“He’s making too much money!”

This is easily the weakest of the arguments. I’ve seen a lot of people worried about the actual dollar figure that he’s making per season, which as stated above is under 4 million a year. To put that in perspective, the deal he’s coming off of right now pays him 4.2 million a year over 4 years, signed at the end of the 2007-08 season. At that point, LIles had come off of down season, earning himself just 32 points in 81 games with the Colorado Avalanche. Since that point, his output has improved on a year by year basis, inching closer to his career high in 2005/06 of 49 points. In fact, he was on pace to break it and gain 50 over 82 games if it wasn’t for injuries this year. Even still, over 35 points in this injury-shortened year isn’t unrealistic. So his overall output is on an upswing instead of a downturn right now. To go with that, the Salary Cap is higher now, meaning he could have the same percentage of a dent while earning more money.

But no. Instead, Liles, who’s been said to be very happy with being in Toronto (and with a 4 year commitment, it shows), took over $300,000 less per year, with the contract still not being a “retirement” contract – he’ll be signing at least one more before the end of his career (where that is remains to be seen). In terms of dollar figure’s, its fantastic for a 45 point defenceman – one could imagine he could’ve gotten himself a deal along the lines of 5 years, 25 million if he actually hit the market on July 1st. While Leafs fans debate how much the team overpaid him, hockey fans across the NHL seem to be reacting in amazement at how little he signed for. Particularly for a guy who gave up his first chance at Unrestricted Free Agency.

“What about his concussion?”

This is admittedly of some concern. After all, he’s still not back in the lineup. At the same time though, I’m sure if there was any problems that concerned the Leafs long term, they would’ve probably checked on such a thing before signing him to a 4 year extension in the middle of January. If they didn’t, it would be nothing short of one of the most ridiculous oversights I’ve ever seen for anyone, ever.

“The contract is too long!”

Four years is absolutely fine. The Leafs are a team that is completely lacking a veteran presence – there are exactly two players that have a 3 to start their age, in Liles and Tim Connolly. Connolly will likely move on after next season. If Liles will be a Leaf until he’s 35, that’s cool. In fact, if this team wants to take a run, adding a few guys who are older is probably a good thing. Simply put – veteran presences are crucial to the development of your younger players. Kevin Shattenkirk even mentioned on twitter today how much of an influence he was on him in Colorado – imagine what Liles is doing for the likes of Gardiner and Gunnarsson? Most of all, vets win championships. For all the hype of having young core players being important to winning a cup in this day and age, those cores had veterans surround them. Don’t believe me? Check out this pic I made for Tumblr (and reblog it and follow me if you’d like, obviously)

..you gotta click it though! /plug

With those rosters looked at – yes, there’s a chance that Liles isn’t as good at the end of his contract as he is right now. But he’s also a skilled defenceman, not a rugged defensive type that starts to wear. And he’s a skilled defenceman that keeps in shape and plays independent of system, not exactly a Tomas Kaberle, who vanished from reality the second he left the blue and white. If a declining Liles is like a declining Rafalski or Gonchar, I’d be more than happy with that.

Players aren’t useless at 35, anyway. I get that the internet wave of Leafs nation is younger than the former outspoken crowd, and that the former outspoken crowd doesn’t want to see the old days where the team is stacks of veterans on top of each other trying to find their way. But you have to inject older presences into a successful team. It’s just reality.

“He’s not very good!”

Tell that to the powerplay unit, that’s doing so good without him. “But it’s not ac-” that was the point. As well, he’s proven to be plenty capable in his own end. Is he at Dion Phaneuf’s level? No, but that’s not easy to do. Is he probably the second best defenceman on the team? I’d say so.

“He’s going to get in the way of people!”

Saying you don’t want to sign a player of Liles’ caliber because you’re worried that he might get in the way of Jake Gardiner or Carl Gunnarsson possibly becoming a Liles-type is pretty sort sighted. It’s not like avenues can’t be looked at to ship somebody out when the time arises. As well, you’re also risking these guys doing well. What if the young kids burn out? Then you’re stuck chasing for someone of his talent level. Better to keep what you have and worry about having too much depth than possibly not having enough. And people throwing Jesse Blacker into the mix? He looks good on the Marlies…but can we wait until he’s at least played a game up here before declaring his talent level?

That said, if Luke Schenn would probably be wise to stay around his phone right now – I wouldn’t be shocked if this means he’ll be on the block. But that’s for a different article all together.

