24 hours later: sober reflections and 10 crucial questions around the Maple Leafs—and the future

To be honest, I’m not sure that 24 hours is really enough time to step back and assess what we have witnessed when it comes to the Maple Leafs for the past five months, since the 2012-’13 NHL season finally began in January.  But we can perhaps provide some preliminary thoughts and views as to what transpired (including in the playoff loss against the Bruins) and what next steps may be around the corner for General Manager Dave Nonis and the Leaf brass.

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I just want to be clear on one thing about the Boston-Toronto series that just concluded:  I don't buy the "fatigue" argument when it comes to what happened at the end of Game 7 in Boston Monday night.  Of course the Leafs looked tired at the end.  Whenever athletes play that hard night after night (three games in four nights at that point, under playoff pressure) they're going to be fatigued.

So when things start to sleep away, you will appear very tired.  And when you give up a lead and momentum shifts in a big game like it did Monday night, you start to lose confidence and the other team suddenly sees their confidence go to their legs.  The Bruins were playing desperate hockey, throwing caution to the wind.  Many of you have been in big games as athletes yourselves, and you know that while you may have wanted to keep playing "offensively" in the situation like the Leafs were in, something inside you was telling you to be conservative and just "protect that lead" to get the the finish line.

Was it inexperience, then?  Sure, I suppose.  But believe me, I've seen good, experienced teams blow leads (in games and in series) at this level.  The Bruins have done it themselves a number of times.

"Analysts" and even we fans always feel a need to find a reason why something happened.  We have to call it something so we refer to it as a "collapse".  I look at it this way:  of course some mistakes were made.  But they Leafs played their guts out to the end.  If one of those Bruins shots hits Reimer or misses the net, we'd all be in seventh heaven and talking about how great the Leafs played in the series- and in Game 7.

You know what? Sometimes stuff just happens in games, good and bad.  Fortunate and unfortunate.

I'm not going to hammer the Leafs because the Bruins somehow found life in the dying moments of a 7-game series that the Leafs controlled a lot of the time.  If we want to look at who was tired, who was really "gassed", who was actually running on fumes, we could have looked at Chara (and many of the Bruins) until well into the third period Monday night.  That was a defeated, tired team.  But they live to play another day.  Go figure.

(One add-on thought:  it's funny how we have to categorize things and players.  Rask - who I thought played really well overall in this series, but not as good as Reimer - will now be called a "winner".  But how he played is no different today than if the Bruins had not scored three goals to tie things up in the third period. If they don't score those goals out of nowhere, Rask would not be a playoff "winner" today.  His actual performance did not change one iota.  Now, maybe if he had made a series of brilliant stops when it was a one or two-goal game, he would deserve that nod.  But again, he's a "winner".  Oh, well.

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I’m not sure if I’m in a minority or a majority, but overall I really like the job Carlyle has done with the Leafs.  Oh, I could pick at decisions here or there, and he was part of the breakdown Monday night, yes, but I’ve always picked at coach decisions throughout my whole sport “fan” life.  Wondering about some of Carlyle's roster moves or in-game decisions is what fans do.

But on the whole, I think Carlyle brought a mentality to the job that helped to deliver the outcome I was looking for:  the Leafs still used their speed and skill this season, but became, in my view, much tougher to play against.  They weren't - and aren't - a team other clubs look forward to playing any more.

Too, they weren’t as dull as I had feared they might be.  Sometimes mistakes and turnovers were the order of the day, sure, but when it really mattered, against the heavily-favored Bruins, they went toe-to-toe in terms of skill, physicality, match-ups and game-planning.  And 24 hours later, I still believe the Leafs were the better team, and deserved to win the series.  That’s not sour grapes, simply an honest reflection.  The Bruins managed to win, but they needed every conceivable thing to go their way in the last ten minutes (including the Leafs not scoring into a yawning empty net) and overtime to do it.

So for me, Carlyle, especially considering he has not even had this group for a full 82-game regular season, has done a hell of a job.  Perfect?  Of course not, but he deserves the opportunity to lead this team for the foreseeable future.  And if that means Dallas Eakins leaves, so be it.  There will be another opportunity, if Dallas wants it, to coach this team some day.  Carlyle won’t be here forever.

