Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 5.14

www.afootinthecrease.com

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.