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.

Comments

[Alexintoronto]

I've been thinking about this - and I think it's wrong to have a team be conflicted about winning. There should be an incentive to win every game possible - not an incentive to throw games to get a better pick. It's a fundamental flaw in the system that was helped little by putting in the lottery idea.

How would they do this? Re-invent the system.

Option 1. Make it a lottery for every team that is not in the playoffs. So whether you're dead last (which you should only be because of mis-management now that the expansion era is over) or 1 point out of the playoffs, you still get a chance to compete for the 1st overall pick.

Option 2. The team with the best record that doesn't make the playoffs gets the first overall pick followed by the teams behind them in the standings. After the last place team's pick the next one goes to the team that finish with the worst record but made the playoffs then teams above them in the standings get their picks.

This makes for more exciting hockey for all teams throughout the ENTIRE season and makes sure there is no un-ethical throwing of games.

[Don]

I for one am tired of this excuse being trotted out every year by the Leafs. As you point out, every other team in every sport has to deal with injuries at some point during the season.
The difference between a contender and a pretender is how they rise above injuries on the team. The Leafs since the lockout, have been doing a lot of pretending.

[Matt]

Tell it like it is DC!

It's funny to think that Toronto still thinks its still in a play off run. 5th worst record in the league and people are still talking about a play off run?! There was a little bit of light last week, I'll give the Leafs that much, but Brodeur blew out the candle on that.

Any loses to the Phlyers, Toronto would have to start playing Raycroft more hoping he might get someones attention in the off season or really start pushing the youths in the organization to see what they really got.

All in all, it's an entertaining team to watch. You really could make a reality television show on them, the material is all there you... oh wait, it's been done, damn you Hockey Night in Canada.

[Mr. Wood]

Having spent a good amount of column space this year urging the lynching of JFJ, I believe Mr. Cox is now zoning in on Coach Maurice by suggesting the abscence of top quality players shouldn't negatively affect a team's performance.

Following that unique logic, teams also shouldn't be better with bonafide stars in the line-up.

I find Mr. Cox's line of thought a non-sense.

Anyone who's ever played the game knows what a difference a great D man can make to club. Look at the Ducks post Scott N returning. Look at the Leafs with/without McCabe.

However, for a team to consistently lose you must look not just at the players but the person that selects the line-up, chooses the system, sets the attitude and makes the game-time decisions about who gets the minutes.

If Mr. Cox is suggesting that Paul Maurice is the core problem then, as likeable as Maurice is, perhaps he needs to be replaced by someone who can get the job done over the whole season.

Maurice has coached the Leafs to being an almost-average club for a couple of seasons. Which makes him an almost average NHL coach.

[Former Fan]

Good column, but I disagree on one point.

It is true that the Leafs are the champions of the "If we only had Mark Bell for the whole year ..." attitude(there! they are champions of something!)

But I don't recall seeing a quote like that from the Raptors. With Bosh down, Rasho steps in and contributes (not like Bosh, but still significant). Bargnani starts playing his best, most consistent of the year. Can't compare to the Houston Rockets example, but a giant leap up on how the Leafs react. (I realize this column is referring more to the fan perception).

I think it comes down to the leadership you get from the top down. Colangelo gives the impression that losing is not acceptable, and he expects that attitude from everyone in the organization. You better believe Lou Lamoriello expects that attitude. What impression do you get from Peddie? Or from Ferguson before?

[Ken]

41 years of injuries. Sounds like a crutch to me, mind the pun.

[Dirk Graham]

Ha! I sensed this topic coming when I saw your Thumbs-up/Thumbs-down piece on TSN. Here are some injury situations for your consideration:
The 1998 Olympics – I have always maintained that if Sakic, by far Canada’s best player in that tourney, had not gotten hurt in the quarters, they would have won that semi-final game and gone on to win the gold.
Second, from the other perspective - the Leafs had Sundin and Tucker and a few others get hurt in the early rounds of the 2002 playoffs, and RUSHED THEM BACK for the Conf finals, after the guys who had been getting extra icetime as a result of the injuries, such as McCauley, and callups like Donald MacLean, had been playing great, rugged fast-paced hockey. It ruined the Leafs’ momentum when the injured stiffs came back, and of course, they lost to Carolina.
Third, if Wendel hadn’t wrecked his back in the ‘87 Canada Cup tryouts and missed significant portions of the next two seasons, well….

