The season-ending press conference at the ACC this morning was classic Ron Wilson. Whenever “The Quote Machine” takes to the podium, you know that reporters and columnists are making sure that they have fresh batteries in their recording devices, so as not to miss another notable passage. Wilson imparted a bit of Monday morning quarterbacking, saying that in retrospect he should have gone with young players from the outset of the season, but that salary cap considerations and other factors made that impossible.
“You just can’t dump people” undoubtedly referring to players no longer on the roster who were depended on for the bulk of responsibility this season. “You are giving your veteran guys the benefit of the doubt (and) we didn’t get what we needed from some people.” Wilson is correct in his assessment that the veteran players that were on the roster at the beginning of the season dropped the ball, but it is unfair to completely lay the failure of the Maple Leafs this season solely on Vesa Toskala, Matt Stajan, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Jason Blake and Lee Stempniak.
The 2009-10 Maple Leafs were like a bad meal. You can’t solely blame the maître-d or waiters, you have to also hold the restaurant manager and the cook responsible for the bad experience. The determination that the veterans on the roster, along with free agent acquisitions like Beauchemin and Komisarek were sufficient to make Toronto at least competitive for a playoff spot was a failure by management to properly access their own team. This misread led GM Brian Burke to make the Phil Kessel deal, giving up 3 premium draft picks for the 22 year-old sniper. There is no doubting that Kessel is a talented player, it is just questionable that he was worth giving up at least one and perhaps two lottery picks to acquire him. Burke will not deviate from his public stance that if he had it to do over again, he would still make the Kessel deal. It is slightly self-serving to say that, but if the Leafs…………..(oops)……….Bruins finish first in the NHL Draft Lottery tomorrow night, it will be tough to find a lot of people who will agree with Burke’s pronouncement.
A modicum of blame has to be laid at the feet of the coaching staff, with the Leafs finishing 29th in the NHL in goals against, last in the league on the power play and last in the league in penalty killing. There were many times that this team seemed to have no concept of defensive zone responsibilities and the progress of young players Luke Schenn and John Mitchell definitely took a step back. Wilson’s defenders would say that he did not have a lot of talent to work with and that claim has some validity, but Toronto was less talented last season and they had more on-ice success.
The moves of this off season are crucial for Toronto. They must bolster the strength of their forwards, via free agency and trade, as well as getting young players like Bozak and Stalberg to build on their small window of success after the Olympic break. The most important factor of the summer is to finally resolve the Tomas Kaberle saga, either by signing him to a long-term contract extension or trading him before his no-trade clause goes into effect in August. The Leafs have missed the playoffs in the five seasons of the post-lockout era, all aspects of the organization must strive to not make it six.
From the desk of Mike “In Buffalo” Augello
By: Twitter Buttons 
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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