All Good (And Bad) Things Must End

Damn, it's been a long time.

You might hear that in Toronto these days, with the Maple Leafs on the verge of qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2004.

Before Twitter. Before Sidney Crosby left Rimouski. The longest drought of any current team in the NHL.

You might also hear that, however, in Detroit, and for very different reasons.

These good times have lasted for a long, long time.

For 21 consecutive seasons, the Red Wings have made the playoffs, before hockey fans were even familiar with the word "lockout."

It's by far the longest current streak in the NHL. San Jose is next with eight years. Boston, at 29 years, holds the all-time record, and the Wings might just take a run at that if they can figure a way out of their current predicament.

In the first season of the post-Nicklas Lidstrom era, you see, Detroit is fighting for its playoff life, and it would surely be an intriguing daily double from a hockey history point of view if the Wings and Leafs both ended their streaks in the same spring.

The Leafs, theoretically, could win no more games and make it to the post-season. Detroit, on the other hand, came up with a huge win in Nashville on Sunday, and needs not only more victories but possibly some help.

Beating the Preds bumped the Wings two points up on Dallas, which has a game in hand and plays in Chicago tonight. Columbus also two points back, in Denver to play Avalanche tonight.

"There's lots of us in that mud puddle trying to find a way to swim," is how Wings head coach Mike Babcock described it.

Since last missing the playoffs in 1990 (!), the Wings sneaked in with 76 points the next season, brought Lidstrom over the next fall to stay and then really haven't had to worry about playoff qualification since while becoming not only a dominant NHL power but a marquee franchise, a four-time Cup winner, a six-time finalist and frequently the league's most entertaining team.

But this year has been a struggle.

Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg have had to shoulder more of the burden than ever before. Detroit's dearth of high-end young talent after years of drafting either poorly or out of range of the best kids has finally began to impact its lineup. Injuries have hurt. Damien Brunner got hot and then he cooled. Jonas Gustavsson hasn't been the answer as a backup. Brad Stuart and Jiri Hudler are missed.

Johan Franzen has nine goals. Val Filpulla, theoretically in a contract drive, has fallen off the face of the earth offensively. Kids like Cory Emmerton, Tomas Tatar, Gustav Nyqvist and Riley Sheahan haven't made an impact.

Detroit beat everyone to the punch on collegiate defencemen Danny DeKeyser, and now have to hope he'll have a greater impact than most NCAA free agents do. That's a card the Maple Leafs played frequently when they were desperate for talent - Tyler Bozak, Ben Scrivens, Brayden Irwin, Christian Hanson etc. - and its a hit-and-miss proposition.

The Wings aren't awful by any means, but they've lost more than they've won and have scored fewer than they've allowed.

"You are what you are, and this is what we've earned this year, this is what our team is," Babcock told the Detroit Free Press. "We're no better and no worse than what we are. We're just a team battling to get into the playoffs."

Every year, analysts speculate which teams will fall out of the post-season mix after making it previous year. The temptation is always to point to only one or two, but generally between four and seven playoff teams miss the following year, and this year Detroit would be the biggest to fall in the west if it happens.

Phoenix and Nashville will likely be on the outside looking in, as well. In the east, defending conference champion New Jersey comes to Toronto tonight minus Ilya Kovalchuk and captain Bryce Salvador and in a desperate position. Florida and Philadelphia will likely miss after making it last season, and the Rangers, who met the Devils in the 2012 Eastern Conference final, certainly aren't out of the woods yet.

Sure, it's been a funny, shortened season, by this is the type of turnover you get these days in the NHL. That the Wings have been able to avoid falling off the carousel for so long - and still might - is an incredible story of ownership, management and player performance.

If their streak is broken this spring, it's hard to imagine anyone will come close to it for a long, long time.

 

 

Seventh With A Chance To End 34 Years of Waiting

Three out of four. Relentlessly. That's a straightforward formula for making the Stanley Cup playoffs, and it's one the Maple Leafs have been following for a while now.

Remember the recent home-and-home set with the Bruins? Randy Carlyle's group picked up three of a possible four points.

How about this week's bookend with the Rangers? Three out of four points again.

In fact, with just one regulation time loss in their past 12 starts, the Leafs have gained 18 points in the standings over that period of time.

Which averages out to three of a possible four points every two games.