[EdtheWedge]

As usual, Damien, you are right on. I try constantly, and unsuccessfully, to explain to my many friends who are members of Leaf Nation that most teams go through injury problems. My team is the Detroit Red Wings. As you may know they went through a recent patch of rough slugging, winning but 1 of 11 games.

Not once did I mention our injuries or some strange non calls by officials; yet I must endure continuous whining about injuries and bad calls from Leaf Nation. 'Oh, the puck took a bad bounce or we would have won." You get the idea.

As I mention to them often: you know, if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle. Alas, the humour goes right over the Leaf Nation's head as they lament, along with the main stream media, yet another excuse for yet another Toronto loss.

[Earl Nelville]

It would be interesting to examine the injury trends in Stanley Cup winning teams. Is there evidence that teams that win the cup are subjected to significantly less injuries or injuries to significant players during the regular season. Can it be said with a degree of certainty that a talented and injury free team will have a higher percentage chance of making it to the final 4 than a team of similar talent that suffers injuries. Maybe it is simply a combination of depth and skilled coaching that makes the difference.
I believe that the Leafs suffered more from what was taking place off the ice than on it. Why did we just suddenly realize that one of the teams better shoot out players was Kaberle? Didn't Paul Maurice know this? There have been some interesting coaching errors over the past 2 years. I think there is more talent on this version of the leafs than there appears to be in the statistics. With McCabe out of the line up the team should have improved but did it? McCabe cant keep the puck inside the offensive zone blueline when it counts, and has been responsible for some horrendous blunders. Sometimes injuries can make a team better........

[Hockey Fan, therefore by Definition Not a Leaf Fan]

Mr. Cox, you have made a very common mistake, made by most of the sheep in this city.

Toronto is NOT a sports town. That would assume most in Toronto understand and appreciate sports. This city is NOT EVEN a hockey town. This is a Leafs town. There is a vast, vast difference between appreciating sports, or even just hockey, and what the typical fan in this city view as sports.

I have come to the conclusion that Leafs fans are some of the dumbest, most delusional "sports fans" on the planet. And I use the term "sports fans" very loosely. When was the last time the Argos, the Jays, the baby Leafs, the Rock (OK, the Rock may be an exception) sold out a series of games, and people actually filled the sold seats?

An example? I played hockey tonight in Scarborough at Ice Sports. It is a 4 plex, with a massive bar/restaurant situated above the rinks. They have approximately 60 televisions (most in pairs) to service maybe 300 seats. When we got upstairs, virtually every television was on the Leafs game, even though the place was less than half full.

Rather than watching a 12th vs 8th place team, I asked to watch the fight for 1st in the East. I was told that the bar, with a budget of hundreds of thousands, did not have the satellite feed to watch any games, other than what was provided by Leafs TV, CBC, TSN, and Sportsnet. The bar could afford the 2500 a year that Leafs TV wants, but there was apparently no demand for ANY game the Leafs were not participating in.

Truly pathetic. The bar is catering to its client base, however. Hockey will cease to exist in this city once the regular season is over.

[blair]

Matt mentioned Scott N and McCabe in the same paragraph. Talk about delusional!

But then he also used the overused "anyone who's ever played the game" line which should really be changed to "anyone's who's taken as many pucks to the head as i have and been repeatedly concussed knows that..."

As for Damien's unique logic being nonsense, please refer to the Vancouver Canucks who played some of their best hockey of the season when they lost most of their defensive core or the Pittsburgh Penguins when Sid went down.

[Bruce]

One of the things I always wonder about, is why do supposed physically fit people get injured so often? Why do some players go most of their career injury free? Is it the style of their play, or is it luck?
Or I wonder.....is it because of the management/training staff's conditioning programme?
I remember when players did not have personal trainers to keep them fit. Guys like Lafeur, Sittler, Esposito etc. didn't have personal trainers, and they seemed to play hard, aggressive and constant, without injuries.
Or....is it in this world of huge multi-million dollar contracts, personal trainers and endorsment contracts, that a broken nail is enough to side line a player so as not to take a chance on re-signing another huge multi-million dollar contract.
I know some are quite serious (Colaiacovo) but I wonder just how "real" some are. Then I wonder, if all these injuries are actually "real" then maybe someone should be looking at the conditioning plans and condition the player for hockey instead of golf.
Hmmmmm.....isn't that their off season pass time?

I wonder.

[Guido]

Just one word: Colorado.

