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Can you say "41 and counting

Alex Steen believes he'll finally be getting his first taste of the Stanley Cup playoffs this spring....This is going to be the best year so far,"...Last year when we were healthy, we had a great team and we didn't lose too many guys other than Michael Peca. We've got some great additions with Jason Blake, Vesa Toskala and Mark Bell.

Oilers are a mystery
...If Shawn Horcoff bounces back, if Jarrett Stoll stays healthy, if Penner develops chemistry with Ales Hemsky, if Robert Nilsson seizes the day on the second line, if the Oiler powerplay vastly improves with the additions Joni Pitkanen and Sheldon Souray ...

If all those things happen, the Oilers make strides and might make the playoffs.

In my mind, three playoff teams in the West did not improve in the off-season: Nashville, Dallas and Vancouver.

The Predators are in fire-sale mode and could plummet rapidly.Dallas is aging rapidly and remains offensively challenged. The Canucks did not upgrade and are one Roberto Luongo injury or one cold streak away from being in trouble.

The problem for the Oilers is that some other non-playoff teams in the West have improved on paper, including Colorado, St. Louis and Los Angeles

...The Avs, who only missed the playoffs by one point last season, brought in character up front with the addition of Ryan Smyth and solidified their defence with Scott Hannan.

St. Louis was a different team after Andy Murray came aboard as head coach last season and now former No. 1 overall pick Erik Johnson is in the mix - along with Paul Kariya.

The Kings basically added a second line with the additions of Michael Handzus and Ladislav Nagy.

So though the Oilers should be much better in 2007-08 and with an actual transition game might score 220 goals, they still might not crack the Top 10 in the Western Conference, let alone make the playoffs.

They have tucker and Belak and more than enough tough guys

Domi handled Neil just fine. And i do not see Neil going up against Belak...why ? coz he knows he'll get creamed. Even McCabe could cream Neil.

i could easily post youtube and other links showing fights Tucker has won

You call yourself a leaf fan? maybe i am mistaken but if you are ,your a sad fan who should start cheering for the Sens since you love cheap shot Neil.

The Big Lie-July 06, 2007
LONDON--Truth has often been the first casualty of many a Leaf off-season. Like, say, this one...

Whether Muckler will take the job, if offered, isn't clear. First of all, he'd like to know what the job would be, which nobody seems to really know. Second, he would want to make sure that he wasn't seen as a threat to GM John Ferguson, and so might insist that he wouldn't be able to join the organization without Ferguson getting some contractual security beyond next season.

But really, hockey is not what this is all about. You can see that all the way from these lawns of Wimbledon.

This is not about the Maple Leafs looking to add depth, experience and expertise to their hockey department. In fact, it could add confusion, disagreement and dissension... This is not like having grandpa clipping hedges in the backyard, available if you need to know how to find a good plumber.

Anyways, as mentioned, none of this is about hockey.

This is about Leaf politics, pure and simple. This is Peddie and his political allies giving in to the demands of Tanenbaum and his allies, but not totally.Tanenbaum and Co. want Ferguson out, and have successfully made sure, at least so far, that the promises made to extend Ferguson's contract by the end of June have not yet be kept.Peddie, the epitome of a corporate politician, supports Ferguson, but understands a little compromise will buy him - and JFJ - some time to stabilize the status quo.

So you pretend, through the addition of a Muckler or someone like him, to be improving the team's hockey office, when in reality what's going on is jostling for positions of strength at the MLSE board of directors level.

Make it about hockey if you want. But that's not what this is. Not even for a second.

Meanwhile, somewhere along the way, insiders say, Tanenbaum and Peddie became estranged, which has left them on opposite sides of the Ferguson divide.Now, Tanenbaum and his buddies believe they've got Ferguson and Peddie on the run, having achieved clearance to hire Muckler or another senior hockey person.

Peddie, a survivor if there ever there was one, probably believes he's held the Tanenbaum forces at bay for now.

Can you believe this guy? "We think (Ferguson) has lots more upside." So, four years after they hired him, they believe Ferguson has almost got things figured out? Does that mean they were lying their asses off when they hired him and said they were trying to win the Stanley Cup immediately?

Meanwhile, the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund just worries about counting dollars.

It's all rather interesting, if not really new, and the manner in which Ferguson sorts things out with the person that presumably is going to be hired will be just as interesting as the Andrew Raycroft-Vesa Toskala goaltending competition.

Just don't believe it's about making the hockey team better.

