Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 3.16

www.afootinthecrease.com

Before embarking their longest road trip of the season a week and a half ago, we suggested on this program that five out of seven wins would be necessary to allow the Maple Leafs to not only keep afloat, but to start to establish themselves as legitimate playoff contenders in the Eastern Conference. Now five games in, five wins is out of the question with the Maple Leafs going 2-2-1 thus far during the road trip. Two more games remain against the Islanders and Flyers, both teams struggling of late after strong starts to the season. Winning both would give them nine out of a possible fourteen points, a decent result considering the loss of Bryan McCabe early in the trip.

What’s most disappointing for Leaf fans is the fact that of the five games played so far on this road trip, only one of them has been a game they had no business winning. Against Montreal, they were simply not very good but in their other losses to Carolina and Tampa Bay, the Maple Leafs wasted two solid road efforts with atrocious play in the final minute of both games. For the most part, defensive play in the absence of Bryan McCabe has not been an issue. Hal Gill, Pavel Kubina and Ian White have all seen increased ice time and have raised their games accordingly.

The biggest issue right now for the Maple Leafs right now is goal scoring. Vesa Toskala, who has given his team a chance to win on most nights over the past month, has been the only reason why they have been getting away with it to this point. Over the past week, Mats Sundin’s line has been quiet for the first prolonged stretch of the season and only Matt Stajan with three goals in his last six games has scored consistently. Improved performances out of Kyle Wellwood, Darcy Tucker, Jason Blake and Alex Steen will be key as the Maple Leafs will require some secondary scoring over the final two games before finally returning home next Saturday December 29th. But hey, all that was just rigmarole.