What I guess I’m getting at is…

Having somebody like Liles for as long as the Leafs now do is better than it’s made out to be. He’s a very solid player, looks like he won’t be slowing down just yet, and has a lot to contribute to developing the kids. If they become competition to him, that’s something we can worry about when it actually happens. Until then, this is a superb signing that’s sure to make many GM’s around the league envious, and ensure the Leafs remain a solid team on the rise for the next little while. Let’s see where Burke goes from here.

However, this year, it seems that swinging for the fences is the goal of everyone. When James Van Reimsdyk is the lowest profile player in trade speculation, that speaks volumes. Most of it seems to default to the big three in Anaheim, Rick Nash, and to some extent, Eric Staal and Paul Statsny. In other words, the usual suspects.

The Anaheim bunch have their rumours stemming from a quote from Anaheim GM Bob Murray, stating that the only two players on the team that absolutely won’t be traded are Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne. As such, this was rather quickly interpreted as “we’re selling everyone”. Oddly enough, when Brian Burke repeats on the radio on a freqent basis that every player has a price and that he’d take an overpayment for a core player, nobody bats an eyelash.

The reality is, Getzlaf, Perry, and Ryan won’t come cheap, or anything close to it. The overpayment it will likely take would gut the Leafs roster to levels that would set the team back as a whole both short term and long term. While all three of these guys are fantastic talents, you’re easily giving two current players of a high quality, at least one or two higher level prospects, and draft picks just to acquire one. If any of them get moved, it’ll be to a team that’s willing to give them a player of a similar calibre as a shakeup. Unless everybody’s cool with trading Phil Kessel for Bobby Ryan, we need to stop talking about this.

Next up is Rick Nash. To be honest, every trade rumour round up until he’s been dead for at least six or seven years will have Rick Nash to the Leafs on it. Forget the fact that while good, he makes a ridiculous amount of money. Forget the fact he doesn’t have much of anything in terms of a two way game. He’s tall and he’s from the GTA and occasionally gets the TSN highlight of the night, so in Leafs Nation’s mind, he’s about up there with a prime Gretzky. It’s outrageous – this is a guy that despite his skill set and size, almost never throws a hit, rarely sees a penalty kill, and has been point per game a whopping once in his career. At 28 years old, I wouldn’t expect any massive breakouts. Yes, he’d get a boost by being on a line with quality linemates (theoretically – working with Jeff Carter appears to be a bust), but players who get hyped up as much has he does should be able to put up elite points in spite of who they have, not because of them. And at 7.8M a year long term, with a definite overpayment of talent required to get him (he is after all, the all time face of the Blue Jackets, and their captain).

In fact, putting those two paragraphs above me together – maybe Rick Nash should go to Anaheim for one of Perry or Ryan. It would probably suit both teams better than a deal with Toronto.

Eric Staal is similar to Nash, except he actually did have a gargantuan year where he did carry his team on his back. The issue is – it’s been 5 years since then, and he’s playing like a shell of himself now. Reclamation project? Sure. But do you throw 8.25 PER SEASON at a reclamation project? Especially one who is, yet again, probably the face of the Hurricanes since the team moved from Hartford, even though he’s only been around for about half the years? This one isn’t even as unlikely, it’s just extremely risky. This is a market where you get ripped to shreds for not performing to your dollar figure starting at around a 2.5M contract. Staal makes triple that, and his play this year reflects a guy who makes half that, if not less.

Stastny of all options seems the most logical, but even then, Colorado is in no rush to rid themselves of him, and he still makes over 6 million. Which begs the question – when people want to trade picks, prospects, and young players, where is this cap money coming from? The Leafs aren’t exactly the Jets or Islanders.

Personally, I feel even if you get rid of overpayments and salaries and all of that, going after the above players doesn’t fit the teams actual needs right now. After all, when a team is 7th in goals for and 4th in powerplay percentage, perhaps the problem isn’t in how good at scoring your top forwards are? Yes, it’s easy to say that Toronto can score away their problems if they stack every line up as a scoring line, but this also isn’t NHL12, and I’m saying that strategically, finacially, and accounting for player values.

Toronto’s key need is to fix the fact that they’re 25th in goals against and 30th on the penalty kill. The penalty kill being so bad that it’s affected to overall goals against. Toronto is a below average 19th in even strength goals against, 28th in 4-on-5 goals allowed, and 30th in 3-on-5 goals allowed.

Personally, my solution isn’t in the top six. I’m fine with the idea of not getting big name first line wingers right now, considering the Leafs have, you know the highest scoring 1st line winger combination in the league. The first line centre market is non existant, and there’s been a fair bit of support scoring. Basically, the solution isn’t goals. It’s trying to fix the goals against.

