You Gotta Play Hurt

Somehow along the way, Toronto became a pro sports town that readily accepts injuries as an excuse for losing.

They don't even have to be major injuries to major stars. Just a couple of small ones will suffice, enough for management, coaches and players to be able to point them out as a real reason for failure.

The Blue Jays made all of last season about injuries and what those injuries didn't allow them to achieve.

The Maple Leafs would tell you they've been done in the past two seasons not by inconsistency, a lack of talent, poor coaching, errant management or any other factors.

It's been all about injuries. This year, it's to be believed that if Bryan McCabe and Carlo Colaiacovo had been healthy all season, the club would have easily have locked down a playoff berth by now.

It's as though no other team ever has players go down. Forty-one years of futility, and all of it, if you listen to some people and the home town announcers, due to injuries and bad refereeing.

And some fans buy this nonsense.

When the New Jersey Devils came into the ACC for their second game in a week on Saturday, they were missing their two best defenceman, Paul Martin and Colin White, and still won.

The Philadelphia Flyers have suffered crippling injuries of late, including those to Simon Gagne - their best player - Mike Richards, Joffrey Lupul and Mike Rathje. Still, the Flyers played strong hockey over the past two weeks, not allowing the Leafs to gain any ground, and not using those injuries as an excuse. The Colorado Avalanche have had one terrible injury after another this season to stars like Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth, but have hung in there in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race.

Is there any way that attitude could be transported to Toronto?

Part of it, of course, is that players and other members of an organization can't or won't say what's really wrong with a losing team, so when pressed for an answer, injuries are a nice convenient option.

They're never going to say its because Johnny Smith is a drunk, is out of shape and is too stupid to understand what the coach is telling him to do. Instead, they're happy to say that Bobby Ray is a great player and a character guy and if he hadn't busted his leg in 11 places, why, they'd be planning a parade for us soon enough.

Still, the sports world is filled with examples of good teams that don't allow the loss of players to drag them down.

The Giants stunned the Patriots in the Super Bowl despite the mid-season loss of star tight end Jeremy Shockey. The Houston Rockets have won 19 NBA games in a row, seven of them since Yao Ming, maybe the league's best centre, was lost for the season. Heck, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers made a game of it at last November's Grey Cup despite losing starting quarterback Kevin Glenn in the Western final.

So enough already of the Leafs or the Jays or the Raptors can't win because this player or that player is out of the lineup. Accept that in a given season, a team will see some of its players lost for periods of time, and the mark of excellence is to have other players step up and others step in.

A Painful Pratfall

It wasn't that long ago - the day of the trade deadline, really - when the Washington Capitals were the fashionable choice to come out of the non-playoff pack and grab a post-season position.

That seemed logical if only because the Caps added three players - Cristobal Huet, Sergei Fedorov and Matt Cooke - and because they had two chances to make the post-season, either by earning the eighth and final post-season berth in the Eastern Conference or by catching the Rod Brind'Amour-less Carolina Hurricanes and winning the Southeast Division.

Now both look unlikely.

The Caps are six points back of eighth place Philadelphia and seven points in arrears of surging Carolina after losing two painful games on the weekend, both largely because of major brain cramps by individual players.

On Saturday afternoon, the Caps were leading Boston on the road 1-0 late in the game when goon Donald Brashear high-sticked one Bruin then launched a haymaker at Boston blueliner Shane Hnidy. Brashear ended up with six minutes in penalties, and when more Caps went to the box shortly thereafter, the B's ended up scoring two 5-on-3 goals and winning the game.

Then came Sunday afternoon. Oh my.

With less than a minute left and Pittsburgh pressing for a road victory in D.C., the two teams were tied 2-2 when the Caps star rookie Nicklas Backstrom pulled a Bryan McCabe.

Yep, drilled the puck right into his own net for the winning goal. And from almost the same spot that McCabe engineered his own goal in Buffalo earlier this season.

Moments later, Alex Ovechkin was stripped by Evgeni Malkin in the neutral zone, and Malkin set up the clinching goal into an open net.

From Brashear to Backstrom, then, the Caps went from a potential dark horse for the Stanley Cup playoffs to a team unlikely to make it.

You think its painful for the Maple Leafs to be playing their best hockey of the season with no chance to make the playoffs?

Try the Caps predicament. One lost weekend turned great promise into what is likely to be another spring on the outside looking in.

Now, it appears there won't be a group of three or four teams in each conference fighting to get into the playoffs right up until the final day of the season.

In the east, only ninth place Buffalo has a realistic chance to still get in. Out west, going into play yesterday only ninth place Nashville still had serious hopes of making it to the dance.

