Blake Murphy Sports Writing

Title: 1/82: What We Know About the Leafs
Date: October 2, 2009
Original Source: The On Deck Circle
Synopsis: After the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season opening overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens, I introduced a sporadic Leafs-in-review column inexplicably and unoriginally named 1/82.

This title, which will be a running one for Leafs coverage here, assumes that knowledge is evenly distributed across 82 regular season games. This is not reality, of course, as we know plenty from previous seasons, the offseason, the preseason, and other “hockey insider” cues. Still, there are but 82 games that count, unless you are of an elite 16, so it is really only the truths these 82 games reveal to us that matter. Thus, after one night of NHL hockey, we know but 1/82 of what we will know about the Toronto Maple Leafs come season’s end.

1/82, or 1.2195%, is an awfully small glimpse of the overall picture. Still, if we are to take opening night lessons to be of any greater importance than a 47th-game’s lessons (and we all sure treated Game 1 that way), then we have some positive and negative things to look forward to when it comes to this year’s incarnation of the White and Blue.

The Leafs fell 4-3 in overtime to the Montreal Canadiens last night, an outcome that is surely disappointing and not necessarily deserved. The Leafs outplayed the Canadiens throughout the night; they won battles for loose pucks, controlled the time of attack, out-shot Montreal by a wild margin, and looked physically superior to the small-but-quick Habs. Still, records are all that matter and good efforts are essentially for naught, so the Leafs must take the OT loss for what it is – a single point, a disappointment, and an early building block for a team that is still carving out an identity together.

In the preseason, the identity was fairly clear – not quite a goon squad, but not the softy Leafs we have become accustomed to this decade. The Four Burkisms reigned supreme when discussing the Leafs, and they appeared last night to be every bit pugnacious, truculent, belligerent, and bursting with testosterone (and intestinal fortitude, a fifth Burkism I’m throwing in the ring). The Leafs played hard, dropped the mitts on three occasions, and were the physically dominant team. And this came with their 4th line playing but two minutes of the game.

If we are to pick out any one positive from last night, you would skip past the inspiring play of the top line of Matt Stajan/Jason Blake/Viktor Stalberge (please pronounce it Stay-Han…and while we’re on the subject, Rickard Wallin is to be referred to only in a Jim Jones-esque Wall-IN! [not Wall-een]). Instead, you’d look to when Travis Moen ran Vesa Toskala late in a play. Toskala was immediately to his feet, readying his blocker to deliver a shot to protect himself. After all, last year he was expected to protect himself and his goal area. This time, though, potential captain Mike Komisarek was already laying the meathooks to Moen before Toskala could make his move.

A single play picked out of 60 minutes of action, yes, but it was this kind of tone-setting behavior, lead all night by Komisarek, that has Leaf Nation excited for things to come.

There were some negatives, of course. Luke Schenn and Francois Beauchemin didn’t appear to mesh well together, though they’ll have to quickly, and Schenn in particular was beaten on two plays that lead to Canadiens’ goals. Komisarek, the de facto leader of the crew last night, was at times overaggressive, amassing 15 penalty minutes and being in the box for two Montreal goals. And while he looked good at times, fans eager for the Jonas Gustafsson Era to begin will point to the fact that Toskala allowed four goals on 27 shots, creating a .852 save percentage that is too familiar compared to his poor 2008 numbers.

Again, we have but a glimpse of what the 2009 Leafs season will hold at this point. Question marks and potential additions like Gustafsson and the AHL-bound Hanson, Kulemin, Bozak, and the impending debut of key acquisition Phil Kessel loom over the roster.

We don’t know yet if the physicality will translate into intimidation and victories, or if there is enough offensive talent to match last year’s 10th ranked scoring output. We don’t know if the excitement surrounding the team leading up to last night will be a consistent buzz, or if the expectations placed on the team locally are too great.

We do know, though, that the games will be fun to watch, that the playoffs seem a possibility, and that the team has a few baby steps to take before we all start looking at the big 82-game picture. After all, we only know 1/82 of what we will by season’s end.

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