Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 4.20

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On Saturday night, for the second time this season, the Toronto Maple Leafs will enshrine another player in the rafters of Air Canada Centre by raising the banner of Doug Gilmour, officially honouring number 93 for his years with the team – years that were quite clearly his best as a National Hockey League player.

Unlike earlier in the season when the same honour was bestowed upon Wendel Clark, there really is little room to argue Gilmour’s place among the other Leaf legends whose banners also hang from the ACC rafters. Not only was Gilmour a hugely popular player during his tenure in Toronto, his numbers over his first two seasons with the Maple Leafs stand in a league of their own when compared with other Leaf greats. No other Leafs numbers can equal the 301 points Gilmour racked up during 1993 and 1994 campaigns through any other two year stretch. To reach a total that lofty, most other Leafs needed at least four seasons to achieve a similar mark.

Before coming to the Maple Leafs midway through the 1991-1992 season in one of the most lopsided trades in NHL history, Gilmour was a good but not great player. The same applies following his departure. But for those two springs in 1993 and 1994 that saw the Leafs go on two magical playoff runs, Gilmour was just that himself: magical, arguably the best player the NHL had to offer.

The next player to join Gilmour and the other honoured Maple Leafs should be Rick Vaive. Three consecutive fifty goal seasons and one of the best players during a very dark decade in Maple Leaf history, today the team longs for a player to have three consecutive thirty goal seasons. Following that, don’t expect any more players to be honoured until…can you say Mats Sundin? Whenever it is the Maple Leafs have decided enough time as passed. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 4.19

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The theory of “Tank Nation” pertaining to the Maple Leafs has become a touchy subject since midway through last season when it became clear that the team would miss the playoffs for the third consecutive season. Now, with the Maple Leafs on their way to a fourth straight season devoid of post season competition, the suggestion that they should purposefully lose their remaining games in the interest of securing a favourable draft position in the John Tavares sweepstakes is once again being brought back up.

We’ve said on numerous editions of this very program that purposefully losing games is not a good culture to foster on a team. Earlier in the week, Maple Leafs’ Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations said, "That is not the way to build the winning culture we want to establish." However, I’m starting to believe what the Maple Leafs are saying on the surface is not exactly what they are practicing from within.

Early in the season, Ron Wilson would hold players accountable by benching them or leaving them as healthy scratches for even the smallest of indiscretions. Over the past few weeks, the play of several veterans seems to have slipped back towards complacency but there has been no sign from the Coach of any method of accountability coming their way.

Nik Antropov has not scored in his last fifteen games but has not seen a diminishment in his ice time, much less the threat of becoming a healthy scratch. I guess it becomes awfully difficult to trade someone when you admit you don’t think they are any good. If Antropov, or for that matter Kaberle, Kubina or Ponikarovsky, is indeed on the trading block, the Leafs would lose significant bargaining power if their trading partner can cite a recent banishment to the press box.

So while the Leafs say they don’t purposefully want to lose, the fact that their hands are tied when it comes to holding players they might soon want to trade accountable, it could be forcing them to lose games purposefully anyway. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 4.18

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Last week, Maple Leaf fans witnessed the return of Bryan McCabe to Toronto. In just over a month from now, the much hyped return of Mats Sundin will take place. But sandwiched in between the return of two outstanding albeit at times, enigmatic players was the return of Wade Belak to Toronto this past week when the Nashville Predators visited the Maple Leafs.

Unlike McCabe and most likely Sundin, Belak received a warm welcome and loud ovation from the gathering at Air Canada Centre. Not bad for a guy with just one goal in his past two hundred and thirteen games. His appeal though to Leaf fans was obviously not due to his scoring prowess but rather his willingness to play a role, accept that role, stick to it without complaining and in turn excel at it.

Following one of the most glaring cheap shots in recent memory in which Cam Jansen, then of the New Jersey Devils, drove an unsuspecting Tomas Kaberle head first into the boards long after he had moved the puck leaving the talented Leaf defenseman with a concussion and sore neck, Belak took note of the incident and knew what he had to do.

In the next meeting between the two teams, Belak asked Jansen to fight. He then took centre stage at centre ice in arguably what turned out to be the defining moment of his Leaf career. Belak responded the right way, not delivering an equally dirty hit, but facing Jansen man to man and ensuring he or any other would- be cheap shot artist knew that under his watch, the Maple Leafs would not be a team that could be pushed around.

Since Belak’s departure, his presence has been sorely missed and you can be sure Brian Burke is going to work to restore a similar feeling for opponents when facing the Maple Leafs. I’ll leave it with a direct quote from Kaberle himself. "It was really nice what Wade did for me. I never asked him to do that for me. He did it all on his own. "Wade cared about his teammates. He defended them. He really cares about players." But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 4.17

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Well well well. Perhaps the clock, as the Maple Leafs approach the midway point of their schedule, has indeed struck midnight. All of a sudden the magic that appeared to resonate through the first half of the schedule seems to be wearing a little thin with more and more efforts that resemble the kind we became accustomed to last season starting to show up.

Case in point, in the much anticipated return of Bryan McCabe to Toronto last Tuesday night, it was McCabe who was left with the last laugh as the Maple Leafs sleepwalked through the game. Yes there were twenty men on the ice wearing Maple Leaf jerseys, I just don’t think they were the same men that we’ve seen play with such passion, energy and grit through the first half of the season.

Bottom line, the game was an embarrassment as was the Sabres game on New Year’s Day, the Capitals game on December 28th, the Islanders game on December 26th and the Stars game on December 23rd. All games where it looked like there was very little concern from those on the bench regarding the outcome of the game.

If Brian Burke had any doubts as to whether this Maple Leaf team was a playoff contender, he did not need to be a rocket scientist to decode the message his team left for him with their effort against the Panthers.

Trade possibilities should now be explored for any Maple Leaf or Marlie save for Luke Schenn that another general manager shows interest in. That includes players like Tomas Kaberle, Pavel Kubina, Nik Antropov, Alexei Ponikarovsky and Vesa Toskala.

Hard work and determination can only last so long before the crust of the matter is reveal and that is that the Maple Leafs just are not a good enough team. The more young players, prospects and draft picks that Brian Burke can stockpile from here on in will only help to improve the team quicker. But hey, all that is just rigamarole.