Call For Character

It's pretty simple. If the Maple Leafs have any character, it will show itself tonight at the Air Canada Centre.

The 2009-10 season has begun in nightmarish fashion for Ron Wilson's team, and all the coach's wisecracks and media baiting can't change the facts.

Winless in five, backstopped by a goalie who now has an .812 save percentage and a 5.56 goals against average and clearly the NHL's worst defensive team on merit, the Leafs have sunk to a shocking low already this season.

Last night's loss in New York might have been their worse yet. Tonight it's apparently improved Colorado in town, and really a last chance for a host of Leaf veterans to demonstrate whether they care enough to turn this thing around, or have the will to do so. If they can't, there will be changes, if only because GM Brian Burke has lots of time to make 'em.

After tonight, you see, the Leafs have only one game for the next 11 days, a bizarro break in the schedule, particularly in an Olympic season which is supposed to compress the schedule for everyone.

They get the Rangers at home on Saturday, then don't play again until the following Saturday when they begin a road trip in Vancouver. By then, rookie goalie Jonas Gustavsson should be back, but it's a little early to start depending on The Monster.

The Leafs, right now, look like a team desperate for a leader, desperate for somebody to point the way. Clearly, it's not Wilson at this moment, a coach who has proven completely unable to get this club to play anything resembling big-league defence over the past 14 months. It's fine that he regards anyone holding a pen or a microphone as a complete moron, but it's an approach that doesn't sell nearly as well when you're dead last in the standings.

Given that the team does not own a proven NHL starting goaltender, the need for quality defensive play is greater now than at any time previously during Wilson's reign. Yet the club ran around at Madison Square Garden last night even worse than they did at home to Pittsburgh on Saturday.

It would be a shocker if Burke pulled the plug on Wilson, and don't bet on it. But coaches do get canned after starts like this. It happens.

Here's one from the fantasy department for you. Imagine if Burke axed Wilson and turned to ex-Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky to coach the Leafs.

Would Gretzky do it? Could he possibly turn it down?

Now that would be a shakeup.

But again, that's pure fantasy, not even worthy of being called speculation. Try idle chatter.

Burke could do any number of things if the Leafs can't beat Colorado tonight.

Waive Vesa Toskala. Send Luke Schenn to the minors for seasoning (is everybody understanding more clearly now why I was so set against keeping this kid in the NHL last season?). Demote Jason Blake. Recall Tyler Bozak.

None of these moves would solve a whole lot. It would be more like shock therapy, moves designed to jolt the rest of the roster or clear cap space. But suggesting it's still early with no reason to make significant moves is ignoring the reality that this is not a problem that is five games old. It's 87 games old, the length of the Wilson coaching reign, the time span in which the problems with this club have become obvious yet mostly gone unfixed.

If the Leafs don't win tonight, Burke will have to do something. With all the optimism of training camp gone, he's quickly becoming a man on the hot seat.

Comments

[GPK]

I'm not sure why anyone is surprised by the Leafs start. Their forwards are brutal. Their best centre was a castoff of the Habs, and there's nobody else of note. Komisarek is overrated and overpaid. All of a sudden, he must be missing Markov terribly.
And now, because of Burke's cockiness, the Leafs can't even tank for a top draft pick. All so that he could strong-arm and send a message to divisional rivals. Note to Burkie: the era of the Broad St. Bullies passed 35 years ago.