That has the Leafs sitting seventh overall this morning, a stunning rise in the standings after missing the playoffs every year the NHL has managed to hold the playoffs since 2004.

Yup, seventh overall. No, not the seventh overall pick in the upcoming NHL entry draft, which is the type of phrase Leaf fans are more accustomed to ingesting at this time of year, usually accompanied by discussions of whether the team should try to lose more games to improve its draft lottery position.

This is seventh overall in the NHL standings. Leaf Nation should rejoice at seeing that this morning, and should also rejoice with the notion that if the season ended today the Leafs, fifth overall in the Eastern Conference, would play fourth place Montreal in the first round of the playoffs.

How cool would that be?

Forget about whether this would be a preferred matchup, although we'll get a sense of that when the Canadiens come to town on Saturday night.

But really, who cares about that?

This is about hockey history. Canada's two longest-established NHL franchises haven't met in post-season play in 34 years. The Leafs haven't won a playoff game against the Habs since George Armstrong pushed one into the empty net to give the Leafs the '67 Cup final over the Canadiens in six games.

It's just been too long. Now, it's tantalizingly close, although the standings could shift again Thursday night when the Bruins played the Islanders and the Habs battle Buffalo as Montreal and Boston battle for the Northeast Division lead.

Things aren't perfect for the Leafs, but they're pretty darn good when you look at where they've been, and how GM Brian Burke was dismissed on the eve of the season, and how few picked them to make the playoffs this season, and how many media prognosticators screeched at the end of last season about how the team had no young players of value and would take another five years to be competitive.

They've got a seven point lead on ninth place Winnipeg and a game in hand, and have moved five points clear of sixth place Ottawa, a team that not so long ago held a healthy lead over Toronto in the standings.

Phil Kessel has managed to get hot at the right time. James van Riemsdyk has woken up. Meanwhile, since the Leafs flirted with the idea of trading for either Miikka Kiprusoff or Roberto Luongo at the trade deadline, James Reimer has delivered five of a possible eight points while allowing 10 goals on 120 shots for a .917 save percentage. That's basically exactly what he was doing before the deadline, and if you look at his last five games that includes that Saturday night shutout in Ottawa, its 10 goals allowed in five starts with a save percentage of .934.

On Wednesday in New York, with Joffrey Lupul still sidelined, Leaf scratches included defenceman Jake Gardiner, forward Matt Frattin, centre Joe Colborne and rearguard Mike Kostka. Ryan Hamilton went in against the Rangers while Colborne went out, and there's a sense both that this is no longer an easy lineup to make and that kids are knocking on the door competing hard just for a chance to play.

That's a pretty positive dynamic. 

Seven more points, with 16 possible points still on the table, should get the Leafs to the post-season. In other words, they can actually slow down and play less than .500 hockey the rest of the way and still get in.

If that happens, they won't have to worry about the mean old shootout any more. At least not for this season. 

 

 

Reality Bites

VANCOUVER--Shocking. Rain has greeted an Easterner come to the west coast to see Canada try to make tennis history.

Then again, the blossoms are out on the trees here and tulips are already making an appearance, something we won't see in T.O for a while yet. Weather and gardening reports aside, two quick thoughts heading into the weekend:

1. If the Vancouver Canucks were bothered by the entire Roberto Luongo soap opera, they have a funny way of showing it.

The Canucks, on Thursday night, were thoroughly dominant in a a 4-0 triumph over up-and-coming Edmonton, throttling the improved Edmonton attack in near perfect fashin while Luongo, on his 34th birthday, once more sat on the Vancouver bench wearing a baseball cap watching Cory Schneider play and dreaming of ripping up his $64 million contract.

Newcomer Derek Roy had an assist on the third Vancouver goal and added speed up front, but it was the play of the Sedin twins and linemate Alex Burrows going up against the No. 1 Edmonton unit of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle that defined the one-sided nature of this game.

The Oilers had hammered the 'Nucks last Saturday in Alberta, and then padded their personal stats with a pair of one-sided wins over awful Calgary. Last night, they only had 12 shots after two periods against Cory Schneider, who had been pulled in the previous meeting, and Vancouver scored more than two goals in a game for only the fourth time in 17 games.

Maybe these Canucks need more soap opera stuff. They sure don't seem to mind it.