At the same time, one has to remember this is a team with a young core, and you don’t want vets to get in the way long term – this is a low-cost, quick fix scenario. Players that will help the current situation out a bit, then leave it up to Burke if he wants them around longer or if the kids can take their place.

On forward, the guy I want to go for is a penalty kill specialist. While not the player he used to be while a member of Brian Burke’s cup winning 2007 Anaheim Ducks, he’s still a very effective player that racks up significant PK time for his team and is easily their best forward in that regard. He’s not a liability 5-on-5, though his production isn’t that high. He’s a UFA at the end of the year, and he’s playing on a team that was expected to do well this season but failed to reach those expectations, at miserable porportions.

If your guess was Columbus Blue Jackets Centre Samuel Pahlsson, you’re correct! If you’re sitting there, going “wait, I thought it was Montreal Canadiens Left Winger Travis Moen!” then fear not, because you were also spot on in this regard. Both players could probably had at a minimal expense and would be a huge boost to a struggling penalty kill. Pahlsson leads Columbus in penalty kill time, whereas Moen is 2nd to Tomas Plekanec on Montreal. Despite the teams they’re on having horrible seasons, Pahlsson has managed to have a +2 at this piont in the year, and Moen’s got a decent enough -1. As well as having the ability to help out now, these two would be fantastic mentors to the ones who will eventually take their place in the position – remember that this is a team with literally zero over-30 presence in the roster. They’ve got their cup rings, and they have a wealth of knowledge. Why not tap in to that for a few months?

Next up is the defence. At first glance, bringing Hal Gill back into Blue and White doesn’t seem like the worst idea in the world, seeing as he eats up some of the top penalty kill numbers in the league (ask Pittsburgh how crucial he was for them after he was sent their way), but with all of that said, he’s anotehr large, immobile defencema, which the Leafs have plenty of. I’d rather have someone who while not offensive, still has a bit of mobility to them. Again, without sacrificing much long term, having them to help out and mentor temporarily before the decision is made whether they’re needed. That’s where Barret  Jackman seems perfect, another solid defensive defenceman who is a pending UFA, but seeing St. Louis’ success this year, I have my doubts that he’d be pried from their hands easily. Willie Mitchell could be another potential target for the same reason, though this would require Los Angeles to fall off in the coming weeks. Similar is the case of Bryce Salvador out of New Jersey. Really, the search for a quality defensive defenceman who doesn’t get in the way of Toronto’s long term plans may be a tough one, with most options either having several yers left on their deals, or being part of teams that would prefer to keep them at this point.

Which leads to to the only big-swing option that makes some sense to me, and that’s Ryan Suter. Suter is a UFA this year, and Nashville has a lot of decision making to make between him and Shea Weber. Unlike the others, he’s a better overall player, and a younger one as well. If there’s anyone who’s worth paying a lot in terms of assets for that could be on the market, it’s him. Rather that supplementing a strength, he repairs a need.

At the same time, though – if the lower cost guys can’t be had, maybe it’s worth holding our breath a little on the defensive core? There’s a lot of talent throughout the system that’s progressing nicely. A playoff push is a luxury at this point, not a requirement, and if it breaks the bank on the teams long term chances, it’s just not worth it.

The last area to look at is in net, but as consistantly inconsistant as everybody has been this year, I think that’s a closer to the deadline issue, after you work on shoring up the penalty kill. Removing the penalty kill from the equation, Reimer becomes a top tier goalie statistically, and Gustavsson remains mediocre – but that’s decent-ish if he’s going to the backup. If a veteran backup could be had at for a low cost (hey – maybe somebody believes in Jonas enough to give a pending UFA of their own up in exchange so they can work on signing him), then it may be worth looking into.

In short, the position the Leafs are in right now is a luxury more than a requirement, when the teams youth is considered. Drastic measures could be disasterous, especially if taken in the wrong direction, which seems to be what going all in on highly paid scoring talent would be. If you have an achillies heel, it makes more sense to protect that weakness than to further strengthen your fists. Not only do people prefer the fist-strengthen strategy, they’re willing to rid of ALL of the leg armour to do it. But forget the metaphors – the point is that acquiring some temporary defensive ability, especially up front is the best chance the team has at enjoying some short term benefit without risking a lot in the the long run.

Then again, Burke is about as predictable as 20 sided dice. I guess we’ll see the outcome in a few weeks.

PS – Dion Phaneuf has mind blowing plumber swag.

Apparently, the Winnipeg Jets disagree with this theory, and while they allowed fewer and didn’t turn a Danish prospect and opponent into an instant religious figure, the team as a whole somehow played worse overall tonight and left the Leafs to feast on the results.

