Mike Brophy

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday on Sportsnet.ca and appears regularly on Hockeycentral.

Mike Brophy says Matt Stajan looked solid in his first game in a Flames' uniform.

Call it a study in contrasts.

On one hand you have the Calgary Flames, a team that many thought had a decent shot at making it to the Stanley Cup final as the Western Conference representative. Jarome Iginla… Dion Phaneuf… Miikka Kiprusoff… Robyn Regehr… Brent Sutter…

How could this team not succeed?

And yet it did…messed up to the point where GM Darryl Sutter felt compelled (or pressured) to make a monster trade in an era where these types of deals are about as common as a juicy Jacques Martin quote.

So his newcomers arrive, freed from the clutches of hockey hell that has become Toronto, and the first game is a dud, a 3-0 home loss to the otherwise inconsistent Philadelphia Flyers. Truth be told, the new guys - Matt Stajan, Jamal Mayers, Niklas Hagman and Ian White - didn't play bad. On short notice and with just one practice with their new team under their belts, they all gave a better than average showing.

The rub is, the Flames also attempted the engineer a second trade, with the New York Rangers, but upon realizing they wouldn't have enough forwards on hand to face - it is worth saying again, the otherwise inconsistent Flyers - they held off the deal and forced Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust to play one last game for their soon-to-be former team.

So let's do the math. Three players out, four players in, one practice, and two players being forced to play a game for a team that has, for all intents and purposes, already told them they were no longer welcome in the dressing room. Uh, any wonder the Flames looked disheveled in being skunked by the Flyers?

And on the other end of the spectrum would be the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Where to begin?

This season the Leafs had the potential, and frankly the permission, to bottom out in hopes of acquiring a high draft pick next June. GM Brian Burke made some aggressive moves toward altering his team with the addition of Mike Komisarek, Francois Beauchemin and Jonas Gustavsson in the off-season. Had he announced to Leaf Nation that was all he was doing for the time being and asked fans to be patient as he built the team through the draft, he most certainly would have been given the green light.

But, much as he'd like to have followed that path, it simply is not his style. Burke is not a patient man.

In overestimating the immediate impact Beauchemin and Komisarek would have on his team, Burke traded away two first-round picks and a second rounder to the Boston Bruins to acquire Phil Kessel. Nobody will deny this kid, a 22-year-old who scored 36 goals last season, has the potential to hit 50. And when he burst onto the scene with 10 shots in his Leaf debut and 10 goals in his first 15 games, even those who wondered about Burke's sanity at paying such a preposterously high price, were somewhat forgiving.

But Kessel's production dipped, as did the Leafs, and Burke - now feeling the pressure of having possibly given up the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft to the Bruins, though he'd never admit it - found another panicky GM and between them they engineered a seven-player headline grabber.

Burke didn't stop there.

He dialed up his former team in Anaheim and brought in a goaltender with a great resume and a declining reputation for his ability to stop pucks, and in a matter of hours, transformed his team.

And if Game 1, a 3-0 decision over the slumping New Jersey Devils is any indication, maybe the Leafs have turned a corner.

Maybe.

The thing is, as much as Calgary's loss with its new lineup stung, it is not necessarily a condemning sign of things to come. Darryl Sutter may not have solved his team's problems, but, short-term at least, he gave his club a better shot at better chance at competing with San Jose, Chicago and Vancouver in the Western Conference playoffs.

Salary cap implications aside, the addition of defenceman Dion Phaneuf and goaltender J-S Giguere is a step in the right direction for the Leafs. They may not, as Burke suggests and desires, put the Leafs into the playoffs this season, but their arrival could pay dividends down the road.

So are we to believe the Leafs shutout win over the Devils means they'll no go on an endless winning streak? Get serious! It was one game.

One disappointing loss for the Flames. One thrilling win for the Leafs.

Don't read too much into either.

Editor's note: The column was originally posted with an erroneous goals total for last season for Phil Kessel with 31, not 36.