2. Fans of the Blue Jays, and some of the media covering the team, are really going to have to get a grip.

If, after every time the team loses, the response has got to be "It's early" and "Did you think they'd go undefeated?" for one not to be admonished for being negative or prematurey suggesting the team is doomed, we're going to have an awfully long season ahead.

Seriously, after the Jays bats exploded Thursday night, I got a note from a reader demanding I retract my column from opening day when I wrote how the team's offence was shut down by Justin Masterson.

Seriously.

Look, the team will win some days, and we'll discuss what went right for them and what went wrong for the other team. Some days John Gibbons' team will go down, and we'll discuss the good and the bad.

Nobody demanded the public execution of R.A. Dickey after the opener and nobody will be demanding J.P. Arencibia's immediate induction into Cooperstown after the third game.

Not every game, win or lose, will be a referendum on whether the team has a chance for a playoff berth or was built in the correct fashion over the off-season. It's a 162-game conversation, and most of the time, the conversation on a given day will be about the game that day, not drawing conclusions about a greater truth.

If every opinion has to be withheld because "it's a long season" and "it's early," we're not going to have much to talk about, are we?.

Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

Luring Kiprusoff

It's like a blind date, with one of the partners hemming and hawwing over whether this is really a good idea.

That would be Miikka Kiprusoff, the Calgary goaltender, who knows the Maple Leafs would like him to twin with James Reimer and give the young Toronto squad some much-needed post-season experience.

GM Dave Nonis pitched Kiprusoff on the idea of coming to Toronto on Tuesday, and then began discussions with agent Larry Kelly Wednesday night on the possible parameters of an extension.

That would have to be a gentleman's agreement, as an actual extension to Kiprusoff's deal can't formally be done until the summer. It's likely the Leafs would be willing to pay Kiprusoff in the neighborhood of $5.5 million for one more season after his current contract expires after next season.

Nonis and Kelly are expected to talk again in the hours before today's 3 p.m. NHL trade deadline. It's clearly a trade Nonis wants to make happen - probably for mid-round draft pick or a conditional pick - if the extension money is reasonable, assuming Kiprusoff will come.

If he does, the expectation is that the 36-year-old veteran would share goaltending duties with Reimer, rather than come in as the annointed starter. That's a very different scenario from acquiring Roberto Luongo, who because of his contract alone would come east as the new No. 1 netminder for the Leafs.

With 10 notable players moving over the past seven days, all is currently quiet on the NHL trade front, with movement expected to kick in shortly after noon. Last year, the first trade on the final day occurred at 10:35 a.m., with Andrei Kostitsyn moving to Nashville from Montreal.

We all know how that turned out for the Predators. So maybe it's better to wait until lunch.

 

 

 

Which Way Are They Going?

Calgary is in fire sale mode. Buffalo too, it now appears.

The Flames are furiously moving key assets - GM Jay Feaster says he wishes he'd had the "intellectual honesty" to go to a rebuild strategy earlier - with goalie Miikka Kiprussof possibly next. The 36-year-old goalie was yanked early in a loss to Edmonton Monday night, and the Maple Leafs have permission to speak directly to him to see if he would report to Toronto if a trade is made.

The Sabres, after dumping the salary of defenceman Robyn Regehr on Monday night, are headed in the same direction just one year after the arrival of new owner Terry Pegula had them holding the NHL's highest payroll. Defenceman Jordan Leopold was recently moved for picks, and there are multiple reports suggesting captain Jason Pominville has been asked for a list of teams he would not want to be traded to.

Now who'll join the Flames and Sabres?

With 14 teams in action Tuesday night, we may get a little more information, and some very tough choices may have to be made by teams that aren't in the playoff picture today but easily could be by the end of the week.

In the Eastern Conference, there are five teams within four points of each other jousting for the eighth and final playoff spot. Seventh place New Jersey, meanwhile, is only two points up on the eighth place Rangers.

Out west, there are six teams within four points of each other battling for the eighth spot, a position currently held by the St. Louis Blues, a team that has appeared to significantly upgrade in recent days with the acquisition of Leopold and defenceman Jay Bouwmeester from Calgary on Monday night.

So it's tight, tight, tight. And how many teams will have the "intellectual honesty" to behave like a seller when they still have a shot at the playoffs?

Well, one of those teams appears to be the San Jose Sharks.