The night started with a bang, with the prototypical new Leafs play – Lupul and Kessel working together on a goal. This time, it was Kessel’s goal off a slick Lupul feed to give the Leafs the leafs the lead. And then….uhh.. nothing else really happened? Saves were made, but the period went on without penalties.

Moving on from the first period, Tim Connolly started the second period with a bang. Just a minute and a half in, Connolly took a pass from Joey Crabb, and snuck it by Chris Mason for his seventh of the season. Oddly enough, the Jets had not one, but two delayed penalties on the play. As such, Tanner Glass was the only one to head to the box after the goal. Toronto would be unsuccessful on the ensuing powerplay, and the one that followed courtesy of Mark Stuart a few minutes later.

The third period would start just as quickly as the others. Mikhail Grabovski was the lucky forward this time, firing a wrist shot to give the team a 3-0 lead. Andrew Ladd went to the box for roughing five minutes later, giving the Leafs one more opportunity to score on the powerplay. Clarke MacArthur would make no mistake, scoring his 12th of the season. Matthew Lombardi was busted for tripping shortly after, givin the Leafs their first penalty kill of the game. Don’t hyperventalate too much – nothing came out of it, the Leafs slowed down the pace to finish the game, and the Leafs took this one 4-0.

Other Notes

Jonas Gustavsson had a 24 save shutout. I wasn’t happy with starting him tonight, but he found a way to prove me wrong, that’s for sure. Not a lot of spectacular play, but enough to get it done for the second goose egg of his career.

Tim Connolly and Mikhail Grabovski both had multi-point games. Centre depth at work right there.

Phil Kessel now has an absurd 23 goals and 23 assists in just 40 games this season. I think it’s time to say that he’s the real deal this year.

Dion Phaneuf was in a bloody mess late in the game, blocking an Andrew Ladd slapshot. No word on his status just yet. He lead the team in ice time, with 23:35 played.

Carl Gunnarsson, Jake Gardiner, and Keith Aulie all also played 20 minutes.

First off, the idea of fans having a sway on the game is a horrible one. I’m not saying it doen’t happen – I’m saying it shouldn’t. And I’m not talking in the sense of a good crowd giving an energy boost to the team, because that’s a totally cool thing to have. I’m talking the idea of being able to trick referees into bad decisions part – I would hate for fan-based calls to become a “thing” across the league. So lets not worry about that aspect.

As well, I hate the idea of booing without a back story. Winnipeg did this with Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf – booing them because they can. You should have to earn your boos, as dumb as that sounds. Leave town on bad terms? Get booed. Be the rival teams captain? Get booed. Always destroy the home team when you face them? Okay, that works for a boo too. But being good on a team that has nothing to do with you? That’s pretty lame. Heck, James Reimer is from Manitoba. The local boy even got jeered. It’s nonsense. Both of these are factors I don’t want to see – so I’ll keep the focus on general crowd vibe.

There’s also some simple factors too (example: The ACC sounds quieter on TV due to microphone placement than it actually is), but I won’t go boring you with those.

There’s a couple of misconceptions when it comes to the Leafs crowd. One, that it’s entirely suit-dominated. Two, that changing the prices will do anything. Three, that the current crowd is incapable of being loud.

To understand a couple of these points main roots, you have to look at the crowd that dominates the ACC, and that’s season ticket holders. As you all may know, this is a pretty exclusive club. Not by numbers – approximately 16,000 out of the 18,800 seats in the building are paid in full, but by ratio. Getting on the season ticket holders list now theoretically puts you in line 40 years from now. That’s not a typo – if I signed up tomorrow, I’d be waiting till my 60′s. In theory. In practice, renewal rates are so high that most new holders buy the personal seat licences off of current ones to skip the lines, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. A few years back, the Leafs had less than 10 people let go of their tickets, which is beyond absurd. Going back to that 40 number, that’s also how long a lot of these season ticket holders have been around for. The bulk have had their tickets since the 70′s, many have had them longer, with some as far back as the 1940′s. These are families that have had tickets for decades, and as such, the people going to games are of two classifications.

• Your “suits”, usually those who work within the businesses they own/operate and will take a client out, getting the ticket from the STH
• Others in the crowd, not with the fan look, but are there every game.

Both of these crowds detract from fan noise, but neither of them are “non-fans” as people complain about.

