Brian Burke: "We don't pay coaches to score goals."

Good morning, Leafs Nation. And welcome to... A Leafs Fan Frets.

I will be your fretter-in-chief, your one-man fret machine. Join me. Let us fret together as our beloved baffling Leafs – now with one win in their past 6 games – toy with our hopes and dreams.

The good news: Toronto is only 4 points away from top spot in the East. The bad news: Toronto is only 4 points away from bottom spot in the East.

Leafs Nation, buoyed by a magical start this season, was such a blissful place to inhabit in early October. You'd walk around town and cross paths with someone in a blue-and-white jersey and it was smiles and high-fives.

"The boys look good this year, don't they?"

"Absolutely! Speed, passing, goaltending – we've got it all!"

Now we fret.

Last year, around this time, fans blamed the players for the team's appalling start. But most of those players were shipped out of town. So now fans are glancing around and pointing fingers elsewhere.

My inbox is jammed with indignant notes calling for the head of Ron Wilson. To wit: "It's time to fire the coach!" "We need a new coach!" "The coach is the problem!"

So I asked Brian Burke about all of this. His response this morning was brief and firm:

"We don't pay coaches to score goals. Our offensive players need to pick it up, and in a hurry. A coaching change has not even been considered, let alone discussed."

So what's the solution? Nazem Kadri? More trades? Experimenting with new lines? Forcing the entire team to read this 1,000 times before bedtime?

The Leafs most complete, most dominating game this season was against Ottawa, their opponent tomorrow night at the Air Canada Centre.

If Toronto can rekindle the magic, our record improves to a respectable 6-4-1. If not, the fretting shall intensify.

PHOTO: COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR

Comments

[Shadowmaker1]

Now that the trick n treating is over. Will the really Maple Leafs come on back. If that is all the gas they had in the tank for the year then we as Leaf fans will be ripped off again and again and again. They went from being young men to listening to the song Young Man.
There is no fire , no urgency , no respect for each other , No one for all , all for one type of play. They are not a team . They do not cover each other , they spread out and all want easy goals . Put Dion Enough in front of the net he is big and stupid.Colton Orr is underrated and put him in as the # 1 Centre. He is not afraid . If they have a chance at all this year to win not the basement award. They better Skate like the wind there Forrest.

[MontrealBoy]

The bliss from early October was the result of delusional and/or ignorant Leaf fans who refuses to acknowledge that their team sucks. Not surprising, since this is a four-decade-old tradition. The real Leafs have shown up and they are just as bad as last season's version. What an embarrassment for the self-proclaimed centre of the hockey universe. The Leafs are a joke; they likely would only be in the middle of the pack if they played in the AHL. Sucks to be a Leaf fan. GO HABS!!

[OL]

Any Leaf fan who boos or types bad things about Phaneuf is not knowledgable about the game and doesnt even deserve to be allowed to watchi it.

[Geoff Read]

As a non-Leafs fan , I've got to say, this was all entirely predictable. No one should be fired... this team just isn't good enough, and anyone looking at the roster could've predicted they'd have trouble scoring goals. Unless Burke is able to bring in a scorer or maybe even two, this team will not make the playoffs - it just doesn't have the horses.

[Hoofheartz]

Mr Read, your assessment of the Leafs is accurate and more importantly you've stated it with class despite the fact you aren't a Leafs fan, unlike MontrealBoy, who, like all Leaf haters was nowhere to be found when the Leafs were winning.

