gates@bdmrrr.UUCP (Al Gates) (11/16/85)
I
It is really sad to see the Toronto Maple Leafs struggle like they are.
Toronto, home of the hockey hall of fame, and a hockey center, has a
NHL franchise that is an embarrassment to the league. What has gone
wrong with this organization?
Borje Salming has been one of their mainstays for a long time. He is truly
one of the better (and lately underrated) defensemen in the league.
Unfortunately, once you get past Rick Vaive, Bill Derlago, and John Anderson,
there is little supporting cast. The goaltending situation in Toronto is
atrocious. Surely there must be some better talent for the Leafs out there
somewhere!
II
Since the four charter members of the NHL were all from Canada, does the
word 'National' in 'NHL' imply Canada? I'm willing to wager that most
Americans believe that 'National' stands for U.S.
If this truly is Canada's league, how come the Blues weren't allowed to
go to Saskatoon? Is the U.S. running a Canadian league? How did this
evolve?
--
Al Gates
BDM Corporation ^ ^ ^ ^ {seismo,rlgvax}!bdmrrr!gates
7915 Jones Branch Drive
McLean, Virginia 22102absary@watmath.UUCP (Al Sary) (11/17/85)
In article <474@bdmrrr.UUCP> gates@bdmrrr.UUCP (Al Gates) writes: >I > >It is really sad to see the Toronto Maple Leafs struggle like they are. >Toronto, home of the hockey hall of fame, and a hockey center, has a >NHL franchise that is an embarrassment to the league. What has gone >wrong with this organization? > I don't think the Leafs are as bad as their record indicates. They had many very close games, several times losing in the last few mintues of the game, they probably had the most overtimes this year. I know that won't help much when it gets down to the divisional standing. >Borje Salming has been one of their mainstays for a long time. He is truly >one of the better (and lately underrated) defensemen in the league. >Unfortunately, once you get past Rick Vaive, Bill Derlago, and John Anderson, >there is little supporting cast. ... Especially now that only Vaive is with the Leafs, though they do have a lot of young players who may eventually make the Leafs into contenders (maybe only for a playoff spot, I don't know). > ... The goaltending situation in Toronto is >atrocious. Surely there must be some better talent for the Leafs out there >somewhere! > I thought the acquisition of Edwards should have helped the Leafs' goaltending problems, but when I say him play, I wasn't too impressed. Anyways, Edwards is a good goaly; he should help the Leafs. >Since the four charter members of the NHL were all from Canada, does the >word 'National' in 'NHL' imply Canada? I'm willing to wager that most >Americans believe that 'National' stands for U.S. > I always thought National meant Canadian and U.S., but I don't know, so no comment. Does anyone know? >If this truly is Canada's league, how come the Blues weren't allowed to >go to Saskatoon? Is the U.S. running a Canadian league? How did this >evolve? > I think you have to go a bit further here than nationality. The Blues weren't allowed to go to Saskatoon because Saskatoon couldn't support a hockey team, and there are enough troubled franchises in the NHL already; other teams and the NHL (and Edmonton) have to support (at least partly) teams that lose money. The problem with Canadian cities is that even though hockey is more popular here than in most US cities, they are a lot smaller than most US cities.
cjsgro@watrose.UUCP (Carlo Sgro) (11/17/85)
In article <474@bdmrrr.UUCP> gates@bdmrrr.UUCP (Al Gates) writes: >I > >It is really sad to see the Toronto Maple Leafs struggle like they are. >Toronto, home of the hockey hall of fame, and a hockey center, has a >NHL franchise that is an embarrassment to the league. What has gone >wrong with this organization? > >Borje Salming has been one of their mainstays for a long time. He is truly >one of the better (and lately underrated) defensemen in the league. >Unfortunately, once you get past Rick Vaive, Bill Derlago, and John Anderson, >there is little supporting cast. The goaltending situation in Toronto is >atrocious. Surely there must be some better talent for the Leafs out there >somewhere! First a couple of corrections to Al's posting: 1) Bill Derlago was traded three games into the season to the Boston Bruins. The player they got in return was Tom Fergus. Fergus is playing fairly well for Toronto, although not up to the caliber of Derlago's usual seasons (this is probably more a function of the Leafs' poor performance than Fergus's abilities). What puzzles me is that the Bruins have Derlago playing on a fourth string checking line. 2) John Anderson was traded in the off season to Quebec for Marion Stastny. Anderson is doing extremely well in Quebec while Stastny is skating well but not putting points on the board in Toronto. 3) The goaltending is one of the better aspects of the Leafs' season so far. Tim Bernhardt and Don Edwards have played adequately, even though their GA average may not reflect it. The Leafs' problem this year has been that they cannot play 60 minutes of hockey. Par for them is to play for 2 periods (usually the second and sometimes the first or sometimes the third) and have the opposition score four goals against them in the other period. The Leafs have not played badly overall but when they stink, they stink. This characteristic of their play has resulted in them backing into more ties than they have wins. They have played better lately, with their last five games being (if I remember correctly): tie in Detroit, tie and loss to St. Louis, tie against Boston, and win against Chicago. Their record does not reflect their play. They should be playing about .450 (they're not a .500 team yet). They just have to learn to count to 60. About their future, they have some promising talent but they have to make sure that they don't catch the "Falling Leaf Syndrome". That's why Allan Bester is down in the minors right now instead of being shellshocked with the Leafs. The Leafs will improve this season (they can't get worse :-)) and, if managed correctly, will continue their rebuilding on young talent like Al Iafrate and Wendel Clark. -- Carlo Sgro ...![ihnp4||decvax||allegra||clyde||utzoo]!watmath!watrose!cjsgro "ihnp4 Express: Overnight to the USA or you don't pay!"
