Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 2.21

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It’s very simple. If the Maple Leafs are interested in joining seven other teams in the Eastern Conference in a battle for a coveted spot in the Stanley Cup Finals come spring time, they will have to play a lot more games like Saturday against Montreal and an awful lot less games like a week ago Saturday against Pittsburgh. It seems quite elementary, I agree. The game against Montreal was a win, the game against Pittsburgh, a loss. Wins put you in the playoffs, losses don’t. But it was the way in which the Maple Leafs won that game that creates a lot of optimism for this team’s chances going forward.

With 32 games left in the regular season, the Maple Leafs currently sit with 52 points. Looking at past history, its very unlikely a team will make the playoffs with anything less than 92 points. While there is the chance, once all is said and done, that the 8th place team could hold less than that number, reaching 92 points likely ensures a ticket to the dance. That means the Maple Leafs would need 40 of a possible 64 available points or 20 wins in 32 games.

Definitely not an easy task but it is one that certainly is doable if the Maple Leafs put in the same type of effort they did in their first game back after the all star break. Playing with the same sort of urgency and desperation they did in that game will give them a chance to win big games down the stretch as points become more and more valuable. Theoretically a game in October is worth the same as a game in April but it is only human nature to turn up the effort as the end of the season nears and playoff spots start to appear up for grabs. That means to win those games down the stretch, a team has to be better than they were when they won games in October. Last night, the Maple Leafs were better than they were in October and if they keep up the same kind of play, they will be better in Game 1 of the playoffs than they were last night. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 2.20

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So here the Maple Leafs sit, as they enter into a week long layoff for the NHL all star festivities, in a three way tie for 8th place in the Eastern Conference. Perhaps not as good a position as the Leafs would like to be in but nevertheless it’s spot many predicted they would not be within arms reach of come this time of the season. When you look back over the last month and realize the amount of top players they have been without, it is even more impressive that the Maple Leafs still hold their collective heads above water. For a good two week stretch, the Leafs were without Antropov, Ponikarovsky, Tucker, Wellwood, Peca, and White and looked toward guys like Ondrus, Newbury, Deveraux and Westrum to keep the walls from tumbling down. Some of the injured players have returned but Tucker, Wellwood, Peca and White still remaining out of the lineup. The week off will no doubt help them get closer to returning.

In addition, Mats Sundin, since a tremendous effort on New Year’s Day has been cold of late. Players go through slumps at times during the year and Sundin seems to be going through his right now. The good news for the Maple Leafs is that even with Sundin cooling off of late, that too has not been enough to derail their playoff aspirations. The week of rest will also be a benefit to Sundin, who at 36 years old, will certainly welcome the time to rejuvenate for the stretch run.

Despite losing big to Pittsburgh Saturday night, the fact is the score was irrelevant. Whether it was 8-2 or 2-1, it was a loss for the Maple Leafs. The point is though being in a tie for 8th place at the all star break after having to go through all the adversity they faced over the past month is what’s really important. The Maple Leafs could have been prebooking golfing trips for mid April but instead the race for the playoffs continues. If the Leafs had of been asked a month ago if they’d take the position they are in right now, you’re darn right they’d take it. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 2.19

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Over a long NHL season, there will understandably be times where teams will not be at their best. Some nights, the scoring may go south; other nights, the defense could be porous and at times, the goaltending might be an issue. However, you hope that as the season goes on, there are not too many of those types of nights. The Maple Leafs, this season, have gone through a few dry spells and have seen enough defensive blunders from Bryan McCabe and friends, but recently it’s become pretty clear that the Maple Leafs are starting to lose too many games because of goaltending.

Now neither Head Coach Paul Maurice nor his teammates have singled out Andrew Raycroft as the primary reason for losses of late, though Maurice did call on one of his netminders to step up and be the guy a few weeks ago. You are not going to hear coaches ripping their goaltenders in the media, unless you are a fan of the Tampa Bay Lightning and have to put up with listening to John Tortorella. It simply creates too much dissension in the dressing room. However it doesn’t mean that goaltending is not the reason a team is losing.

