Leaffire

Last night the Philadelphia Flyers played the Toronto Maple Leafs in what I deemed the most important game of the year for both teams. The Flyers were losers of two straight (to the Rangers and Kings) and only 3 points ahead of the Leafs who were entangled in a 4-way tie for the last two wild card spots. The Leafs should be desperate, since the only reason they are in that position was because they had dropped their last six games, all in regulation, and that is no good in March. If the Leafs win they are right back in a good position. Other teams still have games in hand but they made points and they could drag the Flyers into this mud-fight as well and perhaps open another opportunity to make the playoffs. If the Flyers win they close the gap on the Rangers and they put additional distance between them and the free-for-all for the wild card spots.

Thankfully the Flyers won. It wasn't super-pretty, but the result counts giving them some important points this late in the season. However, through most of the game neither team looked terribly interested in actually winning the thing. For the Flyers this is worrisome. For the Leafs it is an embarrassment, and it has reduced some of the more prominent supporters to drinking and talking about basketball. *shudder*

As the Leafs are dropping in the standings like an anvil from orbit, a lot of pundits have been arguing why exactly that is. A popular answer is "pressure". I don't buy it. A lot of teams from all sports face pressure from the media and fans all the time. As a Flyers fan I can tell you enough about. I will also tell you that yeah, sometimes reporters should just back off. However, if the Leafs can't deal with that they are doomed from the start.

A lot of blame has also been placed on Dion Phaneuf for showing poor leadership because he refused to talk to the media that one time. I call BS on that too. In fact, that is one thing Phaneuf has done right this year and showed his teammates to just ignore the media for once, because they are not as important as they occasionally appear to be. Claude Giroux pulled the same stunt in November and the Flyers were better for it.

However, Phaneuf is part of the problem in Toronto. He is not one if the causes though. Rather, he is a symptom. As of this writing Phaneuf is 16th from the bottom in Corsi On among all players that played at least 20 games this year. His defense partner Carl Gunnarsson is 8th from the bottom. That play is not conducive to a team's success, and it isn't exactly leadership material either. For Phaneuf means he needs to improve. For Toronto this means they shouldn't be getting and employing players like him.

The core problem with the Leafs is that they are terribly inept in evaluating talent and building a team. Their management is an absolute catastrophe as exemplified by the contracts for Phaneuf and David Clarkson, which are built around marketing, name-recognition and nebulous concepts like "truculence", rather than actual quality of play and the reasons behind it. They pay supporting cast talent like star players, and then send people like Clarke MacArthur and Mikhail Grabovski, players who can actually form a sound and decent supporting cast and who can be paid the appropriate price, away.

Personally I'm just glad Phaneuf signed this ridiculous contract extension, paying him $7 million a year for the next 7 years, with the Leafs. It means that other teams aren't tempted to make the same mistake. The Flyers in their desperate search for a true #1 defenseman would have been a prime candidate to do so, and I'm very glad they do not have the opportunity for it.

About this time last year there was some speculation going around what would have happened if the season had been the regular 82 games, rather than the 48 games season shortened by the lockout. A popular theory was that the Leafs would have faltered and entered their inevitable late-season collapse that has become pretty much routine. The question is who would have risen in their stead, with the Flyers a candidate as they were never able to put things together last year, but looked to play better just in time for it to no longer matter, and finished 8 points behind the Leafs last year and just above .500 in points percentage.

I think the result of last night actually gives some credence to that scenario.