They lost Sakic,Smyth and Stastny and now they are in a playoff spot.

Everyone gets injured, get over it.

So equate that to the Leafs, take away Sundin, Antropov and Kaberle and the Leafs would be so bad, Stamko's would be here *this* year.

[Drew]

Mr Wood ... you really should READ Damien's column ... not sure where you are coming from. Are you reading a differnt column??? ... and ... you lose all credibility when you say that McCabe is a "great D man" ... wow!

[Steve Barnett]

As a true blue bud fan I must agree with Cox. It never seems to fail that "Leaf Nation" ( and can we lose that please"?) are always looking for excuses. Bad call/non call, so and so is injured or we would be winning. The fact is the top teams have the depth to overcome an injurie even to their top players. The angst got so bad last night that Joe " Homer" Bowen was suggesting on Pony's chance that maybe Jason Smith had thrown his stick on the play and that the boys should get a penalty shot! Pullease...The problem is the typical attitudes of some players who only turn it up when its too late. Tucker is a perfect example. For the life of me I can not understand why Maurice keeps sending Kyle Wellwood over the boards. This guy is playing beer league hockey in the NHL. He glides around out there and has become so predictable its not funny. His lack of effort is obvious to anyone who cares to take the rose coloured glasses off long enough to look objectivly. Wellwood could learn from guys like Moore and Williams who play with some jam and some smarts. But as Damien has stated we, the fans, are willing to settle for mediocrity. It has become second nature to be satified with almost making it. And I hate to bring it up again but attitude starts at the top. And that is where we are seriously lacking. A sense of tradition that has been absent for decades in this organization. Bumbling pencil necks whose sense of entitlement overides thier desire to succeed. And by that I mean exceeding on the ice not at the bank. We are left to hope that these "accountants" (Dick and Larry) trip over an executive who will transform this mess and instill some tradition and class to an organization that has gone from one of the most desired destinations in the league to a laughing stock. "Stock" being the operative word here.

[mark]

First off, McCabe has played well since coming back. Anyone who watches the games impartially can see that. As for the Leafs making excuses based on injuries, all I can say is this is really no excuse at all. Depth and coaching should help a team going into an extended slide. To say injuries have no impact is inaccurate, but a good organization can limit that impact (and in some cases... uses it as an opportunity to develop prospects or showcase players they may choose to move in the future). Now a question. This entirely article is based on Leafs making excuses. I didn't hear anyone mention injuries as an excuse.... who said what when? Damien, it looks to me like you are just trying to stir the pot yet again (I guess that's what they pay you for). I haven't heard anyone mention injuries. What I have heard consistently for the past 6 weeks is from everyone in Leafsland is they've said they need to work hard at getting better. And here's a what if for you Damien since you brought up the 'i' word. In your opinion, if Toskala had not been injured, would the Leafs have made the post season?

[norm depalma]

Re. Earl's comments on stupidity of Leaf Fans. Damn straight!

And re. injuries, obviously the main cause for that would be age...the older the player, the more prone to injuries.

[Don]

Don't use Philly as a shining example, please. They lost 10 straight and are what?...1-5 in the last 6 games since then?
Oh, they held the leafs off. ha! sign of a good team?
Yup, that's a successful team. Injuries have decimated them.
As for injuries in the NHL. The salary cap has made injuries, major ones to star players very significant. You cannot replace them with the present salary structure.
As for MLB, no salary cap, they can go out and sign another pitcher as long as the owner(s) have deep pockets.
I think DC you just slam Toronto teams to get a reaction on your blog. Almost like webmasters that love us to click on their advertisements on webpages, getting your hit count up??
Because this last story is just plain nuts.

[Damian]

Damian,
I would love to see you write in a city that wins! I have never read such 'sour grapes' from one individual - ever. You certainly seemed depressed...
It is also clear that you don't understand what motivates players (or anyone, really). Why are there star players who get bigger salaries if they have no impact when they are injured. Montreal, a few years ago used this very excuse about man games lost in a season, but no one was complaining. To think that the Leafs have been peddling this crap for 41 years is ridiculous. I can remember very good days during the Gilmour runs in the post-season. Only one team takes the cup. Also, if any other team had an owner like Ballard they would be realing for decades - you said so in your book.
What would be nice is if you actually retained one opinion rather than writing drivel every day - I thik the blog and deadlines are getting harder for you to think of something intelligent to write. If you were in Anaheim last year I shudder to think how you would find some awful slant on the Ducks. The best part, though, would have been the HUGE crow you would have had to eat as they carried the cup around...
Time to stop writing and retire...maybe you could manage the Leafs so we could all write blogs about your thoughless decisions...but you wouldn't have the guts to try!

