[cferneyh]

Well I do try my best to avoid drinking the MLSE kool-aid. There are a few of us Leafs' fans out there that aren't completely delusional, but sadly we are in the minority.

I'm curious - since you seem to have all the answers, what would GM Grimes do? And I sure hope your reply isn't: "Well, I'd trade Antropov for Luongo and Raycroft for Crosby....."

[tth_fan]

It's...finally...over!
Man alive, I stayed up WAY too late. I'm gonna be hurting in a few hours!
At least I have both Sedin's in my pool. That kinda eases the pain of being so tired.

[ryan93]

What time was the game over at? And yeah I'm glad the Canucks won too. I went to a hockey pool last night and came out with both Markus Naslund and Taylor Pyatt. I ended up taking Jason Spezza & Dany Heatley with 2 of my first 3 picks...it certainly wasn't my first choice, but i drew #10 out of the hat I was very happy though to see them up 6-2 when i got home!

[Chris Tanz]

"Well, I'd trade Antropov for Luongo and Raycroft for Crosby....."

I'd hope we could at least get Luongo AND a second-rounder for Nik the Stik.

And Crosby for Raycroft?!? Raycroft had 37 WINS this year!! How many wins did Crosby have?

Just to go back on a point, when I read that Raycroft quote about his stellar 37-win season, I seriously wanted to see him launched out of a cannon and then gored by bulls.

ct

[grimes]

Well I do try my best to avoid drinking the MLSE kool-aid. There are a few of us Leafs' fans out there that aren't completely delusional, but sadly we are in the minority.

I'm curious - since you seem to have all the answers, what would GM Grimes do? And I sure hope your reply isn't: "Well, I'd trade Antropov for Luongo and Raycroft for Crosby....."

Sounds good to me!

Seriously though I don't claim to have all the answers because there aren't any easy ones. Being consistently successful starts with drafting well and developing your own talent, and for too many years the Leafs traded away picks and prospects for players on the down-slope of their careers. That worked well enough to get them into the playoffs on a regular basis, but never made them into serious Cup contenders, and it has finally come back to bite them in the ass since the salary cap put a dent in their ability to overpay for free agents.

If it were up to me, I would have started an overhaul of this roster by trying to trade Sundin and McCabe, among others, at the deadline last year for picks/prospects/young players. Now whether JFJ even had the autonomy from the higher-ups to make such moves is something we'll never know, and therein may lie the real problem. Nonetheless, with the moves he made instead, the roster we have now doesn't offer much hope for the future, or much opportunity for serious change, as too many mediocre players are locked into long term contracts.

So what should JFJ do this summer (I'm assuming the fact that he hasn't been fired yet means that he's keeping his job)? Obviously, addressing the goaltending situation is the number one concern, but I don't see any easy answers on the horizon there. They also desperately need a first line forward, and while it looks like there will be a few of them on the market this year, there's going to be a lot of teams in the bidding. Finding a way to get rid of the ridiculous McCabe and Kubina contracts would help, but I doubt anyone else in the league would be foolish enough to take one of them off his hands. I wish JFJ the best of luck, but I really think he has missed his chance for serious rebuilding, and that Leaf Nation is in store for continued mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

[QuizShowChampion]

Holy God I was at the Canucks game last night. It was amazing.

EDIT: If you want to dump a player, talk to Keenan. He'll take anyone.

[tigerthelion]

Sundin-0 Stanley Cups. Hell, he hasn't even led the Leafs to a Conference Final. :lol: :lol:

Do you mean they have never won a conference final? Because then the more logical statement would be "he hasn't even led the Leafs to a Conference Championship."

If you mean the Leafs have never competed in a conference final under Sundin's leadership:

1999 vs. Buffalo
2002 vs. Carolina

Sorry, my bad. :oops: You are correct.

[tigerthelion]

Am I delusional for staying up until 4:30 in the morning to watch a hockey game?

Roberto Luongo:

1st playoff game- 72 saves :thumb:

[Hard Canadian]

i wish i could have watched the entire game but i live in ontario. cratch:

[tigerthelion]

i wish i could have watched the entire game but i live in ontario. cratch:

I don't follow. :roll: Did CBC not show the entire game?

[cferneyh]

Well I do try my best to avoid drinking the MLSE kool-aid. There are a few of us Leafs' fans out there that aren't completely delusional, but sadly we are in the minority.

I'm curious - since you seem to have all the answers, what would GM Grimes do? And I sure hope your reply isn't: "Well, I'd trade Antropov for Luongo and Raycroft for Crosby....."

Sounds good to me!

Seriously though I don't claim to have all the answers because there aren't any easy ones. Being consistently successful starts with drafting well and developing your own talent, and for too many years the Leafs traded away picks and prospects for players on the down-slope of their careers. That worked well enough to get them into the playoffs on a regular basis, but never made them into serious Cup contenders, and it has finally come back to bite them in the ass since the salary cap put a dent in their ability to overpay for free agents.

If it were up to me, I would have started an overhaul of this roster by trying to trade Sundin and McCabe, among others, at the deadline last year for picks/prospects/young players. Now whether JFJ even had the autonomy from the higher-ups to make such moves is something we'll never know, and therein may lie the real problem. Nonetheless, with the moves he made instead, the roster we have now doesn't offer much hope for the future, or much opportunity for serious change, as too many mediocre players are locked into long term contracts.

