I know I know I know - it's damn hard not to panic when the team is in shambles like this right out of the gate.
It's tough to watch, and easy to freak out about.
BUT, there's a few things you should keep in mind as your heart starts beating too fast and your blood starts to boil.....
1) IT'S EARLY. REALLY, REALLY, EARLY.
Yes, I know - wins are wins, losses are losses, whenever they happen during a season. Absolutely true.
But it's really early. really, really early.
I make a rule every year, in every sport, that it's absolutely useless to take any kind of stock in a team before the 1/4 mark of the season - that'd be around the 20-game mark for NHL teams.
It doesn't matter if your team is playing good or bad, you can't really make any judgement on the team until AT LEAST the quarter pole of the season - and even then, it's STILL really, really early.
There's no doubt this sucks right now, but you gotta be patient.
Remember, last year the Flyers started 0-3-2, the Flames started 1-3-1, and both teams finsihed around 100 points in the end.
The Ducks started 1-5-0 last year and still made the playoffs.
Don't freak out, quite yet.
2) WE'RE MISSING KEY PARTS
For better or for worse, there are two young players who we pursued heavily this off-season who are viewed as key young building-block type players for this organization now and going forward - Phil Kessel and Jonas Gustavsson.
We've been missing them for the most part.
And the thing is, we don't really have any guys behind them that are really close to their talent level, so their absence is a bigger deal for us than maybe it should be.
Of course, some of this is self-inflicted - if we had gone to Gusto from the start we likely would have one or two wins by now, and we wouldn't look nearly as sorry as we do now.
These two players should have a very large impact on the team, as they are by far the best talents in the organization at their positions.
3) WE'RE NOT ICING OUR BEST TEAM
In addition to missing those two key youngsters to injury, we have also been suffering due to some questionable roster choices by Mr. Ron Wilson - a good coach who's arrogance might be hurting him at the moment.
His most egregious error was putting Vesa in over Gusto to start the year, when Vesa was clearly underserving based on recent history. That was simply stupid, and we paid for it dearly.
But his decisions with the forwards are perhaps more bizarre - he has continued an obsession with borderline talents like Stempniak and Mayers getting key scoring minutes, despite the team sucking as a result, and for the most part ignored the fact that the likes of Bozak, Kadri, etc. were key reasons why the Leafs looked good in the preseason.
He's continued this errors by doing things like sitting out Hagman and Stajan, who, while the benchings weren't totally undeserved, are simply more talented than other players getting big minutes.
The fact of the matter is that there is a boatload of superior talent in this organization that simply hasn't had the opportunity to play over lesser talent, both due to injury and due to quesionable decisions.
We are relying more on the likes of Toskala, Stempniak, Mayers, Rosehill, Wallin, Primeau, Orr than we are on the likes of Gusto, Kessel, Bozak, Stalberg, Tlusty, Kulemin, Kadri - which is just plain stupid, really.
This team has nice forward depth - but a lack of top-end scoring talent. The only way we can have an effective group of forwards is if we play enough of that talent to fill out 3 good scoring lines.
We can't afford to ice 6 checking-line quality forwards with our lack of 1st line scoring talent.
Hopefully, Wilson wises up to this fact sooner rather than later.
.
.
This team isn't nearly as bad as it looks, and a couple of key roster improvements - 1) Gustavsson being healthy, 2) Icing three lines of scoring talent, including Kessel - should make a pretty large difference in how they look going forward.
It's wilson's coaching that's really starting to bug me.
He's giving preferential treatment to players who haven't earned it.
The leafs are terrible in very very coachable areas (power plays and penalty kills). Players who played their ***** off in preseason, played amazingly and gave the team a chance to win were benched or sent to the minors in favor of players who did nothing last year and are doing nothing this year.
I don't know about his playmaking and strategic coaching, but so far his roster coaching has been questionable at best.
I know I know I know - it's damn hard not to panic when the team is in shambles like this right out of the gate.
It's tough to watch, and easy to freak out about.
BUT, there's a few things you should keep in mind as your heart starts beating too fast and your blood starts to boil.....
1) IT'S EARLY. REALLY, REALLY, EARLY.
Yes, I know - wins are wins, losses are losses, whenever they happen during a season. Absolutely true.
But it's really early. really, really early.
I make a rule every year, in every sport, that it's absolutely useless to take any kind of stock in a team before the 1/4 mark of the season - that'd be around the 20-game mark for NHL teams.
It doesn't matter if your team is playing good or bad, you can't really make any judgement on the team until AT LEAST the quarter pole of the season - and even then, it's STILL really, really early.
There's no doubt this sucks right now, but you gotta be patient.
Remember, last year the Flyers started 0-3-2, the Flames started 1-3-1, and both teams finsihed around 100 points in the end.
The Ducks started 1-5-0 last year and still made the playoffs.
Don't freak out, quite yet.
2) WE'RE MISSING KEY PARTS
For better or for worse, there are two young players who we pursued heavily this off-season who are viewed as key young building-block type players for this organization now and going forward - Phil Kessel and Jonas Gustavsson.
We've been missing them for the most part.
And the thing is, we don't really have any guys behind them that are really close to their talent level, so their absence is a bigger deal for us than maybe it should be.
Of course, some of this is self-inflicted - if we had gone to Gusto from the start we likely would have one or two wins by now, and we wouldn't look nearly as sorry as we do now.
These two players should have a very large impact on the team, as they are by far the best talents in the organization at their positions.
3) WE'RE NOT ICING OUR BEST TEAM
In addition to missing those two key youngsters to injury, we have also been suffering due to some questionable roster choices by Mr. Ron Wilson - a good coach who's arrogance might be hurting him at the moment.