The Sharks have moved the contracts of veterans Douglas Murray and Michal Handzus in recent days for draft picks, and appear to be on the verge of trading away veteran winger Ryane Clowe as well after holding him out of the lineup on Monday against Vancouver.

But, lo and behold, the Sharks are also holding down sixth place in the Western Conference, just two points behind the fourth place Canucks after beating Alain Vigneault's club 3-2 on Monday night at the Shark Tank.

The Sharks are simultaneously surging and dumping, having won five straight, including two wins over Anaheim. Murray and Handzus were both set to become unrestricted free agents this summer, as is Clowe, and GM Doug Wilson appears determined not to lose players for nothing if he can trade them now.

The Canucks, meanwhile, don't play Tuesday night, so they've got to make decisions based on the information they have.

They fell behind 3-0 to the Sharks, which meant they had surrendered seven straight goals going back to a 4-0 loss to Edmonton on Saturday night. In 12 of the last 16 games Vancouver has scored two goals or fewer with forwards Ryan Kesler, Mason Raymond and David Booth lost to injury, and while a Roberto Luongo trade might bring in help, it's not at all clear GM Mike Gillis can get one done by Wednesday's trade deadline because of the veteran goalie's massive contract.

Of the teams in action Tuesday night, it looks like Washington, Tampa Bay, Nashville and Phoenix have tough choices to make in terms of the direction they may go in before the 3 p.m. trade deadline on Wednesday. A win or a loss for any of those teams might swing the pendulum one way or the other.

Another team with serious thinking to do is Dallas, beaten 4-0 at home by the Ducks on Monday night.

A team that is thinking very differently, meanwhile, is Edmonton. The Oilers beat the Flames 4-1 night in a symbolic game of sorts as Calgary moves into the same difficult rebuilding project that Oiler fans have suffered through while the Oilers are in the thick of the fight for a Western Conference playoff berth.

 

 

 

 

When Useful Becomes Must-Have

Murray Craven, meet Ryane Clowe.

It was 20 years ago, at the 1993 NHL trade deadline, that Craven was the hottest commodity available, a workmanlike, generally un-flashy veteran forward who was elevated to must-have status by the pressures of the deadline. Everybody suddenly needed to have him.

Vancouver got him, and Craven scored no goals in 10 regular season games before scoring four times in the playoffs. The Canucks didn't win it all, although Craven was a good player (15 goals) the next season who was part of the Canucks' run to Game Seven of the Stanley Cup final.

At least Craven had 25 goals (in a much higher scoring era) at the time Pat Quinn picked him up from Hartford GM Brian Burke for winger Robert Kron.

Clowe, 30, is a whole different story heading into this year's NHL trade deadline, one that has uncertain expectations for the possible amount of activity. Sportsnet will have 31 on-air personnel involved, including Theo Fleury and Wendel Clark, so we'll make 31 bodies changing teams the over-under.

I'll still take the over. That means somewhere between 15 and 20 deals.

Clowe seems destined to be involved in one of them, and might be the most sought after player available this year.

Even though he has no goals. Not a one in 28 games. He also didn't score in five playoff games last year.

Even better, he is apparently demanding that whatever team trades for him needs to sign him to a new contract, as he is an unrestricted free agent in July.

When a zero goal scorer has that much appeal and that much leverage, you're talking about a unique annual scenario that turns good players into supposedly indispensable ones.

The Sharks, and Clowe, are counting on that.

 

 

 

Iginla On The Move

It's more than the Maple Leafs got for Mats Sundin.

That, folks, is about the best that can be said from a Calgary perspective after Jarome Iginla was traded to Pittsburgh late Tuesday night.

And it's not much, is it?

The growing hockey nightmare in Calgary grew substantially larger when Iginla, the Flames captain, was traded to the Penguins for two U.S. college players, neither a first round pick in their draft year, and Pittsburgh's 2013 first rounder, likely No. 25 or lower.

Yes, how the times have changed.

Iginla was acquired 18 years ago from Dallas for centre Joe Nieuwendyk, but nothing remotely similar to that was available in 2013 when the Flames finally acknowledged what the rest of the hockey world had seen for years, that this was a franchise badly in need of rebuilding.

Sad, really. Iginla could have fetched more in a trade a year ago, but instead Calgary ownership and management preferred to live in a delusional dream world in which the veteran winger could still be a factor on a Calgary playoff squad.