With a month to go in the season, a bit of stretch run drama has already evaporated. The rest will jostle for positioning in the Stamkos Cup.

From First to ????

It's fair to say nobody, but nobody would have predicted in October or November that tomorrow night's visit of Ottawa to Phoenix would be a critical game for either team, let alone both of them.

But it is, particularly so for the Senators.

Yes, the Coyotes can still qualify for post-season play, hardly a scenario that seemed possible months ago when it appeared that Wayne Gretzky might be headed for an absolutely miserable season in the desert. So sure, the 'Yotes need a win.

But how about Ottawa?

Now 0-fer so far on this western road swing, and with only one win to their credit since Bryan Murray took over from John Paddock as head coach, the Sens will have to be an absolutely desperate team in Phoenix, something they haven't had to be for a long, long time.

In the worst case scenario, the Sens could soon find themselves in danger of missing the playoffs if they can't start winning the odd game. That seems a remote possibility indeed, but the fact that it's even in the conversation is truly amazing given the way in which this team started the season.

But having played losing hockey since Jan. 1, the more important reality for the Sens is somehow finding a way to head into the playoffs with the proverbial wind at their backs, a particularly challenging situation given their dicey goaltending situation.

That said, far too much attention has been paid to the Ray Emery situation, and not nearly enough to the way in which Ottawa's core players, particularly those with brand new or relatively new contracts, are responding these days.

Since this time last year, the Sens have signed Emery, Anton Volchenkov, Chris Phillips, Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley and Mike Fisher to long-term contracts, and somewhere along the line it seems like this hockey club lost its fire and became rather complacent.

Money changes things. Make that many players hugely wealthy for the first time all at once, and you might have a team that no longer has the hunger it once did.

To understand that, look no further than Gretzky's team, filled with young players hoping to latch on to full-time NHL work, a team almost bereft of front-level NHL talent.

Yet the Coyotes play hard, very hard, every night.

By comparison, the Sens look rich, fat and unwilling to pay the price.

That needs to change. Saturday night would be a good time.

Thursday Mail Bag

It does make you wonder.

Yesterday in The Spin, I wrote about the Leafs needing to give chances to young players down the stretch and to give Andrew Raycroft an occasional start – once every three games – as a means of taking a look at those players and sensibly taking advantage of their predicament in the standings.

To some, this was a suggestion to “tank,” which I’ve always taken to mean quit or surrender or try not to win.

These are NHL players on the roster, yet some believe playing those players is tantamount to trying not to win. Winning the next game is all that matters, apparently, rather than taking a longer view and understanding that steps backwards now can create opportunities to move forward later.

Was Philly tanking last year when they traded away Peter Forsberg and Alexei Zhitnik and played younger players? The nature of pro sport is that the best young talent is made available to the worst teams, and to fail to understand and take advantage of that system whenever possible is simply being blind.

Now on to this week’s mail bag:

Q: Hi Damien,

Please help. My hockey Ego had written off this season way back in November. Not so much because the Leafs were a bad team (which they were) but because on paper as well as on the ice there were (and continue to be) at least 8 teams in the Eastern conference which are superior to the boys in blue. I also knew way back in the fall of ’07 that if this team wanted to build up for the future it was going to come at expense of moving Mats Sundin. Well, the trade deadline has come and gone and Mats Sundin is still the captain of this hockey team. Kudos to him for not taking the easy way out.

That being said, Sundin has stirred and awoken my hockey Id: the very part of my sports-brain which seems to control 90% of 'Leafs Nation' 24/7. Prior to, and since the deadline, Mats has played at a level that just seems uncanny for a man his age. Cliches aside, he has defied his critics, placed the fate of the team on his aging shoulders, and seems intent on dragging them into the playoffs despite the fact that most of his supporting cast wouldn't crack the 3rd line on a real contender's roster.

My Ego tells me he'll end up a tragic hero and ultimately fail as the odds seem impossible. And yet, my Id continues to hope, knowing what a great storyline it would be if Mats could get us into the post-season (not just on the team level, but because it would put egg on MLSE's face) because really, almost anything can happen at that point.

What I need you to do, kind sir, is:

a) to snap me out of this newfound optimism. and

b) tell me what the chances of Sundin being nominated for the Hart trophy are. He's obviously not the best player in the league, but other than Ovechkin, I can't think of anyone more deserving.

Dav Werminski, Richmond Hill

A: Well, talk about laying your Jungian self on the line. First of all, it’s not wrong as a fan to hope your team makes the playoffs, but the Leafs aren’t going to. Moreover, if they did, it certainly wouldn’t put egg on the faces of the MLSE brass. To them, it would be evidence that they know what they’re doing and a chance for playoff revenue.

