Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 3.27

www.afootinthecrease.com

Over the past few weeks, the concept of throwing games down the stretch has taken on an official moniker on call in radio shows around the city of Toronto: Tank Nation. These are the people who think the Maple Leafs should purposefully lose games down the stretch to get in a position to draft hot shot prospects like Steven Stamkos or Drew Doughty or Alex Pietrangelo or Zach Bogosian. For those who think a first overall pick will correct the Maple Leafs’ problems in one fell swoop are indeed sorely mistaken.

While getting one of the aforementioned prospects in a Maple Leaf uniform would not be a bad thing, it would only be one small step in turning this franchise around, not a ticket to a Stanley Cup parade in June 09. Take Washington and Alex Ovechkin. Arguably the best player on the planet right, Ovechkin in his third season has yet to propel the Capitals into the playoffs. Not to say they are not a rapidly improving team but since the lockout, the Capitals with Ovechkin could end up making the same amount of post season appearances as the Maple Leafs: zero.

The Leafs need full scale changes in the off season, that which includes trading several players currently on the roster. If players like Ponikarovsky, Antropov, Tucker, Kubina, McCabe and so on float through the remaining games this season showing no professionalism whatsoever, what do you think other general managers will say when Cliff Fletcher picks up the phone in the summer time and offers up one of those players? Encouraging players to lose games on purpose does absolutely nothing to increase the value of your assets as GM’s will look for player who brought it day in day out even when games were essentially meaningless.

If the Leafs scout well, there is no reason a solid player cannot be chosen in the mid first round. If they can’t maybe the first problem that should be addressed is not the lineup on the ice. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.