Indeed, you could argue that Brenden Morrow fetched more from the Penguins in trade than Iginla, which is shocking really, given the career accomplishments of the two players.

Now, Iginla's departure means the fire sale is on in Calgary, with goalie Miiika Kiprusoff and defenceman Jay Bouwmeester clearly also available.

What can GM Jay Feaster get for those players? Draft picks and marginal prospects, probably, as the evidence mounts on how badly Calgary management has handled the dismantling of a team they insisted until last week was playoff worthy.

Kiprusoff, even if he's willing to play in the NHL next season, is worth less on the open market given that Vancouver is definitely looking at a last minute deal to move Roberto Luongo and Phoenix might be willing to part with free-agent-in-waiting Mike Smith. There's great confusion over whether Kiprusoff will report to another team if dealt, which, in conjuction with the reality that the Leafs may be the only team hunting for netminding, could mean he is moved for a lower draft pick and nothing more.

Vancouver has pretended all season there's a strong market for veteran goalies, but it's clear there isn't. That means Kiprusoff, if dealt, may go for much, much less than Iginla despite the fact the Finnish netminder could have a much greater impact on the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Pittsburgh, meanwhile, has added Iginla, Morrow and defenceman Douglas Murray in recent days, sacrificing only top blueline prospect Joe Morrow as an asset of any significance.

The road to the Stanley Cup final in the Eastern Conference quite obviously goes through Pittsburgh. Fans in Calgary, meanwhile, can only sit back and cheer for one of their fan favourites to emerge with a championship ring.

 

 

The Gamble That Is Dickey

So here's the book on R.A. Dickey.

Not just in the sporting meaning of that phrase, although all major league pitchers are carefully watched for their tendencies and habits.

In this case, Dickey comes with an actual bound book. "Wherever I Wind Up; My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball," is what it's called, published last year with the help of New York newspaperman Wayne Coffey.

It the extraordinary story of a common boy and man who became an uncommon man and athlete, truly one of the few noteworthy sports book written in recent times by an athlete. You wouldn't say it was a must read, necessarily, as Dickey's story is well known. But it's a worthy and sometimes inspirational effort and probably, for a Blue Jays fan, a book very much worth perusing to make the 2013 season and Dickey's potential role in it that much more enjoyable.

It's particularly worth reading to fully comprehend not only the unique person and pitcher coming north with the Jays next week, but also the rather spectacular leap of faith and downright gamble Alex Anthopolous and Co. have taken in acquiring the 38-year-old hurler and giving him the start on opening day.

The book is intriguing not just because it details the well-publicized absence of the ulnar collateral ligament in Dickey's right elbow that almost short-circuted his career before it got off the ground, or tells of his personal challenges in overcoming not one but two separate incidents of sexual abuse as a child, or because it includes some subtly unflattering stories about Alex Rodriguez, and Dickey's bizarre and nearly fatal decision to swim the Missouri River in what almost seemed like a suicide attempt.

No, if you're a Jays fan planning to heavily invest in the possibilities this team appears to offer this season, you should read this book to fully understand the gigantic gamble the Jays have taken here, not just in surrendering top prospects Travis d'Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard to get Dickey but also in guaranteeing the pitcher $25 million in salary over the two seasons after this one.

Sometimes such leaps of faith pay off. Sometimes believing in a wonderful story leaves the believer disappointed.

Dickey himself spells out the nature of the gamble. In mid-August, 2011 - just 19 months ago - his stats with the Mets were a 5-11 record with 3.72 ERA and, in his words, a "propensity to give up late home runs."

That's where he was. An intriguing, hardluck story with the chance of a happy ending to his career spent mostly in the minors, but nobody's idea of a $25 million pitcher worth two high-end prospects and a pitcher forever in search of confidence.

Yet here he is today. And here the Jays are.

It took the best part of two decades for Dickey to find his way past his personal experiences and demons to believe in himself, and the book tells in some detail of the role people like Buck Showalter and Orel Hershiser took in convincing him to go down the knuckleball rabbit hole.

Dickey finally made it to the mountain top, both figuratively in his sport and literally, climbing Mt. Kilamanjaro to support his charitable instincts.

But the book delivers a strong sense that this is an ongoing process of self-discovery. The Jays have invested a great deal in this pitcher, and Dickey himself makes it clear he's still figuring it all out, "learning not to worry about the next week or month or year, but rather to put all my energy into living the next five minutes well."