jeff@dciem.UUCP (Jeff Richardson) (11/18/85)
> It is really sad to see the Toronto Maple Leafs struggle like they are. > Toronto, home of the hockey hall of fame, and a hockey center, has a > NHL franchise that is an embarrassment to the league. What has gone > wrong with this organization? Most people around here will say that it's owner Harold Ballard's fault because, since the tickets are pretty well all sold no matter how bad the team is, he doesn't care whether the Leafs are good or not. However, I disagree. Ballard is the Leafs' number one fan and he attends pretty well every game. He wants to see a winner very badly. Perhaps that's part of his problem. Because he wants a winner so badly, he meddles more in the team's affairs than most owners. The current manager and coach have been accused of being Ballard's puppets, and whenever he hires someone who demands "total control", like Punch Imlach, he seems to eventually fall into disfavour with Ballard, so it's understandable if they are yes-men. But I think Ballard has been staying out of the team's affairs lately. Also, the NHL's free-agency rules prevent an owner from "buying a winner"; in fact, they could even favour an owner who's cheap. So Ballard can't be blamed for not spending more money on the team; it wouldn't do any good anyway. I think the main reason they are so bad now is that until 1984 they were making the playoffs every year, and they always believed they were on the right track, so they didn't do anything significant to really try to improve the team. Meanwhile, the other teams got better, and the Leafs ended up in last place. Now, they've finally realized that they had to change things, and I think they're heading in the right direction at last. Last season, I identified their problems as having too much youth and not enough experience on defence, and having too many forwards that aren't going to get any better where they should have good young prospects. Some of the recent player moves they've made should definitely help solve both of those problems. The trade of John Anderson to Quebec for Brad Maxwell (not Marian Stastny as someone suggested; Stastny was signed as a free agent), though it looks pretty well even talent-wise, should help the Leafs immensely because Anderson's contribution to the team seemed to be diminishing, and his exit opened up a spot on the left wing for rookie Wendell Clark. Clark along with Dan Hodgson, Russ Courtnall and Gary Leeman give them a few young forward prospects. (Courtnall and Leeman were around last year and a little of the year before, but it seems they've never been given much ice time.) Maxwell is probably the best available player to fill the badly needed role of experienced, steady, two-way leader of the defence that the Leafs' several excellent young prospects need. (Salming, though certainly one of the best defensemen the Leafs have ever had, seems to be on his last legs, and he's injured far too often to provide steady leadership.) Trading Bill Derlago for Tom Fergus seems like another even trade, especially since both are centres, but I think it will help too. Fergus is younger (23) so he may get better, and he's more of a playmaker than Derlago (Derlago is more of a goal-scorer) so he may get Rick Vaive back up to the 50 goal mark. (Because of the leadership Vaive provides, I think it's better for the team to have Vaive scoring 50 and his centre scoring 20 than it is for both to score 35.) But I think a more significant thing about that trade is that Derlago was part of the nucleus of the losing Leafs. Derlago is a fine player, but I believe that if you want to turn the team into a winner, you can't do it with a nucleus of players that has become accustomed to losing for the last five years. I'd rather bring in a couple of players that haven't been that close to the bad situation. They've lost a lot of close games this year, and blown a lot of leads, so that says to me that they're capable of playing better hockey, but they have to develop more confidence, killer instinct, and a winning attitude. > The goaltending situation in Toronto is atrocious. This is the part I can't understand. Tim Bernhardt was impressive last year, but new goalies often are until the other teams get a book on them, so I can understand him being a little disappointing, but I can't figure out Don Edwards. I got to see him play a lot with Buffalo, and I always thought he was one of the best in the league, so I figured he would solve the Leafs' goaltending problems until Bester and Wregget were really ready for the NHL, but his skills seem to have eroded over the years. But most top goalies seem to last at least to their late 30's unless they have injury problems or die. What's the story? Is there one style of goaltending that doesn't last as long as the others? If so, can you spot it early in a goalie's career? Let's hear from some goaltending experts. > Al Gates > BDM Corporation ^ ^ ^ ^ {seismo,rlgvax}!bdmrrr!gates -- Jeff Richardson, DCIEM, Toronto (416) 635-2073 {linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd}!utcsri!dciem!jeff {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!dciem!jeff