On the side of “suits”, what you’re wearing and how you act doesn’t mean that you don’t care about the game. If you have someone with you that you’re trying to woo, you often have to act at a professional level. These people are often still very much Leafs fans – it’s just that they can’t overtly show it. It’s kind of like the guys up in the press boxes – they can have their biases, but if you show it while at your seat, it has consequences. Yes, its odd seeing seemingly lifeless people in the crowd, but at the same time, its likely that they care just as much (possibly even the client too, it could be a game of reaction-chicken), but don’t want to flaunt it for their own sake.

Then, you have the others. The ones that are older, come decently dressed but maybe not to the point of the suits, and rarely come out of their shells. But again, there’s a reason for it. It’s not that they don’t care – if they didn’t care, they wouldn’t have decades of tickets paid for with no end in sight. It’s a matter of comparative excitement. Hear me out – the best experience you have at a live game is usually your first, right? Unless they get blown out or something insane like that. After that, things depend on how the game itself goes. Well, put that into perspective. Say someone’s come to 35 of the 41 home games every season, and gives away 6 tickets. They’ve done this for 30 years. You do realize that means this person has been at over 1000 live Leafs games, right? Nothing’s going to sweep them off their feet if it doesn’t truely impress them or have meaning. When a milestone is hit, those people are loud. Amazing goal? Loud. Game against the Habs? Loud. Any playoff second ever? Screaming. Why? Because when anything happens, the reality is, they’re thinking “have I not seen this hundreds of times before?”. I’ve been at almost every Marlies home game since late in the 09/10 season, and I feel the same way. It’s not the same as the Leafs, sure, but I can’t remember the last time I gave a goal more than a quick fistpump and a comment. Usually, I look lifeless myself. I could only imagine if I had 10x that experience.

Now consider that the bulk of the Leafs season ticket holders are like that. Also, the reason why they’re not all clad in jerseys? One, because they probably pull them out for a chunk of the games anyway, but don’t want to look the exact same every night. Secondarily, though, some have been around so long that they remember the entire crowd being a wave of suits and dresses, or at least decent wear. The whole jersey movement didn’t start till the 80′s. Most of these guys have been around since before that.

The people whined about are usually Leafs fans, thick and thin. The people who go there “just to have been” actually tend to be the most obnoxious because they want to have the full experience (trust me, I’ve noticed quite a bit of this). It’s just that they either try to save face by not showing it, or comparatively, the little things just don’t matter as much to them any more. Are they a spoiled crowd? Sure. But they pay thousands of dollars a season to be a spoiled crowd.

The reality is, none of these people would give up their tickets for the world. Like, the concept that dropping prices will get louder fans in? That’s hillarious. The ticketmaster tickets get eaten up by the loud crowd, so that’s not the problem. And dropping the prices on the season ticket holders that are there will just ensure they hav eeven more of a reason to not renew. If anything, the worst case scenario is the scalper can get more tickets out his credit card come sale day, meaning the average fan will end up paying more when all is said and done.

It’s very tempting to look at a crowd like the Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, and such, and say “why can’t we be like that?”. Minus the fact those teams are winning and the crowds have more to scream about, you have to remember that while there’s chunks that have stuck around, I can’t imagine any of these recent-success teams having more than a handful of people that have been season ticket holders in 1991, 2001, and 2011 with no gaps in between. Even Montreal has a high drop rate that keeps the waiting list no more than a few years. Leafs fans, on the other hand?

If I had to bet, 75% of the Leafs crowd every night is full of those. Probably even higher if you include tickets given to people for the night by those who fit the description.

In reality, our crowd’s flaw is that they’re too used to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Do you want a loud building? You’d have to cancel everybody’s season tickets. Every last one. Start the waiting list from scratch (those close to the front of the line, after all, probably have the cash to buy 10+ games a year from resellers), and do a rush sale. Coincidentally, while it would work, it’s also incredibly stupid.

It also doesn’t help that this city isn’t particularly loud when it comes to sporting events anyway – go to the games of any other Toronto sports team other than Toronto FC and you realize it’s not a ton better.

So don’t go hoping for the days that the ACC boo’s everyone (it happens sometimes anyway – I went to a game a few years ago where Kovalchuk got torched by fans for no reason whatsoever), yells at refs for blatant offsides, and other shenaigans. It’s not going to happen, and as much as it may hurt some of you to hear, you can’t blame those who make it the way it is. If you wan’t this crowd to cheer, you don’t replace the crowd – give them something new, something fresh, something amazing to cheer for.

Besides, comparing to Winnipeg? After 15 years of whining about how they missed the NHL, they better be screaming for the next 15. Just preferably, in favour of their teams instead of against every other thing in existance.

