2009-2010 Toronto Maple Leafs Season Preview

Playoffs!!!1

(i have no idea if this formatting will work btw lol)

Bring back belfour!!!1

WHO VOTED NO?

I voted “yes” and I don’t feel any need to justify my vote.

i refuse to beleive that we will miss 5 times in a row…. when we hit 3, it was unheard of…. Honestly, in my opinion, the playoffs will all fall on Gustafsson’s shoulders. Kessel better not be a bitch either, he better show up with some big time goals when we need them when we get close to march

At the beginning of the off-season, I was not a believer. Not even after the defensive acquisitions, which I considered a good start, but not enough. Since then, the addition of severe fire-power in Kessel, the emergence of Stalberg, the revelation that there’s actually some forward depth in the college kids, and most importantly, the discovery that we have a goalie on the roster who might be above AHL quality has changed my mind. The east probably has 5 playoff spots spoken for, and of the teams vying for the other 3, I think the Leafs have declared their intentions to snag one loudest. Not a lock by any means, but I think the odds are with us getting there, and will increase dramatically once Wilson finally gives up on Toskala. A couple of shrewd moves during the season could even make for a playoff run of more than 4-7 games.

I voted yes and I have not been sampling the koolaid

before the preseason started, I looked at the east and figured the leafs were probably 50-50 on getting in – depending on a whole slew of factors both internal and external to the Leafs themselves.

Now I am leaning more along the 60-40 split with the potential to climb higher (depending on Goaltending and the Kessel Factor.)

In short… PLAYOFFS!!!1

Great article PPP, but the Peter Crouch insult was the extra bit that granted a reccing

Right now, Ron Wilson is standing firmly behind Vesa Toskala

Behind Vesa Toskala? I hope he’s wearing a lot of padding to protect himself from all the pucks!

I believe they’ll make the playoffs because I can’t fathom thinking about the alternative.

Bob McKenzie was on AM 990(Montreal Sports radio) this morning and he said this about Stålberg(Paraphrasing mind you:

‘I saw him play a few times each year over the last few years in college – when he played against my son’s team. He was one of the top 2 players in college, in my opinion. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins Rookie of the Year in the NHL this season."

I always respect Bob’s opinion… and this time I even like it!

Go to NHL.com and look at the stats for goals per game. The Leafs have been in the top 12 for most of this decade. (I only did this to print out every year to make a point to a co-worker who is a Habs fan – he only had me on 1 year). The Leafs can score goals, it ‘s just the goals against that always kill them (in case you didn’t watch the game last night). When they cut that down (ie. get rid of Toskala) they are a shoe-in for the playoffs.

I’m saying PLAYOFFS!!!!!1 because I believe that, one way or the other, our team GAA/Sv% will both improve on the last 2 4 years. Either Toskala will get better, which improves things, or he will continue to suck and lose the starting job to the Monster – who won’t suck. Numbers wise, last year, if Toskala provided even AVERAGE NHL-calibre goaltending, we’d have been if not in the playoffs, then right on the bubble. We have a much-improved d-corps over last year, and our scoring seems to be moving up as well. Stanley Cup – I’d love one, but probably not. Playoffs – almost without a doubt. Leaving the Lollipop Guild lying broken, bruised and bloody on at least two separate ice surfaces – guaranteed.

Under weaknesses, you have Jonsa Gustavsson. The correct spelling is Jesus Gustavsson.

I would like to lodge a complaint. I do not appreciate being reminded of that horrible OT goal by Roenick… that goal sliced through my heart like a hot knife through butter.

I see the leafs either jusssst making the playoffs or juuusssstt missing them. They’re in that borderline, no man’s land. It makes me nervous

Monster in net + monsters roaming the blueline = playoffs. In fact, I am on record as saying they’ll be the 7 seed.

They’ll be better than the:

Islanders
Lightning
Thrashers
Senators
Sabres
Panthers
Canadiens and
Rangers

1. Luke Schenn possibly not making strides forward due to the fact that he seems to be taking a bit of a back seat to Beauchemin and Komisarek. I’d prefer to see him leading from the front and becoming more of a franchise player.

