoric and the coach’s middle-school mirth combined to make a bad situation worse.
- Joseph Durocherwe can only hope the leafs can leapfrog 6 or 7 teams so the bruins selecting the leafs first pick doesnt hurt so badly. forget any hopes of the playoffs this year and clean house we have possably a good defence good goalie, kessel and a few kids thats it caproom will give us top 6 forwards if they are available.
- david mackini hope hagman scores 40 goals but the bithday boy is nothing but trade baid we need young stars hagman is 30
- david mackinIt’s a relief, finally, to see that some of Burke’s moves might well have been constructive. Kessel may turn out to be a very important addition. Beauchemin is rounding into fine form. Gustafsson looks to have the character to shake off poor results, an attribute that all of the good ones have.
I was starting to wonder, what with the puzzling decision to cut loose Antropov, instead of re-signing him and making room by waiving Blake. Also, Beauchemin looked pretty awful in the first few weeks, raising doubts about the wisdom of moving Kubina for a fringe NHLer like Exelby and basically giving away Stralman who is flourishing with the Blue Jackets.
- CarmThe playoffs are at best a long shot but there is something to be said for working on going in the right direction. Certainly if a good foundation is established to start 2010-2011 off well, this season will not be a complete write-off.
By the way, if the Leafs do get a decent offer for Hagman, now would be a good time to move him. It’s not probable that he can keep it up and when he does slip interest will wane. Stalberg would be the obvious call-up should Hagman get moved for draft picks, freeing up millions in cap space. Hagman is proven and Stalberg a rookie but in today’s cap-dominated NHL, some risk-taking is required. Down the road, cap room will help in retaining good, young talent.
Hagman is and has always been a very streaky player. At 30 years old playing on a team that won’t realistically be ready to compete for a few more years, if BB gets a decent offer he has to pull the trigger. Holding on to him for the sole purpose of preventing Boston from getting the first pick is insane. Who cares about the first pick, it’s gone. This season is about REBUILDING, not doing everything humanly possible to avoid giving the Bruins a lottery pick. If Burke manages to get Kessel and recoup and decent first round pick by trading away a 30 year old streaky player in the same season I think he will have done more than I expected. Throw in another high pick for Kaberle at the trade deadline and for the first time in my 40 year old memory this team will actually be doing things right for a change.
- PaulBurke will not trade hagman because he wants to make the playoffs.
- davi998And he will not weaken this team lest it give the bruins a high lottery pick.
That’s the way I look at it anyway.
I agree with Paul. The pick is gone, whats done is done now just move on.
On the Hagman front i think the most we can expect back is a 2nd. Only way we get a 1st is from a contender, contenders dont have cap space for deal until after christmas by christmas hagman will be cold again and not worth a 1st. Math doesnt add up.
- ChadPatience is needed with this team.