The Triple Towers

We'll never know if it would have worked.

The concept last summer, when the Leafs came out of the lockout by adding big pivots Eric Lindros and Jason Allison to go with Mats Sundin, was that the threesome would provide size, muscle and scoring at the centre ice position.

With the indomitable Ed Belfour in net, the Leafs would, in theory, have the proverbial strength up the middle that would drive a strong season.

Don't listen to the way in which the team's higher ups are trying to spin this thing now. The plan was to ride the goalie and the Triple Towers into the post-season, not surrender with 12 games left to play.

The risk, of course, was that in Belfour, Lindros and Allison, the Leafs were betting a lot on three players with checkered pasts in terms of injuries.

Then Sundin got hurt as well, right in the very first game of the season back in October.

The captain returned in November but didn't really get his game going until February. Lindros suffered a wrist injury in mid-December and, while he played three more games, his season was essentially done before Christmas.

Allison, finally, missed five games along the way before his season ended Saturday night with a broken hand in a Montreal bareknuckles boxing exhibition.

And remember folks - nobody ever gets hurt in hockey fights.

There was never, really, an extended time when all three were healthy and playing at the same time, and probably that was a faint hope from the start, although all three centres went down with injuries that had nothing to do with previous health problems. By season's end, they will have missed 77 games, assuming Sundin plays the rest of the way, with Lindros accounting for 49 of those matches.

Belfour, of course, faded in, oh, about December, and ended his season earlier this month by essentially disappearing from sight with an apparent back injury.

Interesting, isn't it, how Leafs get hurt and then - poof! - disappear? It happened with Owen Nolan, and this season it happened with Belfour. Lindros, at least, was around for weeks trying to rehab his wrist, and that he tried to play at all before calling an end to his season was a tribute to the man's sense of team.

Nolan never said goodbye. Belfour hasn't had the courtesy to tell those who cheered for him what went wrong with his back.

But honest, folks, they were playing for you all along.

Not only will we never know if the Triple-Towers-plus-Belfour scenario might have worked for the benefit of the Leafs, we'll never get another opportunity.

Belfour is gone, a common-sense buyout this summer after peeling off with about $11 million from the beginning of the lockout until this season. Given his production for that cash, he might as well been wearing a balaclava and carrying a pistol when he signed the contract.

Lindros, 33, may not play again, and if he does, it's unclear whether the Leafs would give him another chance.

The 35-year-old Sundin will be back, of course, but what about Allison?

With 60 points in 66 games, he was, under NHL standards, fairly productive, although the bulk of those numbers were acquired on the power play. He ended a minus-18, was average to poor defensively all season and showed a maddening tendency to turn the puck over in high risk areas.

Allison, still only 30, will make about $3 million for his trouble, and would likely be looking for the same or more next season.

Given his lack of speed, he would appear to be a bad bet for a club that needs to move towards a younger, faster lineup that can be much more productive at even strength and generally more difficult to play against.

Comments

[Craig]

I made a bet with a co-worker that either Belfour, Lindros or Allison would miss at least half the season. Leaf fans had to know coming into the season that that trio was high maintenance. The signings were to give hope to Leaf fans that IF everything works out we'll win it all. When things went bad the cop out was pre-made, '...high risk players and injuries happen.'

The problem was, the existing contracts gave JFJ very little room to manouver. Sundin and Belfour took up a huge chunk of the cap room, add Domi's and McCabe's contracts and you have even less. Next you had to find good players willing to play in TO for what you could pay them.

I really hope that the team learns from this season and starts to build from within. Developing young players has to happen here.

[Slimer]

As was said by many at the beginning of the year, the Leafs fortunes were placed solely on the shoulders (and backs) of Allison, O'Neill, Lindros and Belfour. Had even two of the four panned out at all, the Leafs would probably be looking at the playoffs right now. As it was however, Belfour has played subpar, O'Neill is a shadow of his former self, and Lindros shut down in December. Jason Allison HAS produced however his lack of speed and his constant hooking penalties seem to have been more liability. So if you count Allison, only one of the "four dice-rolls" worked out. There is no way any team would be competitive with so much deadweight on the team.

[Pat]

The Leafs have to get younger and faster. They have to get rid of all of the deadwood - even if it means taking cap hits for buyouts of Domi etc. Don't resign McCabe - do you want to be paying him 5 million per in 2011? Trade Tucker at the draft - his value will never be higher.

Bring in the kids, all of them. Augment them with speedy veteran forwards - players like (if not exactly these guys) Peca, Conroy, Wes Walz - guys who can teach the youngsters how to be pros and change the culture on the team. And make them competitive enough that they are not getting crushed night after night. Take their lumps. See who can play and who cannot. Trade Sundin next season once his salary is manageable for a buyer. Etc etc. In two or three years see where you are and then fill in the holes. If they draft and develop properly they should have a young exciting fast team on the cusp of something good.

[Steve]

I'm sorry...but true HOCKEY fans...not LEAFS fans...but fans of the sport of hockey, knew that the Lindros, O'Neil, Allison, and Czerkawski experiment was a huge mistake. . . . This is the problem most of us have with the Leafs...it's not the team per se, but the idiots in the media. This team of has-beens NEVER had a chance. Never. The prevailing thought amongst the Toronto-centric media in the this country was that perhaps these stiffs could turn around their declining careers and win it for the Leaf Nation. Why is it that morons think that because someone puts on a Leaf jersey they are suddenly going to be inspired to resurrect a career and play beyond their recent statistics?

[J Norman]

I think many knew there was no Cup coming from this group no matter what.

To me, the killer was Eddie's performance relative to playoff expectations. He was downright sub par. No playoff teams are going with a goalie who has save percentage numbers like Eddie's. Too many softies.

Allison is too slow to be very effective in the new NHL. Lots of powerplay points but not a lot more. His money can be better spent elsewhere.

The biggest concern regarding UFAs is having a GM in place who the UFAs might have some confidence in and can attract good people. After the contracts given out in the summer of Joly '04, JFJ's misread of the impact of the new rules last summer and after sitting on his hands during the recent trade deadline, UFAs will have to wonder what they would be getting themselves into in Toronto. JFJ has done little right aside from using Quinn's scouting staff when he didn't trade away the picks.

When McCabe walks, the media will howl with ridicule. Panic will set in. And any UFA worth anything and wanting to play for a winner will find somewhere else to play until this mess is brought under control.

When they get a real hockey president like Nicholson, he can find a real GM that players will want to play for because they will construe that they have a chance to win. When that is in place, they can pick a coach to replace Quinn (maybe Maurice, maybe Hitchcock after next year, whatever ..). Build it from the top down and do it right.

Let Peddie play with the condos or the soccer team or whatever if he still wants to hang around to count money.