There was a time, and not so long ago, where Dickey was where Ricky Romero is right now, searching for answers, desperately trying to convince himself and others he was capable of pitching in the big leagues.

That's the most vibrant message of his book. The fact that Dickey is the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner but still a gamble, that not so long ago he woud never have been viewed as a pitcher worth two top prospects and $25 million, is what makes him such a compelling figure this season on a compelling team.

Must Points

Let's not bother with a debate on the future of the shootout today. It'll just read like a lament for the home team here in Toronto anyway.

Moreover, when it comes to the Maple Leafs and their playoff chances, you can look at four shootout losses in the last 17 days as evidence of a major failing, and attempted backhands on five of six tries against Ryan Miller last week in Buffalo were surely an exercise in silliness. And doesn't it seem like James Reimer looks behind him after every single shootout attempt?

All that said, those four SO losses also delivered a critical four points in the standings, points the Leafs weren't getting with any regularity in the opening six weeks of the seasons. We can discuss the logic of the three-point game all we want, but if you want to be a playoff team, those three-pointers can kill you if you're not getting your share.

That point last night in Boston - and what reasonable Leaf fan wouldn't be thrilled with three of four points against the Bruins over three days? - enabled the Leafs to stay ahead of the New Jersey Devils, who earned a point in a shootout loss of their own to Ottawa.

If the Leafs don't qualify for post-season play, it won't be because of their ineptitude in the shootout, although obviously that's not helping.

It will almost certainly instead hinge on how the Leafs do against teams sitting in the standings just below them, including five of seven matches over the next two weeks.

Start with Florida tonight and Carolina on Thursday, both at home. Then there's the Flyers next week, followed by a home-and-home with the Rangers early the following week.

There's 10 points available right there against teams below them. Get eight of those points and Randy Carlyle's group will have gone a long, long way to ending this franchise's playoff drought.

The immediate emphasis has to be to avoid a letdown tonight against the dreadful Panthers, a team hammered by injuries that is holding down last place in the conference.

Seems like it was only yesterday the city was wondering why Brian Burke's Leafs couldn't be more like Dale Tallon's Panthers, how Tallon and Kevin Dineen had proven a bunch of bandaids could produce the quick fix and a playoff position that Burke's approach couldn't.

Well, not so much any more. The Panthers, still in single digits for wins, are up to 208 man-games lost to injury this season already. Centre Stephen Weiss was lost for the season, killing Tallon's chances of getting something for the UFA-in-waiting at next week's trade deadline. Alexei Kovalev proved to be no help at all. Brian Campbell, a wonderful story last year, is minus-19. Kris Versteeg blew out a knee on a hard but legal hit from Tampa's Radek Gudas. Ed Jovanovski has hardly played. Jose Theodore has been hurt. On and on it goes.

From a Leaf perspective, if you were permitted to hand-pick an opponent for a third game in four nights and a back-to-back situation, this Florida squad would be the team. That's not insult to the Panthers. This is just a team that's had a black cloud following it all season.

Phil Kessel, meanwhile, was his usual no-show in Boston last night and should have plenty of energy. Perhaps Matt Frattin, who appears to require periodic boots in the butt, will draw back in. Ben Scrivens seems a logical choice in net.

At the same time, Carlyle has to think long and hard if he wants to go with the Mike Kostka-Jake Gardiner combo on the blueline again. James van Riemsdyk is slumping and was benched last night. Dion Phaneuf looked like he was lacking in get-up-and-go. Does the club really need two heavyweights every single night?

Carlyle has got to find a way to squeeze some energy out of a lineup playing its fifth game in seven nights. 

This is a must win, the kind of points the Leafs will regret not getting if they don't get to the playoffs a lot more than the one lost last night.

Then comes Carolina, another team with serious injury concerns, including the absence of both goalies (Cam Ward and Dan Ellis) and three defencemen, including Justin Faulk, who was leading all Hurricanes blueliners in ice time before going down with a knee injury.

The Leafs are 4-1-2 at home in March, so the can't-win-at-the-ACC excuse is wearing off.

Time to get points against shorthanded teams from hockey's weakest division. Miss this chance, and things will suddenly seem a great deal tougher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the Lockout Fades Away. . .

