The Sky Is Falling

After a 4-0-0 start to the season, Leafs fans were ecstatic. Sitting on top of the Eastern Conference with a perfect record, most Leafs fans were reveling in what they assumed to be a revival of the struggling franchise. What a difference two games makes.

Back to back losses against the Islanders and the Rangers seem to have brought the Leafs, and subsequently Leafs fans, back to earth, as all of their worst fears are being realized. The offense is struggling. The power play is struggling. The energy and jump the Leafs showed in the first four games is now gone. The sky is falling on the heads of Leafs fans everywhere.

While it is still too early to jump to any kind of conclusion, fans are calling for trades, firings, call ups and demotions to fix the listless Leafs and get back to their winning ways. The reality of the situation is that the Leafs have simply been out-played in these last two games, and if it weren’t for the efforts of the Leafs goaltending and defense corps these last two games could have easily been more than one goal losses.

Aside from a 5-1 victory against the Ottawa Senators, every Leaf game this season has been decided by one goal. When your margin for error is that small, the breaks can go either way. In their last meeting, the Leafs got a break when Marc Staal was (correctly) called for interference in the overtime period, allowing Phil Kessel to score the game winner on the power play. In Monday’s game against the Islanders, the opposite occurred, with Brett Lebda getting a goaltender interference call and John Tavares scoring on the resulting power play to give the Isles the victory.

Last night’s game was slow and sloppy to start things off, and the lucky break came for the Rangers when a puck slipped through Gustavsson’s pads during a scrum, landing on the goal line. Ruslan Fedotenko dove past Dion Phaneuf to tap it in. The Rangers added another a few minutes later, and the Leafs found themselves in an early 0-2 hole at the end of the first period.

They came out with some more jump to start the second, but could not solve Rangers goaltender Martin Biron as their chances were continually rushed or broken up by the Rangers defense corps. Dan Girardi and Michael Del Zotto had particularly strong games for the Rangers, who boasted 30 blocked shots by the end of the game. Most of the Leafs best chances came on screens and deflections, but Biron was up to the task.

The third period saw more of the same, with the Leafs pressing the attack and the Rangers countering, resulting in the Leafs highest shots allowed total of the season, as Gustavsson made 28 saves in the losing effort. Leafs bench boss Ron Wilson sent a message to his club early, stapling underwhelming center Tyler Bozak to the bench in favour of Mike Zigomanis. Wilson also moved Colby Armstrong onto the second line, demoting winger Nikolai Kulemin, who had been struggling with the puck.

The moves seemed to light a fire under the Leafs offense, as more chances were to be had before Armstrong rewarded Wilson with his first goal as a Maple Leaf, cashing in on a Clarke MacArthur rebound and breaking Biron’s shutout bid. With the monkey off his back Armstrong’s goal seemed to give the Leafs the energy they lacked in the first period, as they pressed hard for the tying goal. Kris Versteeg, the very definition of ‘snake bitten’ early in this Leafs season, was sent in on a breakaway but was unable to convert.

With the Leafs heading to Philadelphia on Saturday to take on the Flyers, a game many consider to be the Leafs first true test of the season, the onus will be on Ron Wilson to fix the ailing offense. The Flyers goaltending has been suspect to start the season, and an aggressive Leafs club could really turn up the heat against them. The Flyers have lost two straight decisions, including a 5-1 blow out by their rival Pittsburgh Penguins.

Will we see some new line combinations on Saturday? Is it too early to start experimenting? With the Leafs AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, struggling out of the gate, it seems unlikely that too many roster changes will occur, though Wilson could decide to re-insert Carl Gunnarsson, who has spent the last two games in the press box after a poor start to the season.

I, for one, would like to see the lines mixed up somewhat. Nikolai Kulemin could provide a physical spark to a rather diminutive top line, while Kris Versteeg may benefit from the tenacity of Mikhail Grabovski. This move would also break up the handedness pairings we’ve seen early on, as the Leafs top line of Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak and Kris Versteeg all shoot right-handed, while the second line of Kulemin, Clarke MacArthur and Grabovski all shoot left-handed.

Could Colby Armstrong be rewarded for his strong play with a promotion to one of the top two lines? Could we see more experimentation with the power play unit? Armstrong could be a solid net presence with the man advantage, something the Leafs have resorted to using Dion Phaneuf for. Phaneuf should be back at the point launching bombs at the net, and Armstrong may be the only one crazy enough to stand in front of the net for those.

While it’s not time to hit the panic button just yet, and while I’m sure GM Brian Burke is always on the look out for ways to improve his club, 6 games is just not a large enough sample size to make any drastic decisions concerning club personnel (right Bryan Murray?). Let’s just all calm down a bit, wait a few more games and see where we are in November, or even December, before we starting calling for changes. This team has shown a lot of promise early on, but to think that they wouldn’t need to work hard to maintain their early success is the stuff of fantasy.

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