So what should JFJ do this summer (I'm assuming the fact that he hasn't been fired yet means that he's keeping his job)? Obviously, addressing the goaltending situation is the number one concern, but I don't see any easy answers on the horizon there. They also desperately need a first line forward, and while it looks like there will be a few of them on the market this year, there's going to be a lot of teams in the bidding. Finding a way to get rid of the ridiculous McCabe and Kubina contracts would help, but I doubt anyone else in the league would be foolish enough to take one of them off his hands. I wish JFJ the best of luck, but I really think he has missed his chance for serious rebuilding, and that Leaf Nation is in store for continued mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

Well that was disappointing. I expected an interesting and well thought out post on a number of moves the Leafs could/should make and you came back with a Steve Simmons column (i.e. everything sucks! But I offer no solutions, because it is way easier to criticize than offer original thought). The McCabe deal was bad? Well duh!

My biggest beef with JFJ was that when it was clear to everyone not named Andrew Raycroft that Andrew Rayroft was not up for the challenge, he didn't do anything to shore up the goaltending, which is what cost them a playoff spot. I refuse to believe there isn't somebody trapped in the AHL who wouldn't be better than Raycroft, but to do something with Raycroft would have been admitting a mistake, and clearly JFJ doesn't want to do that.

Incidentally I'm in Toronto today on bid-nez and I heard Sundin on the Fan this AM say that he thinks Paul Maurice is up there with Pat Burns in terms of the best coaches he's ever played for, and - sadly - he played the injury card as to why the Leafs didn't make the playoffs. That hurt.....but given a captain can't throw his goaltender under the bus......(mind you, he did say that they scored plenty of goals, they just need to "play better defensively").

[opiated]

wow..the flames look good tonite :wink:

[opiated]

wow..the flames look good tonite :wink:

[ryan93]

The Rangers won their first playoff game tonight since May 1997! I don't know whether i should be proud of that or embarrassed

The Jaromir Jagr-Michael Nylander tandem played great, and I thought Matt Cullen had a very strong game as well. It was nice having Marcel Hossa back in the line-up & he continued his red hot goal scoring ways. Marian Hossa & Ilya Kovalchuk were pretty quiet.

[grimes]

Well I do try my best to avoid drinking the MLSE kool-aid. There are a few of us Leafs' fans out there that aren't completely delusional, but sadly we are in the minority.

I'm curious - since you seem to have all the answers, what would GM Grimes do? And I sure hope your reply isn't: "Well, I'd trade Antropov for Luongo and Raycroft for Crosby....."

Sounds good to me!

Seriously though I don't claim to have all the answers because there aren't any easy ones. Being consistently successful starts with drafting well and developing your own talent, and for too many years the Leafs traded away picks and prospects for players on the down-slope of their careers. That worked well enough to get them into the playoffs on a regular basis, but never made them into serious Cup contenders, and it has finally come back to bite them in the ass since the salary cap put a dent in their ability to overpay for free agents.

If it were up to me, I would have started an overhaul of this roster by trying to trade Sundin and McCabe, among others, at the deadline last year for picks/prospects/young players. Now whether JFJ even had the autonomy from the higher-ups to make such moves is something we'll never know, and therein may lie the real problem. Nonetheless, with the moves he made instead, the roster we have now doesn't offer much hope for the future, or much opportunity for serious change, as too many mediocre players are locked into long term contracts.

So what should JFJ do this summer (I'm assuming the fact that he hasn't been fired yet means that he's keeping his job)? Obviously, addressing the goaltending situation is the number one concern, but I don't see any easy answers on the horizon there. They also desperately need a first line forward, and while it looks like there will be a few of them on the market this year, there's going to be a lot of teams in the bidding. Finding a way to get rid of the ridiculous McCabe and Kubina contracts would help, but I doubt anyone else in the league would be foolish enough to take one of them off his hands. I wish JFJ the best of luck, but I really think he has missed his chance for serious rebuilding, and that Leaf Nation is in store for continued mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

Well that was disappointing. I expected an interesting and well thought out post on a number of moves the Leafs could/should make and you came back with a Steve Simmons column (i.e. everything sucks! But I offer no solutions, because it is way easier to criticize than offer original thought). The McCabe deal was bad? Well duh!

My biggest beef with JFJ was that when it was clear to everyone not named Andrew Raycroft that Andrew Rayroft was not up for the challenge, he didn't do anything to shore up the goaltending, which is what cost them a playoff spot. I refuse to believe there isn't somebody trapped in the AHL who wouldn't be better than Raycroft, but to do something with Raycroft would have been admitting a mistake, and clearly JFJ doesn't want to do that.

Incidentally I'm in Toronto today on bid-nez and I heard Sundin on the Fan this AM say that he thinks Paul Maurice is up there with Pat Burns in terms of the best coaches he's ever played for, and - sadly - he played the injury card as to why the Leafs didn't make the playoffs. That hurt.....but given a captain can't throw his goaltender under the bus......(mind you, he did say that they scored plenty of goals, they just need to "play better defensively").

I offered a solution - blow up the roster and start from scratch, but it's too late for that now, because they no longer have any tradeable assets. So until some of those contracts start to run out, this team isn't going to see much improvement. Yes, a better goalie could get them into the playoffs as is, but unless he's a real stud, that's all it would get them. The goal isn't making the playoffs, it's winning the Cup, and as long as McCabe, Kubina, and Gill are 3 of their top 4 defensemen, they're not going to do that.

Assuming JFJ extends Sundin (he already told us he would) and re-signs his RFA's, he'll have about $10 million to play with this summer. What do you suggest he does with it?