The Maple Leafs 5-4 loss to Chicago Wednesday night was a microcosm of their season, as they impressed with their speed and scoring ability early, jumping out to a 3-1 lead on goals by Tyler Bozak, Joffrey Lupul and Clarke MacArthur, but then forgot what it took to achieve a level of success and allowed the Hawks to climb back into the game courtesy of their defensive inadequacies.
Marcus Kruger scored with just thirty seconds left in the opening period to narrow the lead to 3-2, which infused the crowd and home club with a sense of optimism, while simultaneously injecting doubt and a sense of lingering doom to the Blue and White.
Patrick Kane tied the game midway through the middle frame with a backhander past a distracted Jonas Gustavsson and less than four minutes later Marian Hossa took advantage of Toronto’s inept defensive zone coverage and snapped a shot from 15 feet in front of
Gustavsson to give Chicago a lead they would not relinquish.
Hossa scored an empty netter in late in the third to ice the game away, but Mike Brown scored with three seconds to make the final score a little more respectable.
With their sixth consecutive loss, the Leafs remain four points behind eighth place Washington in the race for the last spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs and wasted a game in hand they had on ninth place Winnipeg.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay and Buffalo trail Toronto by only one point and have a game in hand. Buffalo plays in San Jose tonight and the Lightning play at home against the N.Y. Rangers on Friday. By the time the Leafs take to the ice at the Bell Centre on Saturday night, they could be as low as 12th place in the Conference.
With the Leafs losing 10 of the last 11 games, the possibility of Ron Wilson being fired before the end of the regular season has been mentioned more frequently than ever and GM Brian Burke has not come out and defended his coach in the press as he has many times before.
The desire to see Wilson fired has been front and center in the minds of Leafs Nation for going on two years, but only during this latest losing skid has it gained any credibility of actually happening in media circles.
Some believe that the Leafs could still make the playoffs if Wilson was replaced by either assistant coach Scott Gordon or perhaps Marlies bench boss Dallas Eakins and use the in-season hiring of Bruce Boudreau by Anaheim and Ken Hitchcock by St.Louis as evidence that a new voice could save Toronto’s fading playoff hopes.
The problem with those situations is that it took a bit of time for Boudreau and Hitchcock to turn things around and time is one thing that is not on the Leafs side. Another factor is that those coaches had teams with a sizable talent base that had been drastic underachievers, whereas the depth and talent of the Leafs is still an unknown commodity.
Do you think that if Wilson is fired, that Gordon or Eakins could turn things around and get the Leafs into eighth place???
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A little note that is bound to annoy Toronto fans about the trade deadline. GM Brian Burke stated in his presser last Monday that the Leafs tried to make a number of deals, but nothing that made sense came to fruition. According to rumors out of Vancouver, they made a play for disenchanted young center Cody Hodgson and reportedly offered defenseman Luke Schenn in exchange, but Vancouver GM Mike Gillis rejected the offer in favor of the package offered by Buffalo including 20 year old former first rounder Zack Kassian and defenseman Marc-Andre Gragnani.
Had the Leafs been able to complete a deal for Hodgson, who will likely be the Sabres’ top center next season if Derek Roy is moved, Burke would have likely moved Mikhail Grabovski for a first round pick. Instead he will either be signed to a pricey contract extension after the end of the season or will walk away for nothing on July 1.
Whether bad blood between Burke, Dave Nonis and Gillis had anything to do with the inability to get the deal done is up for debate, but it is ironic that Hodgson ends up going one of Toronto’s division rivals instead.
Just another thing to put into your mental Rolodex come playoff time, when you are deciding whether to root for the Canucks to win the Stanley Cup.
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