Five reasons why things could get better

You people are hard to please.

You all tell me I'm too negative. Then, when I write 20 Good Things About The 2007-08 Leafs, some of you still find a way to call them "thinly veiled swipes at the team". I can't win.

So here, in a wrap-up to Optimism Week, is one last try. Here are five honest-to-goodness reasons for optimism in Leafs land.

They'll be far better at coach and GM

We don't know who they'll be. But we don't need to know their names to know that they'll be an upgrade over Maurice and Ferguson. And while the new GM will need a year or two to dig out from under JFJ's mess, coaches often have an immediate impact. If a new man behind the bench can do things Maurice never could -- like implement a defensive system, hold a veteran accountable, or call a timeout properly -- then the Leafs could get a boost right away.

Could you name an NHL team with worse coach/GM combo last year than the Leafs? Me neither. There's nowhere to go but up.

And the new coach will have one thing going for him...

They're only solid at one position in the entire organization -- but it's the most important one

Realistically, the Leafs are weak on defence and only average at forward (and that's assuming Sundin stays). But the goaltending outlook is solid. In fact, it may be excellent.

Vesa Toskala started slow last year, but in the second half he showed that he can be a top NHL goalie. He's not in the Brodeur/Luongo class, of course, but there are plenty of NHL teams that would trade their starter straight-up for Toskala in a heartbeat. With the exception of the Raycroft era, the Leafs have had excellent goaltending every year since Grant Fuhr arrived in 1991. Toskala looks like he may give that to them again.

And while the NHL club's best player is a goalie, the organization's best prospect is too. Justin Pogge's progress hasn't been as rapid as some had hoped (and Greg Gilbert seems hellbent on slowing it further), but he's still a top prospect with an excellent outlook.

If the Leafs are lucky, we could soon see Pogge playing Potvin to Toskala's Fuhr. And that worked out pretty well last time around.

And speaking of Pogge...

The Leafs have some decent young players

They don't have many decent young players (and they don't have any great young players), but the Leafs have put together a core group of reasonably talented youth. In addition to Pogge, the Leafs have prospects such as Jiri Tlustly and Nikolai Kulemin ready to play a role next year, and Jeremy Williams has shown flashes. Young NHLers such as Stajan, Steen, Colaiacovo and Stralman have shown promise. Even Kyle Wellwood could wake up from his donut coma in time to make a career for himself.

That's not a great list, but it's also not a bare cupboard. The Leafs have enough young talent to fill most of their second and third lines for years to come. And while there isn't a single sure-fire first line player on the list, the Leafs have other ways of filling those spots. Namely...

There's always free agency

It's an old joke among fans of other teams: These poor delusional Leaf fans think every free agent is desperate to go to Toronto at a discount. But the punchline is that it's often true. In the past few years, we've seen players like Gary Roberts, Curtis Joseph, Michael Peca, Eric Lindros and Joe Nieuwendyk turn down more money somewhere else to come to Toronto. And that's in addition to top FAs like Belfour and Mogilny who signed for fair value. Despite the best efforts of Richard Peddie, some players just really want to play in Toronto.

That's not a reflection on the franchise -- it has more to do with geography and history. There are more players from the Toronto area in the NHL than anywhere else, and some of those guys want to play in front of their families and/or for the team they grew up watching.

Combine that with the fact that the Leafs will always be able to spend to the upper limits of the salary cap, and you have a team that starts each free agency season a few steps ahead of most other franchises. It's not fair, but it's reality.

Of course, that doesn't mean they should spend on veteran FA's -- at least not any time soon. But when the times comes, there will be good players waiting for Toronto to call. And that time may not be as far off as everyone thinks, if only because...

We just don't know how long it takes to rebuild in today's NHL

Look, the Leafs are a mess right now. I'm the last guy to argue otherwise.