[reality man]

Yes, it is Toronto that makes injuries the focus of losing. Really? Here is what james mirtle of the Globe and mail (stationed in Edmonton had to say in an article in which he listed man games lost to injury for 2005-2006:
"It's not much of a surprise that most of the teams at the top of the list missed the playoffs".
http://mirtle.blogspot.com/2006/07/2005-06-by-numbersman-games-lost-to.html

Here's what nhl.com had to say about the Chicago Blackhawks in its preview of the 2007-2008 season: "Chicago had playoff aspirations until a string of injuries knocked them out of contention."

The Ottawa Media (I live in Ottawa) never failed to mention that Heatley and Alfredsson were injured as the reason for one of Ottawa's many losing streaks this season. While ottawa was getting destroyed 6-1 by Philadelphia Dean Brown and garrey galley (the 2 local Sens play by play guys) whined for about 15 minutes straight about how they were getting their asses handed to them, yet again, because Heatley and Alpo were missing and then theorized that Philadelphia, Detroit, Anaheim, Pittsburgh ,etc wouldn't be very good if they were missing their 2 best forwards. Yeah, when other teams have injuries then it's "analysis" to link them to losses but when Toronto does it it's "making excuses".

By the way, Damien, I notice that you claim that Leaf fans place the blame on McCabe and Colaiacovo not playing for failing to miss the playoffs this year. What about losing Toskala? Raycroft lost EVERY GAME when Toskala was out. That's not significant, you, know, losing your starting goalie? As for McCabe, when McCabe returned from injury the Leaf power play was 29th in the league. It is now 19th in the league. A jump of 10 places in 3 weeks. That's not significant? You don't think that McaCabe's absence on the PP for 7 weeks was a problem?

Here are the players that were injured last year:
Mats Sundin (7 games) 1st in team scoring (75 points on pace for 81)
Tomas Kaberle (8 games) finished 2nd in team scoring with 58 points and was on pace for 64
Alexei Ponikarovsky (11 games) 4th in team scoring with 45 points - on pace for 52
Darcy Tucker (26 games) 5th in team scoring with 24 goals in 56 games - was on pace for 35 before getting injured - finished with 43 points but was on pace for 63
Kyle Wellwood (40 games) 7th in team scoring finished with 42 points and was on pace for 72 points
Nik Antropov (38 games) - finished with 33 points - on pace for 50 points
Pavel Kubina (21 games).
Michael Peca (47 games)

So, all 6 of Toronto's top forwards in terms of point per game average missed 8 (Sundin), 8 (Jeff O'neill), 11 (Ponikarovsky), 26 9tucker), 38 (Antropov) and 40 (Wellwood) games. Three of their top 4 forwards in terms of point per game average missed a minimum of 26 games. Throwing in Kaberle, 7 of toronto's top 8 point producers missed a minimum of 8 games - with up to 5 being out of the lineup at the same time. That's not significant? Are you insane?

The Leafs finished with one forward that had 50+ points but based on point per game average had 5 forwards and 2 defencemen at 50+ points and would have had 7 overall. That's pretty well-balanced scoring ruined by injuries.

The Leafs finished with one player with 60+ points but had 3 other (injured) players with point per game averages that would have put them over 60 for 4 overall. Not significant?

Peca missed 47 games. Apparently, Mr. Cox didn't notice that the Leaf penalty killing went from top 10 with Peca in the lineup to bottom 5 without him in the lineup. Penalty killing, however, doesn't have anything to do with winning.

The Leafs led the league in man games lost to injury in 2005-2006. That's not significant? This is not a case of blaming missing the playoffs based on a few injuries but on missing the playoffs by 1 point while having more injuries than every other team in the league. They were top 5 in the league in man games lost last year. That doesn't go any way to explaining missing the playoffs by 1 point, yet again?

Fact 1) Phialdelphia led the league in man games lost to injury in 2006-2007 and finished last in the regular standings. Fact 2)Anaheim lost the fewest man games to injury in 2006-2007 (and had very few in the playoffs) and won the Cup. Fact 3) 9 of the top 10 teams in terms of man games lost to injuries in 2006-2007 missed the playoffs. This is not an excuse - it is an undisputable statistical correlation between number of injuries and regualar season performance. In your "expert" opinion, however, lots of injuries don't cause teams to lose but bad teams are more injury prone.