[StolenChickenWing]

I wrote comments last night explaining the Leafs' history and how the Leafs became about the owner(s) and not the players/team/fans when Stafford Smythe, Harold Ballard and the "Silver Seven" took over the operation in 1962. They only won the cup as late as '67 because Conn Smythe built an excellent team, and with a couple of aberrations has been a joke ever since. This team is cursed, not by Ballard but by Smythe because to this day the team/fans don't matter, and will be till that changes. What is ridiculous is to blame it on Toskala (or McCabe or Sundin or Larry Murphy or Frank Mahovlich etc.). The lower bowl is sold out with seasons tickets to corporate interests. Only 2000 tix per game are sold at the gate, so the "real" fans are not heard, saving MLSE the embarassment. There is now so much pressure on the hockey people from the GM down, that there is no way they can get it right. The Kessel trade shows the Leafs are going to stumble down the same losing path for years to come. Burke's only option is to fire Wilson because the team right now is a complete mess - so bad that even the suits in the lower bowl can't avoid the stench. Toskala should be the guy right now (presumably he still wants to) - what goalie COULD be successful behind this team right now Cox ? If the team gets better, the goaltending will. If not what does it matter ?

[markg]

with the first pick in the nhl entry draft...the boston bruins select Taylor Hall.....

[Prolix Pettifogger]

Acquiring Wayne Gretzky as coach, unlikely as that might be, would definitely signal a shakeup. More to the point, however, is... who wants him? Indisputably a great player but utterly unproven as a coach.

[Dave]

Typical Cox with his yearly or bi-yearly fire the coach or Gm article, why not make all of the players responsible for a change!!! Wilson and Burke did not all of a sudden get stupid over night but these players are just bad. I can tell it was only a matter of time that the attacks would be directed towards the coach as the media do not like him but then again thinking the media are nothing more than a bunch of morons is about right to me. If these players have tuned the coach out then maybe they will listen to the Marlie staff, this coach should stay as his record speaks for itself over these lazy players who think being a Leaf is nothing more than their god given right.

[Ryan]

Reasons Why This is happening...

Burke broke up the Frat Pack... First big mistake. They should have been your #2 Scoring Line on opening night. Hanson - Bozak - Stalberg

Burke built up Schenn's Image... he made a mistake by saying the kid is the future captain of the Leafs. You don't say that unless you are serious and are going to give him the "C" very shortly after. The kid is all mixed up in the head now.

Kadri should have played 3 games with the big club. Give him a taste and if he leads your team in scoring, all the better. If he doesn't do so well, send him back to minors with a list of things to work on.

Kessel Trade - Karma is going to kick the Leafs in the nuts on this one. They trade away their 1st Round Draft pick on the season where it looks like they will be selecting 1st OVERALL by the way things are going. Great Job Burke, Taylor Hall would have looked nice in Blue & White. Don't get me wrong Kessel is good, but will his injured shoulder be healed enough to score 30 goals this year... probably not.

What Needs to be Done - After this year, the old goats need to be set free. Use your Slaney's, Hanson's, Bozak's, Kadri's, DiDommenico's, Dale Mitchell's, Carl Gunnarsson's. If the shelves are stocked with players why the hell aren't we seeing them? I see potential in the future, but not if the Leaf's can't shed some un-wanted weight.

Mayers, Ponikarovsky, Stajan, Primeau, Frogren, Toskala, Kulemin all need to go after this year.

Make room for the younger guys who are hungry for NHL action. Younger players are needed in this line up, and i'm sorry Burke your Top Six / Bottom Six philosophy is sucking. You need 3 Scoring Lines (with Solid 2-way player scattered between the lines) and a 4th Line with Grinders & Goons.

future expectations for next year.
Forwards
Kessel - Kadri - Grabo
Stalberg - Bozak - Hanson
Hagman - Mitchell - Slaney
Orr - Wallin - Rosehill

Defense
Kaberle - Beachemin
Komisarek - White
Schenn - Finger
Exelby

[John]

What the Leafs need is less bluster and more substance. It all starts with the goaltending. The play of Toskala would have brought much more confidence to the fragile forwards and defence if he had a save percentage over .900. As it stands, the tentativeness of the players stems from 1)poor goaltending 2)terrible penalty kill, which holds up the aggressive forecheck and aggressive play in one's own end 3)the bluster of management and coach who started everybody off scared with demotions even though the farm club has no strong contenders for promotion 4) the challenge of playing in Toronto when the team has zero leadership 5) a coach who seems intent on players doing a complete makeover in their game 6)forwards who are just not very good. I could go on and on. This is a very poor hockey club at the moment and one that has completely lost confidence.