[Leafs fan]

The season is early and I think there is plenty of time for the Leafs to make their way into the playoffs. This may not be the year that they win the Stanley Cup but it will be the year they are able to make a new name for themselves. The coaching is fine, the players are wicked - the season is young. The games against Ottawa are always exciting and always brings a spark into the Leaf team, hopefully that will be the game that ends the drought. Go Leafs Go

[Pyramid Power]

@Montreal Boy The Leafs made the conference finals in 1994, 1999 and 2002. The Canadiens made the conference finals once in all that time, and that was last year in what was a true miracle.
Should you not be debating the value of the Halak trade, and what he is doing in St Louis and whether Gauthier got full value in return in Lars Eller and Ian Schultz?
Or is it more fun to come on to a Leafs fan blog, and take a dump on the second most successful franchise in NHL history?
And yes Toronto is Hockeytown, the real Hockeytown insofar as producing pro hockey talent goes. No other region comes close in the world to the GTA and southern Ontario.
Give it to the Canadiens for all-time Cups won though with 24. We only have 13 for second place in NHL history. I dislike the Canadiens rather fervently, but I do respect them. You would be wise to do so too, but I think that is too much to ask from a typical Montreal fan.

[Arthur Bailey]

Under no circumstances should Kadri be brought up. To bring him up now for a possible play off berth is to sacrifice a deep playoff run and possible cup contention down the road, because he will reach abitration and Unrestricted free agency much younger if he plays now, when there is NOTHING to play for. This is not a team that would survive 2 playoff rounds. maybe not even 1. why bother?

the mantra should be REBUILD REBUILD REBUILD... and a side note should be DON'T LET BOSTON PICK HIGHER THAN 11th with our pick. But that is it. They have no hope of winning the Stanley Cup this year, with or without Kadri, so it should definitely be WITHOUT Kadri.

[Taylor Green]

I'm sorry, while Burke is correct in saying he doesn't pay the coach to score goals, he should be smarter than to make such a black and white statement. The coach is paid to get the best out of the team, in this case, scoring goals IS something the coach should be assisting. Nobody seems to listen, everyone with a television knows what the Leafs are doing wrong, they just don't listen to Ron anymore. Maybe because he's prickly, maybe they don't have the skill Burke led us to believe they do. In which case, he gets paid the most to acquire the right players, point the finger at yourself and Ron, Burkie, before you blame the players. They should do as they are told, if they do not, they don't buy into the system and need to go, if NOBODY does, the coach needs to go. If you can't compile a working team with results, you need to go.

[Nik Culoman]

Doom and Gloom in Leafland....Wow, how quickly some of you have jumped off the bandwagon! Only in Toronto would this behavior be encouraged by the media. "toy with our hopes and dreams." Are you kidding me people, do the leafs really affect your moods and hopes like this?? Why don't some of you just get a hobby! Try reading a book, try finding a girlfriend and find other activities people!

This Leafs team is just fine, They have taken a huge leap from last year. They are a hard working team, who hasn't caught the bounces....Last year they started off flat, This year there is some jump and their defensive numbers have improved. Increment improvements will be seen over the course of the year with such a young team looking to gel. Can some of you nut jobs tell how many new players are on this current Leafs team?? Chemistry isn't easy to find, and does take time. How many games are we into the season and people are looking for a rope to tie a noose! This is just sad!

So would you all take a deep breathe, WOO SAAA....GO LEAFS GO!! WIN, LOOSE OR DRAW this is my team! I will stay by them no matter what!

[Moe Green]

Battle of Ontario, battle of Onshmario – I am sick of my team!  Last year the team had to plunge to unassailable depths before making a semi-valiant effort in December to assail them.  Did I mention the depths were unassailable?  Well those depths could get unassailable again quickly folks.  I shudder to think of it, but as a Leaf fan, I’m afraid I must.
 
This year it’s different, right?  Some might say far worse, as this year they pretended to be a changed team, toyed with us for the first four games of the season – and now this.  Winners of one of their last six, and that a “questionable” win versus the lowly, lackluster and toothless Florida Panthers.  Scorers of seven goals during that six-game span and exactly zero in the last two.  And think of this: That’s with Wilson identifying scoring as an issue prior to the last two shutouts.  Nice.
 