But at the same time, enough with all the talk of four- or five- or seven-year plans. The truth is we just don't know yet what the timelines look like for a rebuilding effort takes in the post-lockout NHL. But the early returns show it could be quicker than you'd think.

Since the lockout, we've seen some amazing turnarounds. Montreal finished behind the Leafs last year, then won the conference this year. The Flyers had the worst record in the league last year, and are in the final four today. The Capitals went from being Ovechkin and a bunch of stiffs to among the league's top teams almost overnight. And we're not even counting the Penguins, who are a special case thanks to the Crosby lottery.

On the other side of the coin, we've seen the Hurricanes win a Cup, then miss the playoffs in back-to-back years. The Sabres went from conference winner to afterthought in one season. It only took one year for the Canucks to go from contender to also-ran. The Senators did it in half a season.

What does all that have to do with the Leafs? Probably not much. For starters, the Habs, Caps and Flyers all had a far more talented group of young players than the Leafs do.

But the bottom line is that there's plenty of evidence to suggest that teams can go from pretenders to contenders (and back) very quickly in the era of early free agency and the salary cap. If the Leafs ever could get their act together, they could be back in contention much faster than any of the sky-is-falling crowd thinks possible.

(Even me.)

When hockey fans attack

As you've probably heard, Hockey-Reference.com is accepting sponsorships for player pages. According to Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo Sports, they sold 100 pages in the first 24 hours. Most have been predictable (kind words from fans and/or advertising), but not all.

You know by now about Pension Plan Puppets nefarious plot to mess with certain targets. Wyshynski is offering fans a chance to take aim at Chris Pronger. And various other folks (me included) have slapped down a few bucks to have some fun at the expense of various players and teams.

Since many folks in the hockey world are having some fun with this, I thought I'd start a list of some of the humorous or otherwise unexpected sponsorships that have appeared.

Here's what I've found so far. I know there's more out there (and more to come, no doubt) so feel free to add to the list by posting a comment or e-mailing me.

• Wayne Gretzky
  
• Jaromir Jagr
  
• Daniel Alfredsson
  
• Chris Pronger
  
• Gary Roberts
  
• Carey Price
  
• Ulf Samuelsson
  
• Vesa Toskala
  
• Jiri Tlusty
  
• Chris Neil
  
• Sean Avery
  
• Bryan McCabe
  
• Jaroslav Halak
  
• Jarkko Ruutu
  
• Derek Boogaard
  

Wayne Gretzky - Revenge is ours (in a passive aggressive and sort of pathetic way)

We interupt Optimism Week for this breaking news.

No, not Maurice getting fired. I mean something we didn't already know was going to happen.

As you may know, hockey-reference.com is now accepting sponsorship of individual player pages. James Mirtle was among the first to notice this development, and as a result he snapped up Wayne Gretzky.

I made a joking offer to James to pay half the fee if he'd change the description, and he's agreed (within reason, of course).

So my question is: what should it say?

The leading candidate so far is simply "It was a high stick". I like this one -- the complete lack of context actually makes it seem funnier to me. But I'm open to other ideas.

So please post a comment if you have any ideas or suggestions. I'd like to let James know some time today.

20 Good Things About the 2007-08 Leafs

Optimism Week continues at Down Goes Brown. My first post this week was kind of a copout, since I spent most of it talking about other teams. Baby steps, people.

But today, we're going all out. For this post, I will choose 20 members of the Leafs organization and say something nice about them.

Can I do it? Is it possible that 20 good things happened in this writeoff of a season? Let's find out.

Wait, why is the goalie wearing blue too?

Bryan McCabe - Offensive contribution was actually greater than stats would indicate, thanks to obscure NHL bylaw that only gives credit for goals scored into opponent's net.

Andrew Raycroft - Much like Martin Brodeur (chip shot off glass) and Rick DiPietro (quick outlet pass from behind net), has developed his own trademark play for clearing the zone: "faceoff at center ice".