The Maple Leafs have been blessed with all star netminding since the arrival of Felix Potvin in the early ‘90’s. Potvin gave way to Curtis Joseph who later handed the torch to Ed Belfour. So far Andrew Raycroft has not lived up to the legacy left by his predecessors. So often in years past, goaltenders would consistently steal games for the Maple Leafs. Fans would continue to complain about what we would do if we didn’t have Potvin or Joseph or Belfour standing on their heads. Well now we are starting to get a taste of what it’s like without reliable netminding. Not once this year has Andrew Raycroft stolen a game. It has got to the point where the Maple Leafs are starting to lose games they played well in because of their goaltending. You can’t expect to be successful when that is the case. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamrole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 2.18

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There were a variety of reasons that sent the NHL into an 18 month abyss when the lockout began in September of 2004. Fixed player costs, revenue sharing, a salary cap. All were among the reasons for the darkest days the NHL had ever seen. Yes, the hot button issue was always the NHL’s demand for a salary cap, but the wonderful benefit lurking behind all this strife was a league filled with parity. The salary cap would not only fix player costs at a definitive level to protect free spending owners from themselves but it would also level the playing field. All of a sudden, whether you were the poorest team or the richest team, there were only so many dollars you could spend. The quality of a hockey team now depended on the effectiveness at which it was managed not the amount of dollars in its back pocket.

Now a season and a half into the new economic landscape, boy are we seeing parity in a way we have rarely seen parity in the NHL before. As the Eastern Conference standings sit on January 6th, a mere 8 points separate 5th place from 14th. Essentially this means a good week can put a team in good playoff position and a bad week can drop a team to the lower depths of the conference.

This log jam of teams not only represents parity but parity between a good cross section of teams with different financial situations. Small markets like Pittsburgh, Carolina and Ottawa are competing point for point with some of the league’s most wealthy teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Rangers. For wealthy teams, the emphasis has been put back on pragmatic management instead of fixing problems with money.

The value of games in January is also very high. With so many games against opponents within 5 or 6 points of each other, wins are crucial. Had the Maple Leafs lost both games to Boston this past week, they would have been 7 points behind the Bruins instead of one point ahead. The salary cap is working and parody is the result, but hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 2.17

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Sometimes I think the NHL presents a double standard with their often questionable decision making. After a fight filled game between the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals this past week which included several incidents that cross the line of acceptability, everyone knew suspensions were going to be handed out. The next day, suspensions were handed out so let’s get out the noisemakers and party hats, the NHL got that one right, but that’s where it stopped.

Colton Orr receiving five games for a cross check to the face of Alex Ovechkin still does not seem like enough punishment but comparatively speaking with the one game Donald Brashear got, at least I can live with it.

One minute the NHL preaches a new dawn of fast, skilled, clean, obstruction-less play, the next they barely punish an action that severely tarnishes the image the NHL seems to be trying to convey.

For giving Brashear only a one game penalty for a sucker punishing Aaron Ward not once but TWICE is absurd. Brashear is an unskilled thug with no respected for the game itself or his fellow players. He already has been slapped with a three game ban earlier this season and comparing his actions to a similar incident where Scott Nichol received nine games for sucker punching Jaroslav Spacek, something just doesn’t add up.

Brashear’s place on the Capitals is in theory to protect one of the brightest young stars in the game. However when he goes out and attempts to injure the Rangers star Jaromir Jagr with a knee on knee hit, he only antagonizes the Rangers to retaliate against Ovechkin. Brashear doesn’t go after Jagr’s knee, Orr doesn’t go after Ovechkin. Simple as that! Brashear’s action sparked the entire course of events in that game and for that he should have been handed a much stiffer penalty. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.