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Regular VLM readers know that I’m a Reimer guy, so I won’t go on about this topic.  I’ve liked the guy from the get go, on and off the ice.  I’m sure I had my doubts at times, but in my mind, he is the guy.  I posted here weeks ago that Carlyle needed to give him the reins—and ultimately, he did.  Reimer has progressed and while there are holes in his game, like all goaltenders, he can play.    He has “compete”, a will to win and he has guts.  I like Scrivens' battle make-up, too, but for me, the goaltending debate should be closed.  I’m always open to hearing another perspective, but you’ll know my thoughts going in on this one.

We saw Kadri emerge in a big way this season.  The creativity and smarts we knew were there.  The physical play surprised me.

Gardiner did not progress at times, because of injuries (he had been marvelous with the Marlies), but he certainly played at a high level against the Bruins, my longstanding reservations about a couple parts of his game notwithstanding. (There is still, not surprisingly, work to be done in those areas.)

Young Colborne got a shot in the last two games, and that experience should prove invaluable in the years ahead.

We saw Kessel handle the playoff pressure.  We saw Lupul take on a major leadership role.  Phaneuf silenced (most) of his critics, myself included.  (Though I will still admit to some questions…)

I’m not sure van Riemsdyk could have done a whole lot more than what he delivered both in the season and in the playoffs.  We needed a presence in front of the opposition net, and he gave us that, and some soft hands, too.

Guys like Mark Fraser played with heart all season long.  Who even expected him to be here?  Orr and MacLaren, while maligned by many, did their job, as much as some Leaf fans did not like having them in the lineup as often as they were.  But whether those critics want to believe it or night, they were in fact a part of the new Leaf identity—an identity we needed—that displayed itself by being a harder team to play against than it had been for almost a decade.

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So here we sit, wounded after losing a series that was ours, against an opponent that deserved to be put away, finally.  The Leafs were "this close" to shedding the shackles and memories of the recent past when we simply could not seriously compete with the hated Bruins.  But at the same time, as fans, we know there is genuine hope as we close the door on another Leaf season.

Some of the young ‘cavalry’ is already here.  In the next year or two, you have to believe Morgan Rielly (not as a saviour, but as a guy with talent and passion who can play) will be on hand and will help change the face of our defense, though we will always need sandpaper, too, on the back end.

So some young guys are on the way.  Some young veterans gained playoff experience the last two weeks.  What’s next?

**

Maybe you can help me out with the following questions:

1. As a UFA, where does Bozak fit?  (For me, if he is back at 3 million, great.  At 4 million I’m somewhat less inclined, though we were sure looking for a guy who could win a faceoff at the end of Game 7.  At 5 million a year, I can’t see him with the Leafs but who knows?)
2. Do you actively start to work on extending Kessel this summer, to avoid the old problem of having an elite skill guy enter the final year of his deal un-signed? More importantly, perhaps, how high do you go—8 million a season?
3. Is Reimer your guy, or are some in Leafland still of the view that Luongo (or someone else) would be the guy to take us to the promised land?
4. Can I assume that, despite the suggestion by a major Toronto newspaper columnist last week, Phaneuf will not/sopuld not be traded?
5. Who was your biggest Leaf surprise this season?
6. Who was your biggest Leaf disappointment this season?
7. Can you name a Leaf that you think doesn’t get the respect he deserves?
8. We all saw Grabovski this season, and in the playoffs.  Some loved his regular-season efforts and thought he was simply poorly utilized by the coach.  Others saw it as not a good season for him at all.  Most would agree he played hard and well against Boston, despite the lack of goal production.  What do we do with Grabbo?
9. Carlyle gets a thumbs up or a thumbs down from you?
10. What Leafs, after watching them this season and through the playoffs, are now expendable and not core pieces moving forward?

There is a lot more to say, but for today, I’ll leave it there.

I may soon be taking a break from my writing here at VLM, or at least posting less frequently, so I look forward to any thoughts you might have.

Thanks to all, by the way, who took the time to follow my musings again this past season here at VLM.  I hope this site has contributed a little something to your days, and to your experience as a Leaf fan. You've certainly made this enjoyable for me.