Leafs Set To Challenge Stars In Dallas

The Toronto Maple Leafs along with their bruised and battered egos from a terrible performance in Long Island on Monday will take on the Dallas Stars tomorrow in what will be the only meeting between the two teams this season. The Leafs will obviously have to play much better in all areas of their game if they want to walk out of the Continental Airlines Arena tomorrow with a victory against a strong and confident Dallas Stars team that lead their division with a record of 4 wins and 2 losses.

Following the Leafs brutal performance on Monday against the Islanders, head coach Pat Quinn said, "quite honestly, we are too easy to play against." Frankly, this quote very accurately summarizes the Maple Leaf's problems. They are not posing enough of a challenge to opposing teams. They are not doing all of the important simple little things like backchecking, tying men up infront of the goal, and controlling the puck. Giving the puck away in their own zone has been a major issue this season as it has led to a number of goals already.

Then there is the power play. It is clearly not functioning at the level most people were expecting. Right now, the Leafs sit 28 out of 30 teams with only 2 goals in 27 opportunities. This must improve because, come the end of the season, power play rankings are often a very good indication of the type of success a team had. Very rarely does a team finish in the bottom third in the power play rankings and have a realistic chance of winning the Stanley Cup.

The Leafs are also ranked in the bottom third in penalty killing. Having both special team components ranked in the bottom third of the league is a very dangerous situation to be in. If a team is not scoring power play goals but they are giving them up, it makes it almost impossible to win hockey games on a regular basis.

When a team is not doing well in all these aforementioned areas of the game, saying we are too easy to play against is probably quite accurate.

It is not likely to see Mogilny back in the lineup until the Leafs return home on Saturday. Mikael Renberg's status is also not know at this time.