Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 5.15

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Well here we are, the final show of 2009, a perfect time to look back at some of the best and worst from the Maple Leafs’ year that was. Unfortunately once again when it comes to the best, we’re still left grasping for small, moral victories with no real team success to speak of. No playoff spot for the fourth year in a row in the spring of 2009 and at this point at the end of the calendar year, no real indications yet that the playoff drought will be coming to an end in the spring of 2010.

For the worst, well there are certainly plenty of options in that category but where to begin. The horrendous start to the 2009-2010 season with no wins in the first seven games and only one win during October is a pretty good place to start. How about the regression of Luke Schenn? Gone is the confident rookie we saw a year ago, instead replaced with a tentative, mistaken prone player whose minutes have been cut to between eight and ten a night. A terrible thought crossed my mind the other day, Luke Schenn is on a dangerous pace to become just like Mike Komesarik…and that is not a good thing.

The play of Tomas Kaberle has definitely been among the positives, as he finally seems to be back at the level where he was before being decked by Cam Janssen in 2007. Until this season, it is not hard to agree that Kaberle just was not the same player after that hit. Scoring at nearly a point per game pace, Kaberle is on pace for a career year and to do something a Leafs defenseman has never done before: lead the team in scoring.

Additionally, the farm system is as stocked now as it has been in many seasons although, so far, it’s too early to determine what kind of returns the Leafs might get on the prospects they’ve invested in. At least for a change you can say this: finally the potential for returns are there. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 5.14

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Hard to believe we’re already at our final show before Christmas but with that being said, it presents a perfect opportunity to look back on the season to this point and evaluate just where the Maple Leafs are as a team.

Right from the start of training camp, Brian Burke and Ron Wilson were making it clear that they expected the Maple Leafs to be an improved group this season, one that would consistently work hard, be a difficult team to play against, and once all was said and done, be in a fight for a playoff spot. Through the preseason schedule that saw them go six and three, expectations might have been raised to an unrealistic level, perhaps setting the team and its fans up for disappointment.

And man was the first month ever a disappointment. One for October and only one win in the first thirteen games made the playoffs seem like a long shot for the fifth consecutive season. However, an improved month of November and an outstanding month of December which has featured seven wins in eleven games thus far has the Maple Leafs sitting four points back of a playoff spot.

So essentially, the Maple Leafs are right where they thought they would be, they just didn’t get there the way they thought they would. One can only wonder though how good a position they might have been in if they could have gone even four or five for October.

What’s become obvious though, especially after the Leafs lost two straight in the middle of last week, is that they will have to keep up their improved play of late from here on out until the end of the season to have any chance at the playoffs. That means no protracted losing streaks of two or three or four or five games. That luxury was lost after earning just one win in October.

More of the same from the month of December will give the Leafs a chance. Anything less and it will be golf, not playoff hockey, for a fifth straight spring in Toronto. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 5.13

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Since the beginning of December, the Toronto Maple Leafs have looked like a vastly different hockey team than the one seen earlier in the season. After losing seven straight games right off the bat, the chances of making the playoffs looked dim, practically nonexistent to be frank. But over the last two weeks, three things have changed for the better and because of it, the Maple Leafs now sit just four points behind the eighth place Montreal Canadiens while holding a game in hand.

First of all their record at home. Before defeating the Atlanta Thrashers last Monday, the Buds had yet to record a midweek home win. Following another home win over the Islanders on Wednesday and a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the first place Washington Capitals on Saturday, all of a sudden the Leafs are looking at a three game home winning streak. Those three wins at home last week surpassed their entire total of two home wins through the first two months of the season. With that success, the Maple Leafs home record now only sits two games under the five hundred mark.

Secondly, goaltending. Vesa Toskala is back, looking like the Vesa Toskala who tended goal in years past for the San Jose Sharks. There is no question now that Toskala is the undisputed number one goaltender in Toronto as the team is playing with confidence in front of him due to Toskala’s new found penchant for big saves at big times.

What was that word there, oh yeah, confidence. It’s amazing what that can do for a hockey team. No longer a fragile-looking team where one bounce that goes against them will open the flood gates toward a long night. Instead, the Maple Leafs have shown lately that if they are going to get beat, their opposition will have to work hard for a full sixty minutes. Perhaps Alex Ovechkin said it best following the Capitals loss to the Leafs on Saturday night.

"They never quit. Those guys always skate hard, they forecheck hard. They might not be the most talented team, but they never give up." But hey, all that was just rigamarole.

Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 5.12

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Just when you start to think that the Toronto Maple Leafs are starting to get rolling and might, just might be a team that can compete consistently night in and night out, they turn in a game that reminds everyone to put those thoughts on hold for a little bit longer. You see, over the past four seasons, the Maple Leafs have become masters of excelling when all the pressure is off. The names have changed in that time but the same problem still lingers today: every time the team plays its self back into a position where there is something on the line, they can’t quite get over the hump.

Case in point against the Boston Bruins on Saturday night, a win would have put the Maple Leafs right back into legitimate contention for a playoff spot, within four or five points depending on the results of other games that night. Well right from the drop of the puck, it was clear that the Maple Leafs were not in the game. In a game with something riding on it, the Maple Leafs turned in one of their worst efforts of the season.

Before the Buds will ever entertain thoughts of making the playoffs, they will need to find a way to look like the team that they resemble when there is nothing to lose when there is actually something to lose. In other words, they need to learn how to play under pressure.

It seems that over the past four seasons, the Maple Leafs consistently fail when they reach the threshold where one more win would get people talking again that maybe this team could get back into a playoff race. After Saturday’s dismal effort against the Bruins, the Maple Leafs now sit seven points back of a playoff spot. All of a sudden the pressure is off so it would not be a surprise in the least to see them play loose and relaxed over the upcoming week and reel off a few wins to get them back to within four or five points. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.