I haven’t watched hockey much the past few seasons, not NHL at least. Now, with the Steelers out of the playoffs and my kids starting to get out of the way I think I can get back to following the Leafs but I hardly recognize the team.
I’ve watched a grand total of one period plus a bunch of game highlights on the NHL site. My impression so far is the forwards are Kessel and a bunch of borderline AHLers. The defense looks OK but unspectacular. Luke Schenn kind of reminds me of a smaller, more talented Luke Richardson. I think the goaltenders look…beleaguered. They are probably better than this group of players makes them look.
Those are my impressions so far. Correct me, enlighten me. Are there any diamonds in the rough? Stars on the rise coming up through the system? Is Rickard Wallin really as bad as I think he is?
Leafs suck. Get used to it 
Ok, the only good thing about the Leafs, other than the joy of watching them lose, is, IMHO, Gustavsson. I like the way he plays, and I wish him well. I think on another team he would be a much better goalie, and I’d love for him to end up somewhere else where he can actually develop, rather than have him ruined by a team trying for force him into the #1 spot before he’s ready (because, really, Toskala isn’t that great). I don’t pay enough attention to the rest of the team to have an opinion on them, really.
Unfortunately Ive stayed current with that aspect of their progress. Im surrounded by Habs fans at work so I know your team better than mine right now.
Well, in fairness to the Maple Leafs, we might note that they had a horrid start (1-7-5), then turned it on and got respectable for a while. But now they have only taken 7 pts of the last 26 available (3-9-1), so they are back to being pretty awful. That means they did have a string from the end of Nov. to the end of Dec. where they were 13-10-4, a pretty decent record.
I’ve not been following enough to know the ins and outs of this, I just noted it one day as I looked idly at the standings during Dec. and remembered that they had started 0-7-1. I don’t follow the NHL any more, much, having gotten totally disgusted with it during the year that wasn’t.
That was when I stopped too. I’m finally ready to forgive them I think.
Based on what little I’ve seen of the team so far. I’m really surprised their record isn’t worse than it is. They have a very good coach though.
Basically, Toronto is just good enough to lose. They’re 1-10 in overtime/shootouts this year, the worst record in the league. Only Dallas, with 11; and Tampa with 10 have as many as the Leafs. Both Dallas and Tampa have five wins in extra time.
I’m not sold on Ron Wilson’s coaching ability. In fifteen years (not counting this season), he’s been to one Stanley Cup final(Washington, 1998) and one Conference final (San Jose, 2004). I’ll excuse his first years with Anaheim, because they were an expansion team; but his tenure in Washington and especially San Jose has largely been disappointing, IMHO.
The Leafs are legitimately a very, very bad team. They are the worst team in the league (well, really, them and Carolina. I suspect Edmonton isn’t as bad as they are since they play in a tougher conference.)
Phil Kessel is a very fine young player and will help them for many years to come, but there aren’t a lot of other A-level prospects here. There are a few Bs, and Tyler Bozak might be an A, although they’ve rushed him so fast it’s hard to say for sure. The team isn’t looking good, though. Unfortunately, the cost of getting Kessel was their next two first round draft picks, so that kind of cancels out.
What makes it hard to judge the players is that the penalty killing has been so unbelieveably bad, bad to a level almost unprecedented in NHL history. the Leafs have allowed 58 power play goals - 12 more than the second worst team, and about 23 more than average, a staggering number. It’s hard to explain precisely why it is; it’d be easy to just conclude they all suck, but the parts are made of of players who you would assume can’t possibly be that bad at killing penalties, based on their history. So maybe the players are worse than previously thought, maybe Ron Wilson is a much worse X’s and O
s coach than previously thought, or maybe it’s dumb luck; it’s hard to say.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that the Maple Leaf’s penalty killing this year is the worst of any team, ever.
The Leafs are killing penalties at a 69.6% rate.
The all-time worst team in NHL history is probably the 1974-75 Washington Capitals. On the season, the Caps allowed 446 goals against, and finished with a .131 winning percentage. Both are NHL records for futility.
Their penalty killing checked in at 71.3%
I stuck with them through the Ballard years so I’m not afraid to follow a team through hardship at least. They seem to have an eye on the future which is good. Please, no more late season Mike Gartner trades.
Tyler Bozak isn’t a guy I would have know to pay attention to so that might be good information. If the team isn’t going to win I like to at least follow the development of some prospects.
I have to admit that from what I’ve seen from this group of forwards, I’m actually not all that surprised that they would rank as one of the worst penalty killing units in the league. I prefer to pay attention to what the defencemen are doing on a penalty kill but my eyes keep going back to the forwards. They really look bad. Not Kessel of course but the rest of the group, very unimpressive.
Thanks for the info.