Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 5.26

www.afootinthecrease.com

So here we are in mid March when nothing really matters again for the Toronto Maple Leafs. For the fifth year in a row, the Leafs are auditioning for jobs next season instead of jockeying for playoff position this season. Not surprisingly with nothing on the line, just as they seem to have done the past four years towards the end of the season, wins are starting to role in for the Leafs as they play an energetic, intense and passionate brand of hockey.

The frustrating part is where was all this inspired play when it mattered back in October, November and December? At least this year though, going on a bit of a winning streak won’t hurt a potential lottery draft pick as it has in previous seasons.

It’s starting to become frightening how the Leafs can just cruise through the first half of the season turning in a blasé effort here and a sleepwalker there, throw out all the right clichés about needing to work harder and get off to better starts and then once all the pressure is off with the playoffs all but out of sight, finally start to execute that M/O.

Take Lee Stempniak for example. After scoring just twenty five times in one hundred and twenty three career games with the Leafs, Stempniak already has five goals and an assist in four games since joining the Phoenix Coyotes. In short, he has been dynamic and has looked like a completely different player than he was in Toronto. He’s been using his speed, fighting to get into good scoring areas and has looked like a downright dangerous player because of the intensity and hard work he has brought to his game.

During Stempniak’s entire tenure in Toronto, I challenge anyone to find a similar stretch of four games that matches the start to his career in Phoenix. One can only wonder why we never saw a similar style out of Stempniak as a Leaf but really, he was hardly the only guilty party in that regard. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.