[Tom]

Damien, this sort of play was to be expected when rebuilding a team. That is why it was so important to have your draft choices. That was Burke's one mistake. That and goaltending: Unless Gustavson is a miracle-worker, this will be Burke's undoing. His first mistake there was hiring Francois Allaire to teach the soon-to-be-obsolete style of pure butterfly goaltending. Butterfly has its place, but it has downsides too, and today's NHL offensive strategies are fully geared to exploit butterfly weaknesses. You have to throw in some standup to be effective.

[oilgasfish]

As Wilson's post-game mortem ended last night, he uttered "I'm done" and left. His eyes seemed to well up after praising Torterello's "positive influence on his team". It showed Wilson was man enough to admit the success of a colleague, but it was a heartbreaking admission that he was failing to rally his own troops by gameplan.

[Pierre Marion]

Kaberle, Toskala to Montreal for Halak, Subban and the two Kostytsyn's

[Ian]

Damien, can we assume that this and earlier posts concerning the Leafs mean you are walking back your brave, but foolhardy, prediction that the Leafs will make the playoffs this season?

[WeeDram]

I have been uneasy about Wilson since he made disparaging remarks about leadership, a not-so-subtle swipe at Mats. Even if you believe that, why say it and further shred the psyche of a fragile team?

I was prepared to cut him some slack, but clearly he has lost the room, and if Burke is as smart as many think, he will perform the needed surgery swiftly.

I disagree about Schenn. With the (supposed) talent on the rest of the blueline, Schenn could be more relaxed and progressing normally. Instead, he's under unreasonable scrutiny since no one else is performing at an NHL level.

[Al Parisone]

THE KESSAL TRADE:
Can anyone explain why Burke had to make that trade before the season began? Kessal was injured and would not sign with Boston and no other team was willing to give him the money demanded. So why not wait until he was ready to play, which would have giving Burke a clue of how strong his team was, and make a more reasonable judgment to value of those future assets. Typical leaf management jump in and hope with absolutely no rational though or foresight.

[greg]

I agree with a lot of what you are saying in this article, and much of your hockey opinions as a body of work. Hoping someone takes the bait on a re-entry waiver pick-up of Blake is good sense, as is waiving Soft-goala and the Bozak scenario. I disagree about Schenn, not because you have it wrong, but more because after a year's NHL experience, wouldn't someone else grab him for nothing on waivers? As for even idle chatter about Gretzky, all he has proved to me lately is that he cannot coach to save his life. He'd only make the team worse...

[laurin]

The Leafs look completely disorganized and whatever "system" they are using is obviously not working.
They look flat and unmotivated. Are these issues not all directly tied to "coaching". This team is in big trouble and considering Brian Burke feels the Leafs have "a group of 6 defensemen who are just as good as any other team's top six", somethings got to give. These issues are well beyond just goaltending problems. It would not surprise me at all if Ron Wilson gets canned. But lets guess serious, Wayne Gretsky is no coach, he only played at one end of the ice his whole carreer. He had no coaching experience prior to getting behing the Cayote's bench, it was all for publicity basically, what a joke, and it would even be a bigger joke if he ever coached Toronto. Perhaps its a good thing Burke's around, Pennie would probably try and hire Gretsky.

[Lew McClain]

The majority of the problems are with Wilson. He keeps telling these players they are second,third,and fourth line talent at best. So if they do their best and the opposition has a bad night maybe we get a point. What kind of motivation is that? If i were on this team the only motivation would be to get traded. This team needs a captain, and a positive leader. We have an identity crisis here. The team looks more like a slow confused squad in the ECHL wearing NHL sweaters.

[Mario G.]