His most egregious error was putting Vesa in over Gusto to start the year, when Vesa was clearly underserving based on recent history. That was simply stupid, and we paid for it dearly.
But his decisions with the forwards are perhaps more bizarre - he has continued an obsession with borderline talents like Stempniak and Mayers getting key scoring minutes, despite the team sucking as a result, and for the most part ignored the fact that the likes of Bozak, Kadri, etc. were key reasons why the Leafs looked good in the preseason.
He's continued this errors by doing things like sitting out Hagman and Stajan, who, while the benchings weren't totally undeserved, are simply more talented than other players getting big minutes.
The fact of the matter is that there is a boatload of superior talent in this organization that simply hasn't had the opportunity to play over lesser talent, both due to injury and due to quesionable decisions.
We are relying more on the likes of Toskala, Stempniak, Mayers, Rosehill, Wallin, Primeau, Orr than we are on the likes of Gusto, Kessel, Bozak, Stalberg, Tlusty, Kulemin, Kadri - which is just plain stupid, really.
This team has nice forward depth - but a lack of top-end scoring talent. The only way we can have an effective group of forwards is if we play enough of that talent to fill out 3 good scoring lines.
We can't afford to ice 6 checking-line quality forwards with our lack of 1st line scoring talent.
Hopefully, Wilson wises up to this fact sooner rather than later.
.
.
This team isn't nearly as bad as it looks, and a couple of key roster improvements - 1) Gustavsson being healthy, 2) Icing three lines of scoring talent, including Kessel - should make a pretty large difference in how they look going forward.
And, again, remember - it's EARLY.
Really, really EARLY.
I agree with most of what you say but how can Wilson start Gus when he had a heart procedure done than when he did start him he goes on IR? Some of things Wilson does makes me wonder at times but he didn't have much choice there.
Good post zeke. Agreed on almost all counts. I'd also add, there's a lot of new faces, and team cohesion on the ice doesn't come immediately. Your 20 game evaluation point is spot on. There are those who never thought this team would be good this season, and they're allowed to chortle until the team gives them a reason not too, but for those amongst us, including myself, who looked at the roster and felt this team should compete for a playoff spot, it's far too early to be jumping off the bandwagon and changing an opinion in that regard.
Well said. My only concern is that Wilson will continue to fixate on the Mayers and Primeaus of our team rather than inserting young, talented players into the lineup.
My hope is Bozak and Gunnarsson will find (more) playing time. Does anyone know the status of Van Ryn?
The Leafs have enough players who can score to be a good offensive team (like we were last season). We just have to use them correctly. Putting Wallin and Mayers on the 3rd line puts way too much pressure on the top 2 lines.
Yeah the Canucks went on a 9 game loosing streak last January - I live in vancouver - and this city was livid - they wanted to fire coach av and trade half the team - players like bieksa, burrows, salo, willie mitchell, were all in the doghouse - even SUNDIN...during this loosing streak.
What happened? Luongo comes back - the canucks beat the canes 4-3 in o/t and even blew a 3-1 lead..it felt like: here we go again. Who scores in ot? Burrows. What happens next.
Burrows played on a line with the Sedin twins that night as an expirment because coach AV was juggling lines...anything to get a win... 0-8-1 ..and Burrows then joins the Sedins for the rest of the year and goes on to net 28 goals. Team made the playoffs and faired ok (2nd round exit) - but they were 11th or 10th at the end of the loosing streak. They lost to every crappy western team too without luongo
coyotes, kings, blue jackets, wild, stars, list goes on. it was worse then what we have now....
So I think it can turn around - we just don't know what Kessel and Gusto can do for us..that's the only panic.
Good post Zeke except with your obession of bashing Stempniak every chance you get. He has earned his playing time, your boy Jason Blake should be benched to hopefully never return
i'm a pessimist at heart, but i could never have envisioned how badly the leafs have played, not just losing, but looking completely lost. i'd like to hope that when kessel and the monster get into the line up things will improve, but that's allot of pressure to put on a rookie goalie, and the new savior of the franchise, i hope this pressure doesn't ruin either of them.
I admire Stemp's work ethic this year, but unforunately he lacks any discernible skill, which means Wilson's choice to make him our leading forward ice time getter is only hurting us.
Agreed. It isn't quite as bad as people make it out to be, I can understand the panic though.
Gus and Kessel being in the mix, and having some stability will be helpful.
MacDonald also looked better than Toskala has. Vesa can play better, but all things considered it was nice to see someone actually make it through a period without giving up a goal (how long since that happened with Vesa? Opening night?).
We also had some time early in a period to establish some momentum, which was another nice change, although we didn't capitalize at least we weren't spotting the other team a goal right out of the gates every period.
Either way, we still need to play MUCH MUCH better, but that's pretty freaking obvious.
To me the two most glaring problems are dumb penalties and Goaltending.
The penalties might even be the biggest issue. Between Komi taking penalties where he's being over aggressive to the number of penalties were taken in the offensive zone, all those need to stop. I think Stajan took one of those the other night and then Poni got one last night. Really, thats just dumb stuffthat should be able to be easily corrected. If they are not, those players should be benched. The one good thing in all this is that you have at least one or two guys in the A who are itching to come up and play, and the regulars dont have their jobs guaranteed for life.
The Goaltending is something thats up in the air. Monster didnt get a full camp, he's new to the NHL and he's already had a minor injury. Not a great way to get into a groove to start a new career. He might work out as the starter, he might not. This is the one area, where I think we may need to consider making a move if things dont change fast.
