Boy, looking back at those is an exercise in frustration. You can clearly see the team spinning its wheels, going nowhere. Although I consider myself a levelheaded and thus rare breed of Leaf fan, a perusal of those posts suggests I am just as prone to hyping run-of-the-mill players and prospects as the next brain-added Leaf fan. I've predicted Matt Stajan would be nominated for a Selke; that Kaberle could win a Norris; that this season would be brighter than the last was. Cue the fits of hysterical laughter than slowly morph into weeping.
To be fair, it's been nearly ten years since you could put the words "consistency" and "Leafs" in a sentence and not have it come out like the punchline to a lame joke. From period to period, game to game, and season to season, there's nothing predictable about this squad. Toskala looked all-world in 2008-09, then bombed. Ron Wilson fell just short of a Jack Adams nomination for coach of the year last season, and this year he can't coach his way out of a paper bag. Tomas Kaberle rediscovered his form earlier this season, at one point leading the league in points by a defenseman; over the past twenty games or so he's looked average to lost. On the other hand, Rickard Wallin looked beyond bad in November and he's evolved into a serviceable fourth-line player.
And on and on and on...is it any wonder so many of my predictions look loopy?
There is and has been one thing that is eminently predictable about the Toronto Maple Leafs, and that is there's always next year. Bud fans--myself included--will trot this out every year: sometimes early, sometimes late, but every year. And we'll mean it, too. We'll come up with all sorts of excuses reasons why the team didn't succeed, and next year will be different.
Five years, now, we've been saying this, and it's starting to sound suspiciously like crying wolf. And yet...
...next year will be different! And this time I mean it, damnit!
Here's the thing: this is not the same team that started last season, or even this season. In fact, besides Kaberle, there has been a 100% turnover over the past two years. Tomas excepted, there's not a single player on this team who played for Paul Maurice, the last coach. So anything you say--good or bad--about prior Leaf lineups does not apply to this one. (Oh, and I'll be exceedingly surprised if Kaberle is still a Leaf come October.)
Credit Burke with a thorough and remarkably rapid housecleaning. He has shipped out an awful lot of dead wood (and a couple of players that quite frankly I will miss, chief among them Ian White). In exchange, the Leafs find themselves in the unusual (for them) position of having prospects worthy of the name.
A note on the Kessel trade, which continues to dog Burke and likely will for years. The price he paid for Kessel was undeniably steep: two first round picks and a second. And Kessel--who led the Leafs in points this year, despite missing training camp and the first month of the season--is not exactly a franchise player. Actually, he's rather one-dimensional. Admittedly, the dimension, one of the best snap shots in the league, is highly impressive. But Phil doesn't play physical, he doesn't pass much, and his defensive game is nonexistent.
Of course, he's 23, still maturing as a hockey player, and the holes in his game might still fill in. Also in Burke's defense, he was able to sign the equivalent of two firsts and a second in the form of Tyler Bozak, Jonas Gustavsson, and Christian Hanson. These players cost the Leafs nothing but money, and they have plenty of that.
Very few fans predicted the crappy finish this year. Most of us suggested, quite reasonably I still think, that the lineup which started the year would turn into a playoff bubble team: maybe in, maybe out, but close either way. That didn't happen, no thanks to
- absolutely horrible goaltending, mostly from Vesa Losskala, that actually had me pining at times for the return of Andrew Raycroft;
- a league worst PK...it would have been simpler to just award the opposition a goal in lieu of a Leaf penalty
- a PP that was also the NHL's worst (and Wilson just kept on doing the same idiotic things night after night, leading me to question his sanity on more than one occasion
I'm going to eschew a player by player analysis this year, on the grounds that I would very much like to go to bed sometime this evening. However, I would like to award some kudos and brickbats.
KUDOS to TYLER BOZAK. The college free agent pickup has shown why pretty much every team in the NHL was going hard after him. Had he stayed up the whole year, he would be garnering Calder votes, and that's not the delusional Leaf fan talking: the man's stats speak for themselves. He is creative, good in the faceoff circle, and defensively aware: an all-around keeper and possibly a legitimate first line center.
BRICKBATS to FRANCOIS BEAUCHEMIN. His game has improved markedly since the season began...but that's not saying much. I can't count how many times he arrived on the scene as the other team was skating off in celebration of a goal. He's not at all what I expected.
KUDOS to CARL GUNNARSSON. I'll be honest: I'd never heard of him before this season started. The whole league may hear of him before long, because he's been, for my money, the best value on the team. Gunnarsson is one of those defencemen you don't really notice...and that's a good thing. He won't throw the thundering open-ice hip check: instead, he quietly and effective separates man from puck and passes or skates the disk out, as appropriate. His pinches are rarely ill-advised and he has some offensive potential, as well.
KUDOS to JONAS GUSTAVSSON. "The Monster" wasn't very scary early on...not to the opposition, at any rate. He had poor rebound control, handled the puck as if it would explode any second, and he was often out of position. But he has come a long, long way. While there is still work to be done, Jonas has compiled an excellent record since the Olympic break. Time will tell, but Gustavsson may well be the #1 goalie the Leafs have lacked since Belfour.
BRICKBATS to KEITH ACTON. How is this guy still employed by the Leafs? He's been here since 2001, and his area of responsibility (offense) has gone off a cliff the last few years. It's a mystery on par with how John Mitchell can miss wide open nets from six feet out.
Until next year...
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