Three possible ugly truths raise their filthy, disgusting heads this season.  The first possible truth, and the one that most Leaf-bashers love to cling to, is that this team just doesn’t have the talent to compete.  I thought the first four games demonstrated that this team has more than enough talent to compete.  Crisp tape-to-tape passes, a relentless forecheck and skating that got at least one opposing coach, and several columnists to marvel at their speed, laser-like sniping by Phil Kessel and Clarke MacArthur and a huge dose of confidence from some steady, if not spectacular netminding was all this team needed to go four and oh-my-god!  Since last January Burke added: J.S. Giguere, Dion Phaneuf, Clarke MacArthur, Kris Versteeg and Colby Armstrong.  While none of them were bonifide blue-chippers, even the coldest observer would have to have acknowledged that this team added significantly to its roster.

The second possible ugly truth is that the team just stopped trying, stopped playing the kind of game, making the hard decisions, doing all the little things like skating and making good decisions with the puck that got them those four hard-fought wins.  It all ended the day the Isles came to town.  The rink was a mausoleum as usual for a weekday night and try as they might the Leafs let a relatively hapless Isles squad lull them to sleep and escape with an unlikely OT victory.  It was two points the Leafs should have had but didn’t.  It would have had the team at 5-0. It was a game in which another backup goaltender stoned them.  It was the turning point of the season thus far.
 
The third possibility is that Wilson and the staff are unable to adapt and develop a strategy that let’s THIS team, with THIS set of skills, win in this league.  Either that or the players are unwilling or unable to follow his instructions.  It is this last possible truth that I fear comes closest to the mark.  Wilson has repeatedly focused on line juggling to bring change to this team.  I was sure that “Captain Computer” would have more up his sleeve than that.  It’s the exact reason  I used to criticize Pat Quinn.  When the Leafs were losing, all the old soldier would do is shuffle the deck chairs a bit.  Now I am seeing the same thing with Wilson.  Knee-jerk line-juggling coupled with his propensity to publicly and casually chuck players deemed to be under performing, under the bus.  It  is a disturbing trend that wins neither the confidence or respect of the players. 
 
The way I see it, this team’s problem is due more to systemic failures rather than to a paucity of talent.  Sure they need some additional scoring and a true first-line centre.  But other teams win when their top guys are out of the lineup.  Look, no one expected this team to win 10 in a row, but a little .500 hockey after a modest four-game winning streak would have been reasonable to expect.  Watch the Leafs’ powerplay.  When they were winning the powerplay was in constant motion.  Kaberle and Phaneuf were changing sides, Kessel and Versteeg were rotating up the wall to the point and Phaneuf even set up in front of the net occasionally.  It was a powerplay that Wilson himself described and “scarey good.”  They might not have scored a lot but they were swarming, they were unpredictable, they were dangerous.  And then it all just stopped.  Players stopped skating.  Kaberle stopped shooting.  Phaneuf continuously missed the net with his too-hard, not accurate enough, put it though the boards, slap shot. And the once-scarey powerplay was all but dead.  Isn’t resurrecting that powerplay the coach's job?  Isn’t that where we really see the impact of a good coach?  Credit to Wilson that the Leafs have seemed to tighten up defensively and on the penalty kill.  Unfortunately, even that success is starting to diminish.
 
So we all make up our own minds about this team’s woes, but for me it’s a two-fold problem.  Fold one: The players have stopped doing the things that got them their minimal success.  Maybe after four victories and the lavish praise and adoration of the Toronto fans and media, they thought they were too good to have to work that hard anymore.  Who knows, but something stopped the effort.  And fold two: Wilson doesn’t seem to realize this or understand how to correct it.  I really doubt if shuffling lines and Luca Caputi, are the answer to the scoring woes.  If they had so much success with the relentless forecheck and the dynamic powerplay, why aren’t they going back to that?  Ultimately, with the talent on this team, it has to be the coach's fault.  Sure he could use more talent - who couldn’t - but he’s not getting the best out of the assets he has. 
 