I give up. I give up. I give up.  The Jets fans, they’re just too loud to try to give you an intro paragraph. I mean, I know they just got a team back in town this year and all, but can you at least be litt- TRUE NORTH! Oh, come on. It wasn’t even the national anthe- BOOOOOO. Guys. For one seco- REIIIIIMERRRRRR. Screw it.

The first period didn’t get off to the best of starts. Just three and a half minutes in, Keith Aulie headed to the box for hooking. Amazingly, the Leafs survived it. Astonishing, I know, a penalty killed off by this team. Trust me when I say there was plenty of the left in this game. Keeping with the penalty theme, Andrew Ladd earned himself a high sticking minor on Cody Franson with about six minutes to go in the period. Toronto had their first attempt at the powerplay, and just ten seconds in, Clarke MacArthur took a gorgeous pass from Carl Gunnarsson, turned it into a one-timer, and gave the Leafs the 1-0 lead that they would take into the second period.

Lets move on to the third period. There wouldn’t be any scoring, and just one penalty giving the Leafs the 1-0 win and James Reimer the shutout!

Apparently, we can’t do the selective memory thing for recaps, and as such, I have to tell you the real story. Oh well, I liked mine better. Dion Phaneuf went to the box for hooking just a minute in, leading to a Zach Bogosian powerplay goal. To continue everybody’s fears, Cody Franson was next to go in the box 30 seconds later, but the Leafs killed that off. By kill that off, I mean that Franson skated on the ice for about 3 seconds as Jets captain Andrew Ladd scored the goal ahead goal for the Jets. To ease the pain, Phil Kessel tied the game a minute and a half later with his 21st of the season, but the MTS centre crowd decided that Joey Crabb was deserving of a penalty, which the referees were happy to make happen, and Blake Wheeler was happy to celebrate the benefits of shortly after. Nazem Kadri was called for a hook, and Alexander Burmistrov for a hold, but neither would lead to anything and the period ended at 3-2 Jets.

By the way, I wasn’t kidding about the third, making this paragraph really awkward. Nothing really happened other than everyone cringing every time Phil Kessel limped off the ice, still feeling an accidental shot block on his foot.

Other Notes

James Reimer was way better than the Jets fans were giving him credit for (if you haven’t figured it out, they chirp every goalie and boo one or two star players a game. Apparently, they also think the Leafs suck. Also, that their ownership group is the greatest thing to exist on this planet). 31 saves on 34 shots is pretty solid, don’t let yourself get fooled. Some people I’ve seen have blamed him for this game. Don’t be one of them.

The powerplay was a solid 1/3, and lets not talk about the penalty kill. It’s too depressing, and I don’t want to give a team that’s 85th in the NHL in the penalty kill percentage anymore discussion.

The team as a whole looked relatively solid in the third period, after what may have been the worst second period in recent memory.

The Leafs are now out of a playoff spot. No comment either way, they’re still higher than I thought they’d be, but I’m just throwing that out there.

I really hope Phil Kessel is okay. He was clearly playing through the pain in the third.

The referees really let the crowd get to them this game, in that it was extremely biased. I hate criticizing the refs, I’m notorious for defending them at their worst, but in brutal honesty, there were calls that were because of how loud the crowd booed, and there’s no denying that.

Speaking of the crowd, I’m hearing a lot of “why can’t the ACC be more like that?”. I have a response article to this coming next year. In other words, tomorrow or Monday.

(By the way, the Marlies also lost today, to the Jets affiliate in St. John’s. Check out MarliesHQ for a bit on that)

You don’t even want to know the things they would do for it. I mean, granted, when they find out you’re talking about the Leafs, they’ll be pretty annoyed that they have Dion Phaneuf back in town, but that’s besides the point. A lot of other fanbases would take the same thing.

This is something that in theory, should fly in Toronto – after all, you have to look no further to the first couple of years after the lockout. The team was old and going nowhere, constantly floating near a playoff spot but never quite there. The fans were annoyed, and for good reason – there was no hope, no room for improvement. They all declared that they were willing to accept a rebuild and see it all the way through, till the team was ready to shine, at which point they’d accept the rewards.

Eventually, this process happened. Cliff Fletcher stripped down the team, and got rid of most of the baggage (though he added Jeff Finger, which while an atrocious NHL contract, has actually turned out to be a decent mentor for the team’s defensive prospects on the Marlies. Mixed blessing, I guess). The 08-09 team started out out with new talent and returning journeymen, who got weeded out month by month, year by year, and Tomas Kaberle. The team was far from good, and brought the 7th overall pick to the draft, their second top 10 in as many years, and selected Nazem Kadri. The man who made that pick? Brian Burke, who took the reigns as GM midway through the year.