I love it, being a Habs fan. Toronto is nothing but about "CORPORATE" and making money. I really wish the Toronto public would boycott the "LEAFS", don't buy tickets, etc and you would see a Stanley Cup parade in Toronto within a couple of years.

But being a HABS fan, I really don't want that, so thanks Ontario Teachers and MLSE, keep up the good work.
Go Habs Go

Another great article, Damien, explaining the convuluted politics in the front office, which, inevitably, as many people have suggested, have absolutely affected the performance of the team.

It seems like everyone agrees with Ron Wagnell (except about the Habs being the best) that simply not paying for this crappy product will bring about change. Yet, year after year, they sell out and decade after decade, the problem persists.

My point: even disinterested (in hockey), mercenary, big business OTPP will be forced to make effective changes if nobody supported the team and they lost money from MLSE! Until Toronto enacts tough love, it will never change.

Maybe the majority shareholders (Teachers) are Senators fans. Why would they not step in and fix the hockey side the way the basketball side was fixed? Are they happy being perceived as laughingstocks?

The Leafs continue their dysfunctional ways ad nauseum. How is this startling news? Isn't one definition of insanity "doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result"? Maybe that's why they just signed another goalie. How can anybody cheer for this team? They do the same thing over and over again, but Leaf fans drink the Kool-Aid and expect a different result.

It's been forty years, figure it out. Stop rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and jump into a lifeboat. There are 29 Carpathia's out there ready to save you and your sanity. Even the Habs who, if I'm not mistaken, have won 10 Cups since the Leafs last won.

Players don't really seem to want to play in Toronto; instead, they just enjoy collecting overpaid salaries (see Brian McCabe among others). If they truly wanted to PLAY in Toronto, they wouldn't have missed the playoffs two years in a row.

This consultant's job reminds me of the Groucho Marx quote, the one where he says he wouldn't want to join a club that would have him as a member. Who would want to be part of this? As much as I think JFJ is not the guy to build this team, I have empathy for him. Basically they're saying they made a mistake but are willing to live with it because he's got promise. Huh?

In their current state, the Toronto Maple Leafs are not a hockey club in the conventional hockey sense, but rather, they are little more than a slam-dunk "investment vehicle".

Simply put, the suits at MLSE and the Ontario Teacher's Pension Fund have a captive audience of corporate customers in this city that will gladly pay many thousands of escalating dollars every year to entertain clients, suppliers, mistresses and anyone else that doesn't know or care about this hockey team winning anything in our lifetime.

The best ownership model in the NHL that has consistently striven for excellence and results would be Mike Illitch and his Detroit Red Wings. Singular ownership with the singular goal of winning the Stanley Cup every year and then hiring and allowing due autonomy to the most competent hockey minds in the industry.

I am not a Red Wing fan, but why would anyone care to be a Leaf supporter with the circus-like calamity it has consistently been for 40 years?

Nothing will change until the Leafs managerial hierarchy is completely gutted. The ownership group and this medieval-style "board of governors" should have absolutely no jurisdiction in daily hockey operations. They need to be beaten back to the limited capacity of owners/investors in a risk-managed asset.

Afterward, hire a director of hockey operations who knows hockey and is the main man for anything that happens under the hockey umbrella, have an experienced GM be given autonomy to make good decisions reporting to him, and a head coach to mould it all together.

Until this happens, Leaf fans can cheer themselves hoarse, but it will be in vain.

It just goes to show you that when you loose focus on the real game of hockey, you make up other games.

I've grown up watching and defending the Leafs over the past 4 decades. Reading Damien's article has just infuriated me as to the lack of respect this organization has provided it's fans. So what do we do? Do season's ticket holders give up their seats? Do we refuse to purchase Leaf's merchandise going forward? Do we stop watching the games on TSN and CBC? Not being a season's ticket holder, I will certainly turn this team off until it can demonstrate to me that it will have an organization in place that puts customer's first and are committed to providing a quality product on the ice. Until then, they can go to hell!

People, the only way to change things is to stop going to games. Watch something else when there's a Leafs game on. Otherwise you have nothing to complain about

Damien, you have surprised me. For the first time ever you have written something that I totally agree with. I can't wait until Jim Basilie succeeds in moving another team into Southern Ontario. I will be first in line for the t-shirt with the Leaf logo stroked out and the new team's logo prominently displayed. I'm fed up with MLSE, and can't stand Buffalo. Just give me an alternative... please....any alternative.