I never thought I’d say this but have the Leafs—and I mean almost everyone there—really given up?

I remember back in, what was it, the early 1990s, when the Flyers were a young, emerging—but still not a very good—team.  (It was either the spring of 1993 or ’94…) They had Eric Lindros and some other young guys and good vets but were way out of the playoff race.  Despite a relatively poor record, they didn’t give up, didn’t focus on a “draft choice” and float through the end of the season to ensure a high pick (though it may well have been traded in the deal to acquire Lindros...).  In fact, they went on a late-season run, had quite a winning streak to end the season.  At one point they waxed the Leafs, really hammered them at the old Gardens—the Leafs own rink.  And we have to keep in mind, this is when the Leafs were pretty good, with Gilmour, Clark, Potvin, etc. and Burns behind the bench of a pretty tough team themselves.

Even though the Flyers did not make the playoffs until the 2004-’05 season, you could just feel they were building a good team.  Lindros was a hugely important player, of course, but they built with other pieces, too.  (Though never quite obtained, which has carried on to this day, the elite goaltending that might have put them over the top.)  They were fast, skilled and tough.  They were becoming, in short, a very hard team to play against. Some of you well remember the “Legion of Doom” line, for example.

But I’ll always remember that game at the Gardens, and how the Flyers ran over a good Leaf team.  The Leafs were on their way to a “final four” run; the Flyers were heading to the golf course.  But that game—and that winning streak—was a harbinger of things to come.  For a few seasons the Flyers were very good, getting to the finals in ’97 against the Red Wings, I believe it was.  (And the Flyers fired their coach, because losing in the finals wasn't good enough...)

Fast forward to the present.  Like the Flyers about 20 years ago, the Leafs are coming through a tough time.  They’ve picked up elite skill (for a big price, mind you, much like the Flyers had to give a lot to get Lindros in the early ‘90s) in someone like Kessel (and Phaneuf?) to build with and/or around.  Though it’s been clear for some time that the Leafs would not make the playoffs in the mediocre Eastern Conference this season, I did kind of think that the coaching change a few weeks ago would (whether it was the right long-term move or not; hopefully it will prove to be…) at the very least act as a catalyst of sorts in the short term—whether they made the playoffs or not.  It looked like a move that would maybe inspire the team to come together through adversity and end the season strongly so, next fall, they would have something to build on.

Do we look at all like the early '90s Flyer team I described above?

While there were glimmers of hope in the “early” Carlyle days, that short-term feeling was just gas, apparently.  It faded quickly—and resoundingly.  Even at home (and with some individual “stats” on the line, for what that’s worth), the team looks dispirited, discouraged, as though the season cannot end soon enough.  (Hey, Grabovski scored a nice one against the Flyers, at least…)  And this is with a new, demanding coach behind the bench.  I thought everyone was trying to "impress".

Given the supposed era of “no complaints, no excuses”, I’m left almost speechless after the loss to the Flyers at the ACC.

We throw terms around like “pride” quite a bit in sports.  Those of us who were not elite athletes, who never “played the game” at the highest level should perhaps be cautious in using the word, especially if we use it in wondering about whether a particular team is indeed displaying sufficient “pride”.  Maybe it’s not for us to make that judgment. 

That said, I will say this:  I am absolutely baffled by what I am continuing to see with this Leaf team.

I’ve said here and said it often:  I do not believe teams “tank”.  Recognizing that many will cite the pre-Mario Lemieux-draft Pittsburgh Penguins as an example of that very phenomenon, I otherwise don’t buy it in this day and age.  We are talking about superbly conditioned, mentally tough and unbelievably well-compensated individuals who don’t want to give anything less than their best, for future contractual reasons if nothing else.   With every game on television and—in this market—every individual mistake highlighted, there is ample motivation to play hard every night, regardless of the team’s position in the standings.

But what, then, is going on?  How is it that the team looks so miserable, so unhappy on the ice?  There is no joy in their game.  They are almost all playing as if they have a piano on their back.  Yes, the team’s fragile confidence somehow was lost along the way, and that is huge, for sure.  But usually, a team will eventually rise from the ashes and rebound, fight through slumps and play hard and determined hockey—at least at home.

I don’t think we’re seeing that.  Thankfully, the season ends next week.  This isn’t worth the investment of emotion—or time.

Which makes me ask the question:  does even the management team want them to lose right now, to help secure that much-discussed (and possibly over-hyped) draft pick?  I don’t know where the Leafs will pick—the way they are playing, it could be a very high choice by the time the season is over.  And I understand why many fans see that as the only way to salvage yet another unfulfilling season in Leafland.

The Leaf front office is filled with super-competitive people.  Forget just Burke.  Guys like Poulin and Dudley, two fiery ex-NHL players, and Carlyle (another tough ex-player) behind the bench, are incredibly intense guys.  They played hard throughout their NHL careers and they want to win just as badly now.

But are even they just kind of letting the team play out the string, knowing they have nothing to play for now, and that that draft pick may indeed be a future difference-maker for the franchise (though that’s a big “ may be”…)?

Why do I even raise this notion?

Well, there have been no dramatic pronouncements from a management hierarchy (maybe I’ve missed the missives…) led by Burke, a group of individuals that has never been reluctant to speak out.  When Gustavsson had a bad outing a few weeks ago and the Leafs were still in the playoff chase, Burke went public with the comment that the team needed saves from their goalie.  But these days, no one is putting the Leaf players on notice, with the exception of Carlyle suggesting that the team had to play better at home earlier this week.  But that was tepid stuff, eh?

How has the team reacted since?  In kind.

What we are getting, as I’ve noted here before, is a lot of spin doctoring by Nonis, Poulin and Dudley, all armed with prepared messages to deliver to various mainstream media outlets-  all designed to encourage we Leaf fan faithful not to bail on the Leafs, or their much discussed “plan”.  Things are getting better, we’re told.  The Marlies are great, eh?

It’s easy to poke fun at the Leafs when things go badly and that’s never been my thing here at Vintage Leaf Memories.  There are plenty of other places that like be dismissive of the "woeful" Leafs.  And I’m not interested in insinuating things that aren't there, like "tanking".  But I just don’t understand what I’m seeing on the ice right now.

Fans can dream of a draft pick.  That’s what we do as fans.  That’s fine.

But I don’t like this.  And I can’t imagine any Leaf fans really do either, down deep, (despite the draft thing) because this does speak to character, pride, desire.

I wrote yesterday about the positives I see.  And I stand by everything that I wrote.  But I said that I was not unaware of the obvious—the not-so-positive things that are right in front of us.

While, as we’ve all said, a team is never as good or as bad it seems at its best or worst—and we are admittedly at the end of a long and discouraging second-half for the players—it’s fair to expect more.

And better.

While things can always turn around quickly next season, it sure feels lately like it’s going to take more than an 18 year-old draft choice—as good a player as he may be—to turn this ship around.