If there was ever a team that could use a few days away from the rink, this is it.
The Toronto Maple Leafs came out of the NHL’s Christmas break sitting 10th overall and enter the all-star break less than a month later in 22nd. The precipitous fall cost coach Randy Carlyle his job and hasn’t been broken by the installation of interim Peter Horachek—despite the fact he has them playing in a manner that should be more conducive to winning.
So, as the players went their separate ways for a four-day respite, it was telling that Horachek was urging them to take a long look at themselves in the mirror.
“We have to learn to be mentally tougher and play a whole game,” Horachek told reporters in Ottawa following Wednesday’s 4–3 loss.
Locked in a 3-14-0 tailspin, the franchises’s worst stretch in 25 years, this will be a group that needs to fend off reality when it returns to work next week. There can be no illusion of a run to the playoffs—not with Boston holding down the final spot in the Eastern Conference and on pace for 97 points.
Yet how they perform—both as individuals and together—is still significant.
The organization is no longer preaching patience, and important decisions loom both at the March 2 trade deadline and leading into the summer.
Members of the Leafs front office are taking advantage of the all-star break by gathering in Arizona for pro scouting meetings that will help determine the path ahead. There is much to consider. That group will also have the benefit of watching its team play as many as 15 more times before the trading window closes.
Many around the league expect Toronto to be active in the coming weeks and at least one trusted scout believes the team is contemplating something “big.”
While the word coming out of the Leafs front office recently is that larger moves shouldn’t be expected until the off-season, the scout’s notion seems to fall in line with a message president Brendan Shanahan delivered to his players earlier this month.
“I wanted to make it very clear that we’re watching and that we’re on it,” Shanahan said. “Whether we’ve seen good things or we’ve seen some bad things, they’re not getting by us, they’re not escaping us, and we’re not going to be a (management) group that is afraid to act if we feel that we’re going to be able to make ourselves better.”
Truth be told, no player in the organization should feel too comfortable right now.
Not only have the Leafs struggled mightily on the ice, they also have precious little space to maneuver under the salary cap next season—a cap, it should be noted, that will be negatively affected by the plummeting Canadian dollar.
With Nazem Kadri, Jonathan Bernier, potential UFA Cody Franson and a few others on expiring deals—Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos reported Wednesday night that negotiations are underway with the Kadri camp—freeing up more space is necessary.
There are also more fundamental questions to be considered about the makeup of a roster that has repeatedly shown itself to not be good enough. Trading Phil Kessel and/or captain Dion Phaneuf would represent the nuclear option for altering the core; moving Tyler Bozak, Joffrey Lupul, James van Riemsdyk or Jake Gardiner would have a lesser impact, but one that is felt.
No player currently under contract to the Leafs owns a full no-movement clause.
One of the more telling aspects of a truly bizarre season in Toronto is that Shanahan and general manager Dave Nonis started discussing Carlyle’s firing during the 10-1-1 run that immediately preceded the current down period.
Even when winning, they recognized the need for change.
Horachek has the team playing better defensively, something his predecessor tried and failed to do, but the losses continued mounting because the scoring disappeared. The goals will inevitably return and no doubt bring with them some wins, but it remains to be seen if a virtually season-long tension here ever goes away.
From SaluteGate to JerseyGate and the epic winning and losing runs in between, the last few months have been an emotional ride for the organization.
If nothing else, the all-star break might afford everyone the chance to recharge and find a little clarity.