Well said Damien, I wonder if your "purely idle chatter" is more of a way to introduce an "idea" to leafs personnel with influence who may read this blog, and you are aware of it.

What do you think of this "idle chatter"? The Leafs impose a media ban in the dressing room. What are the NHL's rules regarding pulling this type of move? Has it ever been done?

p.s. The Leafs have alot of work to do. Their season will be in the end be judged based on the pick Boston receives. A positive spin can be placed on the year with a low pick going to Boston. What do you think?

[Jeff]

While I normally like Cox commentary, he seems to have taken particular offence to Ron Wilson not liking the media. With the insane amount of pressure put on this team here in Toronto by the media and fans, can anyone really blame Wilson though? How would you like being a team lead and going to work every day and having 20 people coming up to you fully analyzing every minute detail of the performance of each of your team mates / employees? Is this person really performing? What changes are you going to make tomorrow? Oh, you should really fire this person and bring this person in instead. It's madness in Leaf nation. I've been a fan all my life, but things are at the point of being ridiculous now. It's a game. Chill out people.

[holden_cox]

haha! loving this grudge match between Cox and Wilson!
Contrary to what the delusional Leaf Nation is seeing, Schenn looks completely lost out there. He's either missing his checks, fanning on break out passes, giving the puck away, all the while looking like a deer in headlights. Send him to the Marlies so he can find his game and maybe experience a victory once in a while.

[Brad]

Fire Wilson and get rid of Toskala. Is anybody listening??

[Carlo A]

If the Leafs still had their #1 and #2 picks for 2010, I'd say let's not panic, Tank Nation ALL THE WAY.. Prob now is, we're damned if we lose, and we can't quite win.. There's nothing to gain now by finishing out of the playoff race, the high picks are gone.. Unfortunately, the bold moves Burke did on the off season have raised our expectations, and fed hope.. And hope is a very very dangerous thing in this city.. LOSING is actually exactly what the team needs to get the media spotlight AWAY from them, carte blanche to build solidarity with..

[ostrich_lover]

Heres the thing: no one likes the media. A mic and a pad are an excuse to act less than human and no one in their right mind likes the media. Then again, Wilson is a complete tool. Really, you can judge a man based on Don Cherry's opinion of him and be correct 100% of the time. Such losery leafs fans critisizing Burke for the trade and the toughness approach. The defensive unit will eventually be rock solid, and the fights are sweet. When we add a 5 more front line players to go with Grabovski we will have a good team. I dont see Toskala ever playing for the Leafs again and LEE STEPNIAK AND RICHARD WALLIN WERE FREAKING AWESOME LAST NIGHT. Which only begs the question: why 17 minutes for Blake, and not 23 for those 2 ???

[Mr Wood]

You may be right Damien that shock changes are required, but we've just seen a round of massive changes with new forwards, defence and goalies - and a new GM.

This is not yet a team - it's a collection of players.

The Leafs blew their time during camp looking at kids & castoffs instead of coming together as a new team. Give this team 1 good roadtrip to come together and then let's judge.

Sometimes teams can fix 1 or 2 areas of play and their (mis)fortunes reverse. A win or two acould make a world of difference to confidence and execution (team execution that is....

[Aaron]

Damien, your so right about Luke Shenn. Why wouldn't a real NHL GM or coach listen to you and send him to the minors? Oh right because you not a NHL GM or coach. Your a jealous wannabe, who sits behind a computer throwing darts at the men who have to make real decisions. Now the Leafs do suck, and they have to make changes, but it's still, what 5 games into the season, no need to panic. But it's fun to write that way isn't it?

[Corey]

Damien, I'd be more receptive to your points if they weren't driven by personal animosity. Every time you mention Wilson you're compelled to throw in how much he hates the Toronto media. It's obvious the guy gets to you. He hasn't shown you or your colleagues the amount of respect you feel entitled to, and it's skewing practically everything you write lately. These thinly veiled hissy fits really water down your message.