Burke, a bit too sure of the teams success, made some moves that he thought would give the team long term benefit while making them competitive in the immediate. Perhaps trading two first round picks for Phil Kessel wasn’t the smartest of moves, and perhaps Francois Beauchemin and Mike Komisarek getting hefty contracts weren’t the brightest choices he had made. But nonetheless, they happened. Certainly, that set the rebuild back a bit, but he’d begin to make up for things come late winter, acquiring Dion Phaneuf and J-S Giguere.

Amazing how all of those moves looked in hindsight though – Beauchemin was a bad signing, but was converted into Joffrey Lupul and Jake Gardiner, giving the Leafs immediate scoring and a promising young defenceman. Komisarek has improved, though he’s been hurt a lot. Kessel, as good as Tyler Seguin looks, and as possible as it is that Dougie Hamilton becomes a very good defenceman in this league (I refuse to acknowledge Jared Knight as being much of anything unless it actually happens), has become an elite scorer in the NHL, and still has plenty of years ahead of him at 24. Several trades and signings have worked out for the Leafs. I can keep going on about how the pieces of this rebuild came together, but there’s only one more that I really want to stress.

Nikolai Kulemin and Luke Schenn weren’t acquired through trade, signed out of college, or picked off on July 1st. Both were Leafs draft picks, taking the more traditional form of rebuild pieces. They’re also the longest serving Leafs.

Think about that – the longest serving members of this team played the first games of their career on opening night of the 08/09 season. That was three years ago.

Leafs Nation yelled and yelled about how they’d take 5 years of weakness (don’t take back statements now – I’ve never heard anybody give a year number other than 5) if it meant the team looked scary coming out of it.

We’re in year four of that now. The Leafs started off very strong, and have tapered off. Regardless, for the first time in 7 years, they’re in a playoff position at the new year.  Can I just stress how ridiculous that is?

The Toronto Maple Leafs, the youngest team in the league, crippled by injuries that cover core parts of the team (including most of the penalty killing squad, that is needed DESPERATELY right now), are 7th in the Eastern Conference at almost the half point mark in the year. Could they slip out of that spot? Not only can they, it’s actually really likely, but I’ve got a reminder for you.

Teams that are the youngest in the NHL generally don’t tend to do well while they are. Ask the Penguins, Capitals, Blackhawks, and other teams that bottomed out how it worked out while they were the flashy young guns? The typical answer: not very well. Now, before you say “but those young guns were elite talent!”, that does more harm to your point than good – despite the blue chippers, the teams had to crawl their way out and grow. By the time they made their pushes, they weren’t the youngest any more – ranging from young but nearing middle age, to older, depending on who was brought in.

Teams with zero experience that aren’t used to each other don’t tend to maintain full seasons of amazing play. They need to adjust. They need to develop as players themselves. A lot of factors have to come in place. The Leafs just haven’t hit that point.

Now, if the team is in the same boat, with the same core, at upper-mid age 3 years from now, there’s a serious problem. But at this point, expecting immediate success from this team is unrealistic. The saddest part about those who do?

They weren’t doing so in September! Almost every respectable publication had the Leafs finishing between 11-12th in the East. Fans were expecting 8th to 10th. They’re in 7th. People are calling for heads.

There are obvious issues with the team. The Penalty Kill looks terrible. Nikolai Kulemin seems to have forgotten who he is. Some players have struggled. Others have been hurt. It’s been a weird year. But guess what? These are all problems that can be worked on bit by bit. There’s plenty of time to do so, and it makes more sense to do that then to flip over tables at this point.

Calling for Ron Wilson’s head because part of the special teams (that has had its entire core at least half injured most of the year) isn’t working on a team that’s otherwise ahead of expectations, for example. Saying that half the roster has to be sent down to the Marlies mid-cold streak. The Leafs need to trade for (person that plays a position that’s not a problem). You can keep going with what seems to have become memes for Leafs Nation, but they all share something in common – the thought that there is a quick fix, short term solution to the Leafs problems.

Guess what? That’s what got the team into this mess.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. This process is in its midway point – its a flower that’s stem has been built, but hasn’t quite began to bloom, if you will. A book with several chapters left to go before it even gets to the good part. I get that there are Leafs fans who have been watching this team for years upon years upon years, seeing the team not quite make it over the hump – but those are mistakes that have to be disassociated with the now. The Ballard Years sucked, so you want the team to start winning? Alright, cool. You know what else? That time has long passed and has no connection with now. Very little does.

Your five years of patience started when the puck dropped to start the 08/09 season. 90% of this team wasn’t on the ice that night. The coach was there for his first game with the team, but pretty much everybody else on the off-ice management wasn’t around yet. Do you know where most teams are at the 3.5 year mark of their 5 year rebuild?