Kyle Wellwood - Knows that despite advances in theoretical physics, scientists still can't explain exactly how gravity functions or rule out the slim possibility that it could unexpectedly cease to work in the future. So just in case, bravely dedicated his summer to making sure his couch didn't float away.

Mark Bell - Crushed every Sens fan's will to live by injuring Mike Fisher, destroying Daniel Alfredsson, and then somehow sneaking onto the ScotiaBank Place ice before a playoff game dressed as a fat guy in a gladiator helmet.

Anton Stralman - Certainly cleared up any lingering confusion over that whole "the next Niklas Lidstrom" thing.

Nik Antropov - Was arguably the only Leaf to exceed expectations this year, scoring just enough big goals to singlehandedly keep the team from getting a top draft pick.

It's getting closer, closer... hey, what does that horn mean?

Vesa Toskala - Constantly finding new and creative ways to challenge himself, such as resolving to stop all 180-foot slapshots using only sense of smell.

Jason Blake - Revolutionized youth hockey coaching by dedicating entire season to single-handedly disproving the old "It's never a bad play to shoot the puck" theory.

Carlo Colaiacovo - Successfully read this sentence without hurting himself.

Andy Wozniewski - Showed impressive courage and determination by repeatedly suiting up for NHL games despite being really, really horrible at playing hockey.

Jeremy Williams - Showed tremendous respect for the head coach who gave him two minutes of ice time a night, eventually realizing he was embarassing him by scoring every single game and cutting that out.

Cliff Fletcher - Is proactively working to improve the team the best way he knows how -- by repeatedly calling up Minnesota GM Doug Riseborough and asking him if he feels like trading his best players for a five-pack of crap.

Darcy Tucker - Fulfilled obligations as corporate spokesperson by always remembering to wear his "Kewl" brand hat during post-game interviews, or would have, had he ever done anything that would warrant a post-game interview.

Alex Steen - His play served as a soothing reminder for Leafs fans that all those first rounders JFJ traded away wouldn't necessarily have ended up being very good anyways.

Justin Pogge - Currently with the Marlies gaining extensive experience in not taking part in the playoffs, which will be invaluable once he graduates to the Leafs roster.

Pavel Kubina - Played about 20 minutes a game, scored a handful of big goals, and wasn't bad defensively. And hey, that's about all you can ask from a $5 million defenceman, right?

Ian White - Not one of those obnoxious spotlight-seeking pro atheletes who tries to hog media attention by ever actually doing anything noteworthy.

"What the hell, go ahead and take most of October and November off too."

Paul Maurice - Is a totally cool boss who lets his employees leave two months early every year.

Tomas Kaberle - Four-for-four performance in accuracy shooting during NHL Skills competition answered the age old question "Is Tomas Kaberle physically capable of actually shooting the god-damned puck?"

Mats Sundin - Sent a powerful message about loyalty, leadership, and finishing what you start, which will no doubt prove exceedingly inspirational for his new teammates once he signs with Detroit this summer.

Trade Deadline '08 - Why it's good news for the '09 Leafs

Apparently a few readers have noted that this blog tends to take a somewhat pessimistic view of the Toronto Maple Leafs. This is probably a fair observation. I do tend to be a tad negative about the Leafs, largely due to the fact that I have two eyes and a functioning brain.

But the whole "wah wah, go cry emo fan" routine can get stale after a while. So I'm pleased to announce that this week will be Optimism Week. For one solid week, it's going to be nothing but puppies and birthday cakes here at Down Goes Brown. Enjoy it while you can, we'll be back to reality next week.

Today's post: a look at the 2008 NHL Trade Deadline, and why it's shaping up to be good news for the 2009 Maple Leafs.

I know, I know. The 2008 deadline was a disaster for the Leafs. Their desperately needed rebuilding plan was torpedoed by Mats Sundin and the rest of the loser brigade, tying the hands of Cliff Fletcher and dooming Leaf fans to another half decade of soul-crushing misery.