Can't remember the last time it was this necessary in late March to check on the NHL standings every day and sometimes twice a day, which is one measure of just how deliciously wild the final month of this season is going to be.

It's not just the games. Trade speculation and actual transactions are heating up. Jarome Iginla officially wants out of Calgary, or so it seems, and the weirdness of Dallas trading away its heart-and-soul captain for futures while occupying a playoff berth in the west is perplexing.

There's going to be more of all of this. The Maple Leafs, at the very least, should be in the playoff race until the final week, which is something new. Trade-wise, few expect anything big, but GM Dave Nonis is nosing around, and the addition of depth players and possibly insurance in the form of a veteran goalie make sense.

Yes, it's almost to the point where the nasty lockout is, if not forgotten entirely, rarely a reference point in hockey conversations.

Which, in a way, is the problem. Or will be.

See, it was about money and greed, and then by late December/early January, became about money and greed and a rush to get something done so there'd be enough time to make some money.

Those were the motivations, nothing more. Which means a significant number of important matters were all but ignored. There was a partial effort to at least begin reforming the draft lottery system, but otherwise it was as if both sides simply agreed to let the other sores fester so they could get the cash registers ringing again.

Those sores haven't healed, however, which means the NHL, which always thinks short-term, will have to deal with them eventually.

The issues include:

--Visor use.

The issue barely came up during collective bargaining, even though it has been a sore point for years between the owners and players. The league wants visor use to be mandatory, the players don't. Well, at least they didn't until Marc Staal took a puck in the eye. Now his brothers and vets like Brooks Orpik have donned visors, and the NHLPA wants to take (yet another) vote.

This is classic NHL/union bafflegab. Put off progressive change until events force change.

--Shootouts.

Nobody saw shootouts being such a dominant element in the game. They were supposed to be a little after-dinner sweet, not the main meal every single night. This became a glaring problem last season and is equally so this season. Perhaps it could have been discussed during CBA talks as a means of including helpful change with the commencement of the season.

--Olympic participation.

The NHL and its union completely lack vision in this area, so it's no surprise that with Sochi now only 10 months away, there's still no decision on whether NHLers will participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics. This is truly inexcusable.

--The game.

The so-called "ping-pong" effect in the modern game, much of it created by strategies intended to deal with the removal of the red line, has unfortunately produced a style of game that is both repetitive and, on many nights, utterly boring. Some serious thinking is going to have to go into dealing with this problem, and you saw at the most recent GM meetings there's no immediate push to do it now.

So, just as we had to live with the Dead Puck Era for a decade before the Bettman administration even admitted there was a problem, the likelihood is that ping-pong hockey is with us for a while.

--Supplementary discipline.

Expect this to be a monstrous problem once the playoffs begin. Again.

It's pretty clear that either Brendan Shanahan is either over-matched for the job or that his idiosyncratic and utterly arbitrary approach is producing massive confusion everywhere.

It wasn't just the stupifying Rick Nash decision from last week, although that was a beaut, another case in which by trying to logically explain a bad decision to a favoured few Shanahan ties himself in knots and ends up explaining nothing.

It was also, however, the decision not to give Ryan Clowe the automatic 10 games for leaving the bench to start a fight. It goes back to Shea Weber's turn-buckle move on Henrik Zetterberg in the first round last year, and Duncan Keith's hit on Daniel Sedin, and then the super-sized suspension to Raffi Torres.

Shanahan went into this extremely important job without any real training, other than being able to speak into a camera for the purposes of the video presentations that have now become a running joke. It was decided he could rule on the basis of his sterling reputation and engaging personality, and it hasn't worked. Other more experienced NHL ops people have been shunted to the side so Shanahan can take centre stage, whether he's ready for the job or not.

His lack of training has produced a long series of bizarre, inconsistent decisions. Now, as with the decisions to suspend Joffrey Lupul and Alexander Edler last week while letting Nash play on, it's really impacting the competition.

The only change that came with the CBA was that players can now appeal suspensions of six or more games to a neutral third party. Shanahan has so far got around this potential thorn by making sure all of his suspensions are less than six games.

This is going to be a gigantic problem once the playoffs begin, and almost certainly over the next month. What gets punished and what doesn't has never been as thoroughly confusing as right now.

This could have been cleaned up in the CBA talks. Perhaps with new standards. Perhaps with a new system.

Instead, the sore was allowed to fester.