Do the Leafs miss Dave Bolland?
Does the town drunk know where the village pub is?
Silly questions of course, and hard ones to look at in a patented Leaf free-fall that happens a couple good times per season as far as i can remember. That said, they showed a bit of jam today against the mighty Sharks, who did dominate them for long stretches. For a team where your 3 top centers (for tonight's game) weren't even full time NHL'ers at the start of the season they were a shot away from getting at least a point playing a very good team. But close ain't good enough in sport, that's why they keep score.
The goaltending tandem of Reimer and Burnier is cooling off to the point where they are not winning games that perhaps they didn't deserve to win. Now i wouldn't say there are a whole lot of bad goals, it just kind of happens when you spend great periods of the game running around in your own end and the opposing team goes for some shooting practice in close with traffic and often.
This is where the composure, work ethic and hockey smarts of a player like Dave Bolland is really missed. The kind of guy who might be able to will the team on with workhorse example, but he has a severed tendon and will be gone for some time, so as they say in sports, it's a time for somebody else to step up.
You know it's not good when you are wondering who will step up... then again 5 game losing streaks and a couple of regulation wins since the last update is never good for the soul. That said the team is down a number of their top forwards (and a D man) and besides one ugly loss they have been hanging around a lot of games, so this could be a good thing. A bounce here or there can change a lot in a game like hockey. Obviously looking for positives in losses is not the kind of thing one would rather be doing but alas here we are. When they went down 2-0 to the Sharks i figured it was over, but then it was 2-2... the old Leaf team would have folded like a deck of cards, so give them credit for that. If a Pittsburgh forward wasn't allowed to score a grossly illegal goal last Wednesday the might have beaten a top team... but if's and almost don't count, and truth be told they create the holes they fall into.
Is it a fragile team? Well not nearly as fragile as a few years ago, but they do need to start generating more offense from old fashioned hockey. You know, man in front of the net, get the point shot through and slam away at the rebound. Easier to say than do of course in this new "shot blocking" NHL... but sometimes you need to take the lesser shot, and not wait for the perfect shot. That said i noticed how well the San Jose Sharks got to the loose pucks in front of their net and moved out of the zone compared to how the Leafs scrambled. Make no mistake even though they have been giving up a fair amount of goals, the goaltending has not been the problem. As a Leaf fan it's hard to put out of memory Vesa Toskala being interviewed after a game describing a "few soft goals" but the other five he didn't feel bad about. Slipping into darkness...
The fact that the team is hanging around most games with a checking line center, and a few kids and some call ups holding down the fort isn't terrible, losing 5 in a row is of course and time will tell if they can right the ship before falling out of a playoff spot, which they are still in (worth noting). As many wise observers have noted "you have to be bad to be good", we can only hope this bad stretch will be a lesson on how to be better in the future, perhaps one day if they could ice their full lineup.
That said they are about to play some pretty good teams coming up, and they are going to need to find a way to get some points. Can they do it... that's why you play the games.
Does the town drunk know where the village pub is?
Silly questions of course, and hard ones to look at in a patented Leaf free-fall that happens a couple good times per season as far as i can remember. That said, they showed a bit of jam today against the mighty Sharks, who did dominate them for long stretches. For a team where your 3 top centers (for tonight's game) weren't even full time NHL'ers at the start of the season they were a shot away from getting at least a point playing a very good team. But close ain't good enough in sport, that's why they keep score.
The goaltending tandem of Reimer and Burnier is cooling off to the point where they are not winning games that perhaps they didn't deserve to win. Now i wouldn't say there are a whole lot of bad goals, it just kind of happens when you spend great periods of the game running around in your own end and the opposing team goes for some shooting practice in close with traffic and often.
This is where the composure, work ethic and hockey smarts of a player like Dave Bolland is really missed. The kind of guy who might be able to will the team on with workhorse example, but he has a severed tendon and will be gone for some time, so as they say in sports, it's a time for somebody else to step up.
You know it's not good when you are wondering who will step up... then again 5 game losing streaks and a couple of regulation wins since the last update is never good for the soul. That said the team is down a number of their top forwards (and a D man) and besides one ugly loss they have been hanging around a lot of games, so this could be a good thing. A bounce here or there can change a lot in a game like hockey. Obviously looking for positives in losses is not the kind of thing one would rather be doing but alas here we are. When they went down 2-0 to the Sharks i figured it was over, but then it was 2-2... the old Leaf team would have folded like a deck of cards, so give them credit for that. If a Pittsburgh forward wasn't allowed to score a grossly illegal goal last Wednesday the might have beaten a top team... but if's and almost don't count, and truth be told they create the holes they fall into.
Is it a fragile team? Well not nearly as fragile as a few years ago, but they do need to start generating more offense from old fashioned hockey. You know, man in front of the net, get the point shot through and slam away at the rebound. Easier to say than do of course in this new "shot blocking" NHL... but sometimes you need to take the lesser shot, and not wait for the perfect shot. That said i noticed how well the San Jose Sharks got to the loose pucks in front of their net and moved out of the zone compared to how the Leafs scrambled. Make no mistake even though they have been giving up a fair amount of goals, the goaltending has not been the problem. As a Leaf fan it's hard to put out of memory Vesa Toskala being interviewed after a game describing a "few soft goals" but the other five he didn't feel bad about. Slipping into darkness...
The fact that the team is hanging around most games with a checking line center, and a few kids and some call ups holding down the fort isn't terrible, losing 5 in a row is of course and time will tell if they can right the ship before falling out of a playoff spot, which they are still in (worth noting). As many wise observers have noted "you have to be bad to be good", we can only hope this bad stretch will be a lesson on how to be better in the future, perhaps one day if they could ice their full lineup.
That said they are about to play some pretty good teams coming up, and they are going to need to find a way to get some points. Can they do it... that's why you play the games.
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