Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 5.17

www.afootinthecrease.com

After going on a bit of a good run through the end of November and into December where the Toronto Maple Leafs actually clawed their way back, at least, to the periphery of a playoff race, it’s starting to appear now that it was all just a mirage. And really, it does make sense. Every team, even the very worst in the league, will go through at least one stretch of ten or twelve games throughout the course of the season where you know what, they actually don’t look that bad.

It’s what that team does in the other seventy plus games of the season that really makes the difference and clearly, that is an area where the Maple Leafs having been nothing but an epic failure all year long. Constantly getting off to horrendous starts in games, giving up the first and now, far too frequently, the second goals of the game, is simply not a recipe for success. The team is just not talented enough to continue to try to fight back from behind all the time.

What’s more concerning is the fact that over the last week or two, the Maple Leafs seem to be falling back into their culture of complacency where nobody really seems to care about the way things are unfolding. If there was one thing they could rest on early in the season, it was that they showed a willingness to play tough. However since the beginning of December, that too has disappeared with only six fights in nineteen games, the four fights against Philadelphia earlier this week notwithstanding.

Where has the accountability gone? Where has the intensity gone? It’s almost like now that they are once again quite a distance from the playoffs – nine points to be exact – they have accepted their fate and given up. Undoubtedly, the Maple Leafs will get hot again at some point this season and win say four of six games. But as the legendary rock band, “The Who” once said, “we won’t get fooled again.” Hate to say it but the jig is up on this season. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.