What would you like the Maple Leafs’ identity to be?

I wanted to thank two recent guests on the growing "Leaf Matters" podcast.  Both Curt Snoddon from Blue Chip Prospects and Rob Del Mundo from TMLfans were outstanding in providing legit Leaf insight as we all gear up for the short-track NASCAR race that will be the truncated 2012-'13 NHL regular season.

Curt provides an in-depth look at Leaf prospects, including young players some Leaf fans may not have on their radar screen yet.  Rob helps Matteo Codispoti (We Want a Cup) and I look at the Leafs as training camp is now, at long last, in full swing.  Both shows are worth a listen for the solid information provided by our guests.

If you haven't connected with Leaf Matters yet, I invite you to give it a try.  For those on iTunes, click here.

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One of the questions that confronted GM Dave Nonis and Head coach Randy Carlyle on Sunday, as training camp was set to officially open, was “does this team have an identity?”.

This is an issue we have discussed for some time here at VLM.  Early last season, we had something of an identity—of being a fast, puck-moving team with an offensive bent.  That sort of evaporated into the mist once February approached and the team hit the proverbial skids and went south- very, very far south.

When responding on Sunday, Carlyle, for his part, spoke of the Leafs being a skating team, which means, he said, they’ll have to be good off the puck and in transition.  That sounds a lot like Wilson at the beginning of last season, but we all know Carlyle will also insist on a defensive approach to thinking—and playing—the game. 

Nonetheless, this “identity” issue is a question worth exploring.

Nonis spoke about the team “playing hard”, but surely that’s the least we can expect of NHL players, right?  That’s a kind of identity, I suppose, but most every NHL player works hard, in relative terms.  As unproven as so many of these Leaf players are (and as unsuccessful as the team has been for so many years), they should sure work hard, right?

From a pure talent standpoint, we have all bandied about the obvious (on paper) “lacks” in the current roster configuration.  (Now, if the Leafs win three in a row early this season—witness the last two seasons—some will think the roster will suddenly be just fine and a Cup final is in the offing, and then will want to trade everyone a week later when we lose a couple of games…) This includes:  lack of a true front-line center, questionable goaltending (I keep saying I like Reimer, but even the GM and coach seemed a bit skittish and more hopeful than certain on the weekend when discussing him), no real leadership, experience or team toughness.  I’ll stop there.

This is not to say the roster is not filled with decent players.  These are all NHL players.  In fact, we have more than a full roster of NHL-quality guys.  The issue is more how many of them are more than replaceable NHL parts?

But here is the real question for the day: I’m not asking you what you feel the team “identity” is right now because, well, I don't think we really have one.  We haven’t played a meaningful game in close to a year, since the 2011-’12 season fell off the cliff and we changed coaches.  So we are embarking on a brand new season, with that new coach, a new "system" of play and mostly holdover players, though not exclusively so (van Riemsdyk, McLement, etc.).

So I ask: would you like the Leafs to be known for something special?  Say for their strong team defense?  Or being a hard to beat at home? As a superb puck-moving squad?  As really tough, or a team with great goaltending?  For their solid special teams?

For most of the last eight years, I have not felt (with the possible exception of early last season, when we did have the fast skating, puck moving thing going for us) as though the club had a discernable identity.  I usually try to put myself in the shoes and mindset of the Leaf opponents.  What would they think about when preparing to play the Leafs? 

Sad to say, but my sense is that most teams like playing Toronto.  And it’s more than the fact that Canadian kids like playing in Toronto, or against the Leafs because the games are always on TV “back home”.  The Leafs weren’t soft, but they have not been a particularly tough team, either—and I don’t mean just fighting.  I mean the one-on-one battles, the play in the corners, along the boards and in front of both nets.  You know, all those things that give a team that unmistakeable "will to won" thing.  I wonder if any opposing team ever felt, “Damn, we have to play the Leafs tomorrow night.  They’re so good on the power play” or “my God, it’s hard to play at the ACC…” or even, “how are we going to beat that  (fill in the blank) goalie…?”.

At some point, winning teams—I mean really good, high-end championship caliber teams—have to be something and be known for something. When I was a kid in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, “The Flying Frenchman” nickname wasn’t just a tag line—the Montreal Canadiens were loaded with homegrown, French-Canadian players from Quebec who could flat out fly—and had an immense passion for playing hockey. (It wasn’t just one or two guys.  The two (Rocket and Henri) Richards’, Jean Beliveau, “Boom Boom” Geoffrion (right, in late '50s action against the Bruins and future Leaf Cup-winning goaltender Don Simmons) , and later Rousseau, Cournoyer, Lafleur, etc. are just a few of the names that helped create and prolong that legacy.)

In fact, until fairly recently, I’ve always thought of the Hab organization, right through the ‘80s, at least, as a team that simply hated to lose.  And I don't use the term 'hated' loosely.  So they were known as a supremely fast, talented team that could kill you with speed, but also that desperately hated to lose, perhaps even more than they loved to win.

So where are the Leafs right now?  Well, we’re clearly a ways away still.  Steps have been taken, for sure.  But years into the latest re-build, we are still building an identity.  I don't believe we have one.  My question for you today, as fellow Leaf observers, is this:  what identity do you want this team to develop?  What identity does it have to have, ultimately, to win the East some day, and have a shot at the elusive Stanley Cup?