Jim Kelley

Jim Kelley writes regularly on the NHL for Sportsnet.ca and can be heard on Primetime Sports on the FAN590.

After scrolling through a few pages, a happy Ron Wilson photograph was found.

When the Maple Leafs listen, they win. And that makes Ron Wilson smile.

Some notes, pertinent and otherwise from the so-called Centre of the Hockey Universe:

The Toronto Maple Leafs are back in the playoff hunt.

Really?

The Leafs I see on the ice both at the Air Canada Centre and on the road look very much like the Tampa Bay Lightning. They have pretty much the same number of points (31 going into Thursday's games) they both have a few players who can play, a few (and Tampa's Vinny Lecavalier tops this list by a good margin) who are going through the motions and a lot of issues that need to be addressed in both the long and short term.

What I do see with the Leafs, however, is good coaching. There's been a steady (though certainly not enormous ) improvement in their play in all three zones, and what appears to be a better sense of team play in terms of knowing what teammates are going to do and reacting in kind. There's also a sense that if they listen to their coach, Ron Wilson, and follow through on his teaching, his game plans and his exhortations from the bench, they can compete.

They also benefit from the improved play of goaltender Vesa Toskala (who was horrid at the start of the season) and the impact status of Phil Kessel who has been as good as advertised since his return from a shoulder injury. Kessel has been as consistent as you could possibly hope for from a player coming off surgery, as well as making his way with a new team and teammates and in a city where patience has never been in large supply.

In short, the Leafs are what general manager Brian Burke and Wilson said they would be. It's taken a little longer for them to mesh and reach that level of the vision, but they compete, they win their share of games because they work hard to do so and they are starting to buy into the vision that management had for them.

That vision was never classified as a Stanley Cup contender, but most anyone who looked at the Eastern Conference before the start of the season accepted the idea that there are only a handful of really good teams in the conference and the battle for the sixth, seventh and eighth spots would be a fairly wide open affair.

The Leafs have found their way to near that point for now, and though there are no guarantees that they will stay there, you can say the same about the Lightning, Ottawa, Montreal, Florida, the now largely disappointing Philadelphia Flyers, the New York Rangers and the Islanders. The only true mystery team is Carolina, which should be better than its showing, but then if you look deep into it's on-again, off-again history, there is a pattern that forecast a down year this time around.

Saving Schenn

One other thing about the Leafs: the benching of Luke Schenn. Why is this some kind of surprise? There's a long history of young, first-year players struggling the second time around. One well regarded media personality chastised the Leafs and Wilson to the point that their treatment of Schenn has been criminal.

Give me a break. There's no sophomore slump here; this is a clear case of a league that has watched a year's worth of tape and is taking advantage of a kid's shortcomings physically, mentally and because you can't teach experience, you just have to go out and get it. That's difficult for any young player in the NHL, and it's worse in a large market where the media scrutiny, both on and off the ice, is so much more intense.

Wilson is doing what most any coach would do with a young player -- making a point that a spot in the lineup, even for a top-five draft pick who made the All-Rookie Team, is not an every night guaranteed position, that there is a competition for jobs (sometimes that's artificial, but it appears to at least be happening with the Leafs defence because of the volume of players involved) and, frankly, because in sports, even pro sports, you learn by doing. Having to go through a sit-down is a reality check for a player and a chance for a coach to gauge what kind of competitor the player is and how he's going to respond.

It's part of hockey and it's part of growing up, and neither Schenn nor Wilson will be horribly damaged for the experience.

Misguided emails

I get hate mail; quite frankly I get a lot of it. It comes with the territory. I'm paid (this isn't a blog, it's an opinion column) to comment on things and friends and foes alike have every right to let me know they agree or disagree.

But hate mail to Dr. Charles Tator regarding his comments about Don Cherry's approach to the way hockey should be played is misguided.

This is a man who has dedicated his life to saving lives, especially the lives and brains of young people. I've met Dr. Tator, I've interviewed him and I've kept a close eye on his seminars about the dangers of head injuries in sport and especially in hockey.

It's real, it's with a purpose and his overall goal is to protect people, especially people playing hockey and at all age levels.

Cherry has sent mixed messages in this regard. He's always been on board with the Stop program designed to get kids to respect each other, especially along the boards, and he's made a fair share of well-reasoned statements a lack of respect, hitting from behind and plays designed to do nothing more than "take out" an opponent by whatever means possible.

Those are all noticeable shifts from a time in his career when, perhaps with the idea of making a big score selling videos, he had a different take.

In truth, in recent years at least, the "whatever works" approach has been taken up by a legion of Don Cherry wannabes who think that somehow players are simply there for the amusement of the fans and if they occasionally have to be taken out on a stretcher or removed from the game forever, well, it's a "tough game" and it "comes with the territory" and "that's what the people want."

Well, hockey players are people too, and what Tator is saying is that their well being as humans needs to be both respected and protected. Young players emulate what they see pro players do and this idea, fostered by a new wave of commentators and any in-house big-screen video board or cable network highlight reels, adds to the perception.

If a man, a well-respected man who also happens to be a neurosurgeon, has devoted his life to trying to stop or at least slow down the carnage, he deserves a fair hearing, even if he has called into question by a TV legend who appears in his later years to at least be attempting to distance himself from a previous -- and seemingly previously encouraged - point of view.

Tator has a point, it needs to be examined and, over time, addressed. Cherry has a forum, the biggest in Canadian television, and it seems logical that the two men could at least find a way to discuss the issue on his show.

Cherry dropping a load of "F" bombs on a radio reporter who may or may not have been somewhat overzealous in his questioning, is, while unfortunate, nothing more than a sideshow distraction.

Cherry's had his critics on set before, notably Dick Pound of the World Doping Agency. He's not always right, but he has a right to defend himself and one could argue he and the CBC have an obligation to explore the matter on camera.

One of the criticisms of HNIC in recent times has been that there are too many voices voicing the same point of view and that there's more of an emphasis on "good television" (which is often regarded nowadays as having people scream at each other a la The Jerry Springer Show) than there is good journalism.

One of the more subtle changes since Scott Moore became head of CBC sports is that he knows good journalism can also be good television and he has -when issues demand it-reacted in kind.

This is one of those times. Moore knows journalism every bit as well as he knows television. Tator, in a sense, has brought this issue to his doorstep. In the interest of good television and good journalism, Moore should allow the good doctor to both make his points and have Cherry defend his reputation.

That's a far bit more useful than having the good doctor fending off "I hope you die" letters from people who desperately need to be better informed.