They’re having their best year yet, but still don’t look quite scary yet. You know what team this applies to?

If the Leafs organization was copied onto, say, the Columbus Blue Jackets, you’d know that it applied to that team. But instead, because of the uniform they wear, because of the demand everybody has for their home team to do well, because it’s the Toronto Maple Leafs and the history attached to make it even more effective, people get so absorbed that they become clueless on how, when, and why this whole process started.

It’s fine to be hoping for this team to be doing the best it can. It’s another to take a bump in the road and declare that no progress has been made. The reality is – in most of the league, such progress would be deemed fantastic. Hope for the best, but don’t lose sight of everything leading up and looking ahead. Trust me, it’s less stressful, makes much more sense, and will be more rewarding when all is said and done.

That said, Ron Wilson is a man who celebrates Christmas. As we all saw on Twitter a few days ago, he had but one wish on what he wanted to receive – a certain piece of paper. That paper would be a contract extension, and he would get it courtesy of Brian Burke, according to the very same twitter, on a different tweet (by the way, follow Wilson if you don’t). TSN was able to confirm that he wasn’t kidding, though not much else on the subject.

There are some people who are excited, some people that are indifferent, and many who are very much against this. Personally, I’m currently indifferent. There’s a few things you have to take in before making a call here.

Personally, I think he deserves to stick around. This is the fourth year of his tenure here, being around since the 08/09 season. In those three years prior, the team didn’t make the playoffs, and was absolutely dreadful. For a team with a solid roster, this is total grounds for the firing of a coach, without even blinking. Here’s the issue though – until last season, this team was one that as much as people would like to argue otherwise, was largely terrible. Scotty Bowman at the peak of his coaching career would have trouble doing damage with the teams, as high as our expectations were for some players. Signings never really panned out, and trades were lateral shifts. Slowly but surely, this team has taken form, and a roster of quality has come into place. And where are they? In a playoff spot at Christmas time for the first time in ages.

Secondly, most people who have an issue with the Wilson can only name one problem – and that’s that the penalty kill isn’t performing up to speed right now. Certainly, that’s fair – it should be better. But is this Wilson’s fault? For one, he doesn’t run the special teams unit. Greg Cronin is the one that takes care of the powerplay and penalty kill, and while Wilson should have responsibility for his assistants, dropping him out, putting a new head in, and keeping the supporting staff won’t do much. Secondly, there just isn’t a ton in terms of top tier penalty killers in the lineup. Up front, you have Darryl Boyce playing fill in, that’s about it. Dupuis is hurt. Brown is hurt. Lombardi is hurt. Armstrong is hurt. Kulemin is having a weak year. Steckel has been worse since recovering from injury. Behind them, Komisarek is  injured. Franson started awful, and while he’s improving, hasn’t been on the PK much. Schenn is having a weak year as well. Aulie hasn’t been around much this year and hasn’t exactly made an impact in his time up. Nobody else really comes to mind when you talk about penalty killers – all fine players, but wouldn’t play the PK on most teams. What I’m essentially getting at, is this is a team without penalty killers. While a style shakeup may me necessary, it’s kind of hard to suggest that it’s a coaching issue when you see the cast that goes out with the instructions.

Third, lets say Ron Wilson is the problem, and at some point has to go. Do you know what that contract extension does to a firing? Absolutely nothing. Ron Wilson could be fired tomorrow, if Burke really wanted to pull the trigger. It’s merely a matter of dollars and cents until the first game on the new deal is played, and this is a team that can afford the extra bucks. So, the crowd that wants to call for his head can call for his head still, because as much as Brian Burke isn’t the type to leave a long term friend with a lack of job security come the holidays, he’s also not the type to let a coach stay around because he has him signed for a while.

Besides, what’s the definition of a while in this scenario anyway? In reality, we don’t know all the details. For all anybody knows, this could just be a one year extension. It could also be five. Until the word is out, panicking or praising the long term direction either way is a little silly.

I like Ron Wilson as a coach, I really do. I think that he still has unfinished business here and that the team can succeed with him. But him getting this shiny new christmas present? It doesn’t mean much. Expectations are still there, and the pressure is still on. It gives a bunch of uninformed people a false sense of security, and Ron Wilson a financial sense of security. It’s the second most intriguing gift he got this year, if his twitter is any indication. No word yet on whether he’s going to let Randy Cunneyworth borrow his new Red Ryder BB Gun to shoot the french-speaking half of the Montreal media with at the next press conference.