Guess what? I'm too tired to continue this blog for now. I'll leave it here for now, but in the meantime go to TMLFans.ca where you will find great resources, game notes and news.

Thanks for reading.

Posted 12:16 AM by Chris |

Well, I suppose it's time to weigh in on the "should Pat Quinn be fired?" question that is making the rounds.

I think I'm a patient fan. I like to look at the bigger picture, see trends develop and watch how a team evolves a style together over the course of a season. Only in the playoffs does a focus on the here and now really have an impact. So when it comes to lousy starts, I'm willing to give a coach a fair bit of rope. The end of November is a good time to reevaluate. This year that coincides with the end of two road trips: the annual swing out west and a mini three game trip to Ottawa, Atlanta and New York. After that, let's see where we are.

Having said that, it's clear that Quinn is under the microscope. On paper the Leafs are not a .500 team, but they are playing at .500 now. There are many reasons why the expectations at one end don't translate to results at the other, and a big factor there is the coaching style, the management of the team's resources to translate potential to results. Quinn has chosen to play wide open hockey, and this is nothing new. He has always valued a quick transition game, creative playmaking in the offensive zone and responsible defense. But the he has always had good goalies too, because putting defense third on your list of priorities means lots of chances back the other way. So Belfour and Joseph before him were hired to put the wall up and bail out the forwards who make mistakes by trying to generate goals.

This year, the goals aren't coming and the goaltending has been inconsistent, so the Leafs are losing games. Saturday's pummeling from the Flyers was just one of those games that you have to write off and pretend never happened. All teams go through those ones. To the Leafs' credit they pulled out a defensive minded victory against Carolina last night which shows that the team CAN be coached after all.

But (it's a big but) there are some slumps in the works at the moment. Sundin needs to be in the game more. I'd like to see Kaberle pick it up a bit too as well as Mogilny. Klee and Stajan have been nice surprises in the early going, but the war horses need to get the job done.

But (okay THIS is the but) there is one thing that is bothering me at the moment, and that is the lack of fight in these guys. The Buffalo game was appalling as was Saturday's loss, anomaly or not. And the inability to hold a lead in the third period is really disturbing. It is these larger team questions that Quinn needs to address, and he needs to do it soon before the fans and the management concludes that he's out of ideas.

What worries me, although I'm not going to say it definitively at this point, is that he truly is out of ideas. Can Quinn develop a style that matches his opponents? Will he try matching lines for a change and getting more time for the bigger guns? Will he sit Belak, whose extended stay with the big club reminds me of Anders Eriksson's tenure?

Give it a month folks.

Posted 10:08 AM by Chris |