Second, Sundin isn’t going to come close to winning the Hart. In fact, I’d say he’s not even the Leaf MVP this season. To me, that honour should go to Vesa Toskala.

Q: So can we qualify Mats Sundin as loser in the NHL? I know he’s got Hall of Fame numbers but at best he gone to 2 Conference Finals, largely not to his play but due to the play of his goalie, Cujo. Plus I believe he has missed the playoffs, going to be 5 times with the Leafs and another 3 years with the Nordiques, so in is 18th season or so he has missed the playoffs 8 times, almost 45% of his career.

I think its easy to be the best player on bad teams and the fact the he did not want to get traded to a contender proves he never will/never could win a championship in the NHL?

Ankur Arora, Mississauga

Change Has Got to Be in the Wind

So I get why Paul Maurice is riding his big horses hard these days. It may be counter-productive to the long-term needs of the franchise, but coaches are paid to win and players are paid to at least want to win.

I'm okay with all of that.

But soon, probably in the next week, the Maple Leafs are going to be all but mathematically eliminated from post-season play. Right now, with eighth place Philly on pace for 91 points, the Leafs need 12 wins in their final 14 games to just have a shot of making it, which is a mega-longshot for a team of players that has traditionally been satisfied with winning just enough to keep people of their backs.

Of those 14 games, 10 are against teams currently in possession of Eastern Conference playoff berths. Of the other four, three are against ninth place Buffalo, and one is against the Islanders, who are currently three points ahead of the Leafs.

I told you they weren't going to make it two months ago, and it's obvious to any reasonable person they aren't going to make it now.

But Maurice is paid to win, not be reasonable, so he keeps trying to win.

But when the Leafs get to the point - probably next week - when they have to run the rest of the table to get in to post-season play, it will be time for Cliff Fletcher to tell Maurice to call off the dogs and get serious about getting into a good lottery position.

As of today, the Leafs are 25th overall, just outiside of the top five lottery positions, and thus, just outside of having a shot at Steven Stamkos and the No. 1 selection.

Remember, last year Chicago went from fifth to first in the lottery, but that also means the odds are against it happening again. The two top positions are solidly in the possession of L.A. and Tampa Bay, so No. 3 in the lottery, currently held by Atlanta, is the best the Leafs can hope for.

But they've got to get there.

Right now, Maurice continues to use Vesa Toskala every game, and he doesn't appear too interested in playing the kids. Against the Devils on Tuesday, Jeremy Williams and Kris Newbury both got less than three minutes of ice time, while Jiri Tlusty played 6:28. Kyle Wellwood, mired in a horrible season, was allotted more than 15 minutes.

Playing Andrew Raycroft every third game and letting the kids play a regular shift isn't throwing in the towel, exactly, and that's what Maurice should be asked to do once the team gets to the must-win-every-game point.

Otherwise, counter-productive could become costly.

Finally, They Meet Again

As many of you already know, I'm not a big worrier over the NHL schedule, and I wasn't a huge believer in changing it just so Sidney Crosby could visit every city and help their attendance.

In general, staying in the conference is preferable, and from a Toronto point of view, the next time L.A., Dallas, Phoenix or Nashville comes to town doesn't bother me one way or another.

That said, the fact that the Senators and Ducks will meet tonight for the first time since Anaheim crushed Ottawa in last spring's Stanley Cup final makes absolutely no sense.

Maybe they need a schedule that always ensures the two finalists meet again on opening night. Maybe it should be part of Hockey Day in Canada.

But March 4 the following year is just too long, and let's face it, it could easily have been not at all if the Northeast and Pacific divisions didn't happen to be on each other's dance cards this season.

Both teams, interestingly, have 37 wins, but they could not be in more different situations as the season moves into the final five weeks.

The defending champs are rolling in a huge way, having won nine of 10, and are looking very much like the odds-on favourite to win again. Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne are back in form, the Ducks are crashing the crease every shift, they're back to taking lots of penalties for all kinds of nasty stuff and killing 'em all off.

Ottawa, meanwhile, may or may not be back on track after beating Pittsburgh on Saturday. We know for certain they're still allowing too many goals, and giving up three or four tonight against the Ducks will likely be a death sentence. We know the Ducks will try to push them around, and how the Sens respond as a group will say a lot about how they feel about themselves as a team these days.

It's the game I want to watch, but it'll have to be on tape 'cause I'm heading to see Springsteen tonight at Copps Coliseum. If there's any interest, I'll let you know how good of a show The Boss puts on tonight.