No offence, but...

Inside of two weeks until Christmas, and the Leafs are pulseless. Time for a bit of a ramble here, so pour yourself a fresh cup, extra bile.
First, let's call the roll: Three losses in a row, and four in five games; just 21 goals scored in their past nine games; a power play down to a 9-for-66 conversion rate the past 10 nights.
Pat Quinn notes a "lack of urgency", at least in Ken Campbell's interpretation (over at the Sun, Lance Hornby drily notes the Leafs can't even use their customary excuses):

"I think our team has a feeling that they're a pretty good team and they can be, but we're not right now."

Not much to go on there. Sounds like every team I've ever heard of.

"We have to have a different mentality right now. We're not okay right now and we've got to work in different ways to get okay again."

A little warmer. Sounds like the coach figures his team -- and by definition, that means the key parts -- don't care, or aren't putting the work in. (An old coaching trick, which conveniently leaves the coach's role out of the process.)
Here's Allison, in the Sun, on the ailing power play:

"In Los Angeles (a few years ago), we did have the best power play in the league, but we had stretches just like this. I'm not saying we don't care about this stuff, but I also don't think it's panic-button time, either."

I wasn't able to watch all of Saturday's game, but I did note a moment when, instead of using McCabe and Kaberle as its focus, shifted down low to Allison set up as the hub behind the net. The Leafs got a good chance out of it. They oughta try it some more. Everybody has adjusted to McCabe, playing a longer box. And Allison, over the last month, has been the club's most consistent and productive forward not named Darcy Tucker.
There remains the five-on-five troubles, where the Leafs have stacked up quite poorly in the league's pecking order all season long -- they're 18th in the league in 5-on-5 production this morning.
Among the backsliders of late:

Jeff O'Neill has gone missing -- Pointless with just four shots on goal in hsi last five games.
Mats Sundin's goal on Saturday ended a five-game drought. (Don Cherry puts this down to wearing the visor, of course.)
Kyle Wellwood has one point in his last eight games, and has gone 12 games without a goal. (Note to Don: Wellwood doesn't wear a visor). Kid needs more ice time and a clearly defined role.
Eric Lindros has one goal in his last 10 games. (No visor. Hmmm.).

These are all problems in the one area they were supposed to have covered: generating offence (and not wearing visors, perhaps).
Against Dallas's tight checking, the Leafs had no answers -- even that one goal that got fans talking, Lindros and Sundin playing together, doesn't have Quinn planning a permanent union of the two on a line, although he is starting to talk about his plan to separate Lindros, Sundin and Allison in the past tense, so stay tuned:

"I did like the idea of three big guys in the middle. I felt that both in our zone and the offensive zone, in the way the rules were going to be called, we could have some real success in both ends with strength up the middle. I didn't want to mix that up. But maybe there is something there."

Tonight Anaheim comes in, then they have a whole week leading up to Saturday before they play again -- plenty of time to hear and read about how horrible they are, and push the panic button in earnest (over at Budblog, it's already started).
A little while back, regular poster Denial said the Leafs were if anything overachieving in the first six weeks or so of the schedule. It sure looks that way to me. Mind you, this is right where most of us figured they'd be -- just barely hanging on to a playoff spot -- so at least in the big picture, none of it should come as any surprise.

A couple of other links:

With Alex Khavanov doubtful, the Leafs defence will look different tonight against the Ducks (brace yourself, but Wade Belak practised as a D-man yesterday).

Fresh off his one-year blogiversary, James Mirtle takes a look at what the Olympic roster(s) would look like if they were based on current form.
(C.Y.)

Comments

[Carla]

We hadda know that it wouldn't take too long before other teams started blocking McCabe's shot from the point and the passing lane between him and Kaberle. It was only a matter of time, and I'm surprised it took as long as it did, quite frankly. The Leafs' über-vaunted PP always seemed paper-thin to me.

And, y'know, I remember in ye olden days when the Leafs were able to come from behind in third periods and eke out a win fairly often. Doesn't seem like we're seeing much of that this year, and I wonder if it may have something to do with all the "heart" that left town over the summer. I haven't see a lot of "fire" in the eyes this year...

[Arthur]

Pulseless? I'm in agreement with all the comments challenging the heart of the Leafs. These guys play like they don't have any. Especially Karel Pilar! (okay, bad taste, I know.)

But in all seriousness, there seems to be a definite lack of passion with this year's team. Quinn Leaf teams of old, while perhaps not the most talented on the ice, could always be counted on to play with aggressive hustle. Why is it that after a Saturday night game, the only hit anybody is talking about from a rooke defenseman trying to make the big team? Why are none of the club's other guys stepping up? This is arguably one of the largest teams in the league - why aren't they getting into the faces of the opposition? What happened to all the post-whistle skirmishes that defined this team in the past? Was all of that attributed to Gary Roberts? Tucker is trying his hardest to stir the drink, but this team chemistry is thicker than January molasses.

The tall foreheads continually mention the need for another strong D-man to tighten up their own end, but I don't think that would make a whit of difference. This malaise seems to be team-wide.

As a post-script, I'm starting to see why Carolina was willing to give up Jeff O'Neill so quickly. The guy doesn't play any defense at all, and you never know which version is going to suit up that night: the guy with the bullet point-shot and gunslinger reflexes, or the Invisible Man who appears only in the boxscore with 14 minutes of ice-time and a -2 beside his name?