2. Gustavsson’s adjustment to the NHL. If it’s smooth I think all the debates about Toskala will be moot… Monster is the future if he plays well.

3. The lack of a true #1 NHL centre. Grabovski is a good number 2 option, but he’s just too small for me to take him seriously as a #1.

This is the only time when being a ninja is considered a negative.

But you guys do realize that in that year he was 30th in the NHL, he had better save percentage numbers than Dominik Hasek, Dwayne Roloson, Mike Smith, Chris Mason, and Ray Emery…

Hasek retired after that year, so feel free to toss his numbers out (but he was playing for Detroit at the time, and oddly they still won all the time). As for the last 4, Emery is now the starter in Philly, and I’m not sure how scared people are about that despite the fact he just played a year in the KHL; Mason led St. Louis to the playoffs last year posting a .916 save percentage; and Mike Smith also posted a .916 save percentage with the Lightning last season.

the NHL on the whole is amazingly even. I don’t think any 1 or 2 teams stands head and shoulders above the rest. The Salary Cap is finally starting to have the desired impact. Every team has a chance to win on any given night.

The major impacts from now on will be injuries, and generally speaking chemistry. That latter aspect is a function of coaching and team building more than anything else. Teams that are well coached should perform better.

reasons we will make playoffs

1. as mentioned, the balance will be evident in scoring meaning that while a leaf may not win the art ross or rocket richard award, there will be enough goals shared around the team to finish in a decent offensive position. in line with the football reference, it is a bit like arsenal, as they do not have a true golden boot contender, but they always manage to score. except bendtner.

2. the defense is amazing. especially because in hockey you are allowed to body contact so it will be much more beneficial to have a balanced 6 defencemen like we have, with kaberle focused on offense due to komisarek shoring it up at the back. schenn should progress but the good thing is that he doesnt need to progress due to the other options, he doesnt have to be the best defender anymore. this means less pressure on him and hence a better development pathway.

3. the goalies should be better. macdonald was a genius move as it allowes toskala to leave without leaving the leafs without a viable backup/platoon-mate for jonas.

i know, that is basically all three positions being a positive but there are some causes for concern.

such as…

1. the lack of true offensive allstar (kessel can score but he needs the puck in good positions to do that…we dont have a marc savard so it would be unrealistic to expect 40 goals this season unless we get a set-up man. for example marc savard.) it bothers me that grabovski, stajan, bozak, mitchell are all ‘top-6’ centres but not ‘first-line’ centres. at least, they wouldnt be top-liners on the best teams in the league. or even in montreal. or ottawa. and that really sucks. we only have one opening for 2nd line centre and 4 young candidates for the near future. this means at least 2 of them are expendable (probably stajan has biggest chance of leaving) which can translate better players on the wing. also on the wing, there are many mediocre – above average players but not enough true-scorers or set-up people.

this is a really long negative point but it basically summarizes that which i can think of at this moment. of course there is the chance kessel scores as much as he did in his first year, kaberle continues to regress, schenn hits the sophomore jinxing slump, komisarek plays like he did last year, and beauchemin gets injured (like last year). also, maybe jonas gustavsson will become like a tellqvist or a brunnstrom (who is not a goalie but maybe you hopefully catch my drift). toskala will suck again and macdonald will play like a true AHL goalie. and, if all this does happen, we cant look forward to taylor hall.

i dont want to end on a depressing note. so, i voted for them to make the playoffs due to the probability of the aforementioned worse-case scenario being minute. the other good thing is that lots of baggage will be removed as free-agents whom we do not need to re-sign and can focus on getting a marquee forward.

The Leafs will miss the playoffs because they need everything to break their way hit that #8 spot (or better). As anyone who has ever followed this team knows, things rarely break the right way for the Blue and White.

I could be wrong (and I hope I’m wrong) but each regression, error, injury and goaltending experiment simply moves the Leafs further and further from that 93+ point season.

change i can believe in….or rather a playoff spot i can believe in

It’s my sad duty to report that I voted ‘miss’.

I hope I’m wrong (I usually am), but there are just too many ‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’ for me to be confident.