By the way, despite your skewed analysis, Philadelphia has not performed particularly well with its injuries. One month ago they were 2 points out of the conference lead and now they are battling for a playoff spot. I could also point out that Detroit went on a massive losing streak when sustaining several injuries. Yes, New Jersey won 2 games against Toronto without their 2 top defencemen but if you actually bothered to watch the 2 games you would have noticed that New Jersey was badly outplayed in both games, gave up a total of almpost 90 shots in the 2 games combined, was outshot by a margin of almost 2-1 in both games and relied solely on their Hall of Fame goaltender to rescue a single point out of those two games let alone the 4 that they got.

[reality man]

"41 years of injuries. Sounds like a crutch to me, mind the pun."

Yes, 41 years without a cup is atrocious but hardly that unusual.

NYR went 54 years without a Cup before '94
(NYR has only 4 cups in their entire history including only 3 in original 6 days)

Detroit went 42 years without a Cup before '97

Chicago hasn't won since '61 (47 years)
(Chi has only 3 Cupsin their entire history and went 24 years without a Cup in the original 6 days)

St. Louis joined the league in 67-68 and has 0 Cups = 40 year drought

LA joined the league in 67-68 and has 0 Cups = 40 year drought

Buffalo joined the league in 70-71 and has 0 Cups = 36 year drought

Vancouver joined the league in 70-71 and has 0 Cups - 36 year drought

Boston hasn't won since 72 = 35 year drought
(Boston went 29 years without a Cup in original 6 days)

Philly hasn't won since 75 = 32 year drought

Washington joined the league in 74-75 and has 0 Cups = 32 year drought

winnipeg/phoenix joined in 79-80 and has 0 cups = 27 year drought

[reality man]

Mark:
"and re. injuries, obviously the main cause for that would be age...the older the player, the more prone to injuries."

It's good to know that you actually follow the team. What are the ages of Stajan, Steen, Antropov, Wellwood, Ponikarovsky, White, Colaiacovo, Stralman, Wozniewski, Devereaux, Bell, Tlusty, Kilger and Moore? Here's a a clue, they're all under 30 and Kaberle and Kubina are early 30's, If you're talking about an old Leaf team, you're about 4 years out of date.

Don: "It's funny to think that Toronto still thinks its still in a play off run. 5th worst record in the league and people are still talking about a play off run?!"

Yeah, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard because winning 3 games more than another team over 10 games is completely unheard of and even extremely unlikely considering that Philly has been on 10 game and 8 game losing streaks so far this year and has a pack of injuries. They're also 6 points behind a Boston team that has lost 10-2 and 8-2 over the last two weeks and who the Leafs play twice. I seem to remember everyone talking about which of Toronto or Montreal would make the playoffs last year with the NYI 4 points out with 4 games left and neither one made it and NYI snuck in. the 5th worst record in the league is hardly an impediment when the east has a bunch of mediocre teams and the 5th worst record in the east leaves them 14 points out of first in the conference rather than the 30 points that would usually separate a team with the 5th worst record in the league from a conference leader.

If you want to talk about ridiculous, how about mentioning ottawa asa a Stanley Cup contender despite the fact that they have the worst record in the east over the last 2.5 months and have a WORSE record than Toronto over the last 53 games (65% of the season and counting). Check out the TSN blog where some Ottawa fans blame the fact that Ottawa lost to, and got shutout by, LA on the excuse that Alpo didn't play. Yeah, you need a full team to not only beat but actually score 1 goal against the worst team in the league that has given up more goals than any other team in the league when they have a rookie goalie that had lost all 4 of his previous starts.

CBC propagandizes the Leafs? What about Glen Healey explaining that Wade redden didn't want to be traded to San Jose because, "why would he want to go from a contender like Ottawa to a pretender like San Jose?" Hmmm, San Jose is 5 points ahead of Ottawa, in a tougher conference, has a game in hand and would be 1st in the East while none of the teams in the East would be any higher than 4th in San Jose's DIVISION let alone conference. What about TSN ranking Ottawa #2 in its power rankings up until 2 weeks ago despite the fact that they had pretty much the same record as Toronto over the previous 45 games?