If the Leafs lose tonight against the previously humiliated Senators and head into tomorrows game against the Caps with one “ugly” win in their last seven, we could be in for one long, painful, possibly season-ending losing streak. If they go oh-fer this week, they’ll be a not-horrible 5-7-1 for the season, but a spirit-crushing 1-7-1 since the win streak and in free-fall to the bottom of the standings.  Sound familiar?  If Burke hasn’t given up on pal Wilson by then, the fans undoubtedly will have.  Once that happens things could get real ugly, real quick at the ACC.  The Leafs need to get respectable and climb back into contention now, before all confidence is eradicated in this fragile group and the fans lose all hope. I shudder to think about it the environment at ACC if that happens.

[Pyramid Power]

Outstanding post Moe Green!

Will reply later, but just have to say Giggy looked wretched on the penalty shot goal by Fisher. Horrible. Don't know if Komisarek was to blame for the breakdown that allowed the breakaway. Need to see the highlights.

Giggy has to save that one for his team though.

Find a way Toronto. Got to have this one.

GO LEAFS GO!

[Pyramid Power]

Brutal loss. Lost the game in painful fashion, and Phaneuf feeling the pain and out for how long we do not know.

Had our chances but Elliott stood tall. Wish Giggy had played better, and stopped that penalty shot. I thought he should have had the second Ottawa goal too.

See what we can do in D.C. tomorrow night.

Time to take solace in muchas alcohol!

Cheers!

[Pyramid Power]

Well, with the wonderful clarity alcohol sometimes brings, lol, I have the following solution re Ron Wilson.

Mr. Brian Burke needs to go behind the freakin' bench a la Lou Lamoriello. Burkie is an amazing and inspiring orator and motivational speaker!

I would jump off the CN Tower if Burke asked me to. He comes flying out in the first period to defend his injured captain - this man should not only be the freakin' GM of the Leafs he should be behind the bench too!
Let his long-time friend Ronnie go sit in the box and fret and fret some more.
BB for coach of the Leafs. Do it Brian!

[Hoofheartz]

Once again in his own unique fashion, Wilson has slammed a player who currently isn't even playing for him. Year 3 and still no improvement in the Leafs suggests that perhaps Burkie's loyalty is misguided, but then again, none of us are NHL coaches so what do we know, even though we have collectively won as many Stanley Cups as Coach Wilson has.

[Peter]

you know we are in trouble when we lose to one of the worst team in the league.
and MontrealBoy, be carefule woth your gloating, your team is just as bad as the Leafs, they were just a bit more lucky so far. if you think your smurfs will go much farther, you are living on the Moon.

[Aubrey]

Excellent post by Moe Green. There's something going on here with the Leafs. They beat playoff teams from last year, at the start of this season, they were fast, their passing was great, they were tough to play against. Now they've lost that speed , there's no tic tac toe passing and they lost to one team that played 3 games in 4 nights. They're now playing as individuals, not as a team, and they seem to lack confidence. Those first 4 games showed that the Leafs can compete with very good teams, so what's happened to them the last 6 games ?
It's fine for Ron Wilson to say what the team's not doing and should be doing but it's his job as coach to do something about it. I hate to see coachs juggling lines and that's what Wilson is doing now. I see it as a kind of knee jerk, desperate move by a coach who doesn't know what else to do. This has got to have a negative effect on the players. Luca Caputi called up from the Marlies and put on the first line ? For God's sake, Wilson, what is that saying to the other players ? Screw around with their heads much more and they'll have post traumatic stress disorder. There's an old saying that you can't fire the team and, if you can't get this team playing like they played their first 4 games, Brian Burke will have no choice but to take a long, hard look at you, his old friend.

[Vinay Menon]

Just wanted to jump in here to agree with Pyramid Power and Aubrey -- that was a hell of a comment by Moe Green. I may turn it into a stand-alone post.

[DAVID PURVIS]

The Leafs have done nothing in 43 years, this season will be no different. Have to get rid of the front office and coaches and start over again. A disgrace.