Editor's Note: In a season in which we are likely to endure a tonne of pain there is the hope that a handful of Leafs will continue putting their mark on the franchise's history book. Not surprisingly, most of it revolves around Tomas Kaberle.

Milestone watch

With so many of the veterans gone, there aren't anywhere near the number of Leafs approaching any significant milestones with the team anymore.  I hadn't been paying much attention to it this year, so completely missed it when Tomas Kaberle passed Ian Turnbull to take third place in career points amongst Leaf defensemen.  Normally, I'd have been all over something like that.

The point totals for Leaf defensemen look like this, as of this morning:

1. Salming        1099    148    620    768    1292
2. Horton        1185    109    349    458    1389
3. Kaberle        702    71    346    417    200
4. Turnbull    580    112    302    414    651
5. McKenny        594    81    246    327    292

(McCabe, Todd Gill, Al Iafrate, Allan Stanley, Jim Thomson and Dave Ellett round out the top 10.)

Kabs is only 41 points back of Tim Horton, and then it's a question of how close he can get to Salming.  41 more points is very achievable this season, given how he has been playing.

Tomas also skated in his 700th Leaf game, one of just 14 Leafs to do so.  He passed Teeder Kennedy at 696 this season.  If he plays the full season, he will have 763 games, good for 12th place and only 14 behind Tie Domi.

1. George Armstrong    1188
2. Tim Horton    1184
3. Borje Salming    1099
4. Dave Keon    1062
5. Ron Ellis    1034
6. Mats Sundin    981
7. Bob Pulford    947
8. Darryl Sittler    844
9. Ron Stewart    838
10. Tie Domi    777
11. Bob Baun    739
12. Frank Mahovlich    720
13. Jim Thomson    717
14. Tomas Kaberle    702

In career assists, Kaberle now has 346, which is the seventh-highest total in Leaf history.  He is three behind Horton.

1. Borje Salming    620
2. Mats Sundin    567
3. Darryl Sittler    527
4. Dave Keon    493
5. George Armstrong    417
6. Tim Horton    349
7. Tomas Kaberle    346

In career points, Kaberle is in the top 20.  If he gets enough points to pass Horton this season, he'll sit in 12th.

1. Mats Sundin    987
2. Darryl Sittler    916
3. Dave Keon    858
4. Borje Salming    768
5. George Armstrong    713
6. Ron Ellis    640
7. Frank Mahovlich    597
8. Bob Pulford    563
9. Ted Kennedy    560
10. Rick Vaive    537
11. Norm Ullman    471
12. Lanny McDonald    459
13. Tim Horton    458
14. Doug Gilmour    452
15. Wendel Clark    441
16. Syl Apps    432
17. Tomas Kaberle    417
18. Ian Turnbull    414
19. Gary Leeman    407
20. John Anderson    393

Once you get past Kaberle, though, there are very few players chasing anything.  At the start of this season, there were only six Leafs who had played at least 200 games with the team - Kaberle, Antropov, Ponikarovsky, Stajan, Joseph and Steen.  Steen is gone and Joseph won't play all that much, so there won't be movement there.  White and Kubina could both reach 200 games this season.

Antropov's 261 career points have him 42nd all time, just ahead of Max Bentley and trailing Gill, Frycer, Ihnacak and Olczyk, all of whom are within 8 points.  If he can finish with 60 points this season, he'll be 33rd with 304, just ahead of McCabe and Fergus (297 ea.), just behind Paul Henderson (318).  Antropov also needs 1 assist for 150 in his career and 33 games for 500.

Ponikarovsky is 45 games short of 400 and 30 points shy of 200.

Stajan is 3 points short of 150 for his career.

The only other players on the Leafs with a shot at anything are Kubina, who needs 29 points for 100 as a Leaf, and Blake, who needs 38 for the same.

An interesting milestone is out there for Curtis Joseph.  As a Leaf, he is fifth in wins, but is unlikely to catch Felix Potvin for fourth.  Career-wise, though, Joseph needs one win for 450 in his career.  He would be the fourth goalie to do this. 

He also has 346 career losses, including the three this season.  This is six short of the all-time record.  Gump Worsley had 352.  Gilles Meloche is also in there with 351.

All I can say is that you have to be pretty good to be allowed to lose that many games....