Hm, this optimism thing is harder than I thought.

But in addition to watching a bunch of fat millionaires destroy the Leafs rebuilding plan, the 2008 deadline was also notable for a constant theme in the coverage leading up the big day. Story after story made sure to point out that recent history seemed to show that deadline blockbusters didn't work out. The big deals in 2007, such as Ryan Smyth to the Islanders, Keith Tkachuk to the Thrashers, Ladislav Nagy to the Stars and Peter Forsberg to the Predators had all amounted to a big hill of jack squat come playoff time.

So let's take a look back at the '08 deadline, with an eye towards how the big deals have impacted the playoffs so far.

- The Penguins acquire Marion Hossa from the Thrashers - Probably the biggest deal of the day. When the trade went down, most observers agreed that the Pens had given up too much. Fast forward ahead two months, and the Penguins have rolled through the first two rounds of the playoffs, knocking out the Rangers today thanks to an OT winner by Hossa. They'll be heavy favorites in conference finals.

- The Sharks acquire Brian Campbell from the Sabres - This deal moved the Sharks from solid contender to quasi-favorite. They closed the season on a tear, and were touted by many as Cup favorites. They knocked out the Flames in round one, and as of this writing are still alive against Dallas (although hanging by a thread). Speaking of Dallas...

- The Dallas Stars acquire Brad Richards from the Lightning: Richards had four assists in his first game with the Stars, and has been a steady contributor ever since. The Stars shocked the experts by knocking out the defending champion Ducks in the first round, and are on the verge of eliminating the heavily favored Sharks in the round two.

- The Capitals acquire Cristobel Huet and Sergei Federov in separate deals - Thought to be playoff longshots, the Caps loaded up at the deadline and went on a tear. The stormed through the rest of the regular season, winning the division on the final day. While they lost a seven game heartbreaker to the Flyers, the Caps put themselves back on the hockey map thanks in part to their aggressive dealing.

Other teams also made efforts to bulk up. The Flyers added Vinny Prospal, and are headed for the conference finals. The Avs picked up Adam Foote and free agent Peter Forsberg, and won a playoff round before being overcome by injuries. The already stacked Wings picked up Brad Stuart and are looking like odds-on favorites to take the title right now.

Meanwhile, some teams stood pat:

- The Ottawa Senators were struggling badly and looked like they needed to make a big move. But as per team tradition, the went deer-in-the-headlights on deadline day, only making one minor deal for Martin Lapointe who had no impact during his Sens stint. Instead, the team continued to freefall. They almost missed the playoffs, backing in on the season's final weekend, and then were embarrassed during a listless first round sweep.

- The Anaheim Ducks, who had won a Cup the previous year without making any major deadline moves, once again stood pat. They were pushed aside with relative ease in the first round.

- The Montreal Canadiens actually managed to get worse at the deadline, moving Huet to the Caps for a draft pick. The looked strong to end the season, but their lack of goaltending depth killed their promising post-season chances. They managed a round one win over the eight seed Bruins (barely), but surrendered easily to the Flyers behind Carey Price's best Andre Racicot impression.

Bottom line: For the most part, the teams that went big at the deadline have reaped big rewards. The teams that played it cautious are sitting at home with tire treads on their jerseys.

What does any of this have to do with the Leafs? Simple. When next year's deadline rolls around, we're going to hear all sorts of talk about how the 2008 playoffs were shaped by the trade market -- especially if the Stars or Penguins win the Cup. And all that hype can only be good news for the teams that will be selling at the 2009 deadline.

And make no mistake, the Leafs will be sellers next year. When it comes time to trade whichever veterans are left -- McCabe, Tucker, Kaberle, Blake, Sundin, or even (dare I say it) Vesa Toskala – there should be a very nice seller's market waiting for them. That could translate into a nice windfall if the new GM plays his cards right.

It will be a year too late, but good news delayed is still good news.