Yeah, the Leafs being in a playoff race is far more ridiculous than Ottawa being compared to the 76-77 Canadiens after a 15-2 start because we all know that the 76-77 Habs have the reputation of being the greatest team of all time based on what they did in 17 games rather than due to losing only 8 games all year. Buffalo was 16-1-1 after 1 games last year but nobody compared them, or the 95-96 Panthers that started the season on a 17 game unbeaten streak, to the 76-77 Habs. Yeah, the 76-77 Habs had 10 Hall of Famers and a link in a dynasty that won 4 cups in a row. How many Hall of Famers does Ottawa have? Alpo, the less than a point a game over his career, superstar? Who are the Sens' blue line equivalents of Robinson? (10 50+ point seasons, 7 60+ point seasons, 3 70+ point season, , 2 80+ point seasons, career high 85 points, career average of 60 points per 82 games, 3x First team All-Star, 3x second team all star, Conn Smythe winner, 2 Norris trophies and a career best +/- of +120) Savard? (Conn Smythe, 4x all star, 2nd team all star, 5 seasons with a +/- better than +50 including 3x with better than +70, 1972 Summit Series, 1976 Canada Cup and 1979 Challenge Cup winner)? Lapointe? (6X 50+ points, 3X 65+ points, 2x 75+ points, 2x +/- better than +64 with a career high +69, 3x 20+ goals (career high 28), 2X 25+ goals, 9X 10+ goals, average of 60 points per 82 games, 1X First team all-star, 3x 2nd team all star). Redden? (Ottawa's equivalent of Bryan McCabe that treats the puck, when he is under pressure, like a live hand grenade contaminated by ebola and herpes)? Volchenkov? 1st overall flop Chris Phillips? These guys have the 25th worst goals against in the NHL. that's the mark of a true contender. Who is the equivalent of Ken Dryden? Martin Gerber? a.k.a. the guy that earned a Stanley Cup ring by getting pulled in 2 of his 3 Finals starts? Who is the Sens' equivalent of Bob Gainey (i.e. the guy for whom the Selke trophy was created) or Jacques Lemaire? Mike Fisher, the one time Selke finalist a the guy with current negative +/-? Is a character guy like Heatley or a marshmallow like Spezza the equivalent of Lafleur or Shutt or Peter Mahovlich? Who is their Scotty Bowman (9 Cups with 3 teams)? Bryan Murray? a.k.a the guy with 0 Cups, 1 finals appearance and 1 time past the 2nd round of the playoffs)?
Who is the Senators equivalent of Habs captain Cournoyer (10 Cups and a Conn Smythe)? Alpo? The guy who let jason Pominwille blow past him to eliminate the sens on a short-handed goas withouat more than a stick wave? The guy who oguaranteed a Stanley Cup and couldn't get his team past the 1st round while getting shut out 3 times in the series, while he personally wentpointless in all 4 losses?the guy whi was then reduced to guaranteeing a series win (which hedidn't deliver on) and finally to guaranteeing that his team would score a goal against Belfour after 2 consecutive shutouts? And Sens fans, this year, were calling Alpo the best captain in the NHL. Better than anyone is a stretch lt alone better than Sakic, Lidstrom or Sott Niedermayer.

Yeah, the Leaf run for the playoff is the most ridiculous thing I've heard this year, let alone in a lifetime.

[Roberto]

As the Leafs make their mad dash to the playoffs. Remember the McCabe gaffe way back when (put it in his own net)????

The mistake is not the problem. Everyone makes mistakes.

It's what he said afterwords. "It's only the beginning of the season, so what!" He said something to that effect.

My oh my, how nice it would be to have those points today.

Maurice is the next that needs to go.

And 1 more time......mark my words....Toskela is NOT a good goaltender.

[Tracking]

As of March 1st when NJ had Paul Martin and Colin White out, they're one game above .500.

"Still, the Flyers played strong hockey over the past two weeks". Over the past 10 games, Philly has taken 12 of 20 points 5-2-3 (given the way OT losses skew statistics, I think it's fair to call that 1 game above .500 as well). And they just lost 2 very important games against the Leafs.

So when I look deeper at the examples Mr. Cox provides, I'm not really convinced they make his point. I think to really prove his argument, Mr. Cox needs to look at who had the most and least games lost due to injury over the course of a season and then see if there's a trend in the standings.

[Clobby Bobber]

Ok, surely now after Sundin's injury against Philly, you will cut this particular Leaf team some slack if it uses HIS injury as an excuse!