LeafsParadise.com

Hockey’s most non-eventful month is nearing its end. In a time of year where the retirement of Dave Scatchard makes headlines, August is also when hockey pundits and restless fans make their predictions for the upcoming NHL season. After an offseason of draft choices and free agency signings, the projected rosters of the NHL’s thirty clubs are analyzed for signs of success and failure. Which team improved the most? Who spent the most money? Whose rosters are best suited for the Stanley Cup next spring?

Where do the Maple Leafs stand in all of this chatter? Well, The Hockey News slots the Leafs in at 10^th in the East, missing out on the playoffs for the 8^th straight year to the likes of the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers. This is certainly a fair prediction, if only because the Leafs’ roster on paper doesn’t appear poised to usurp either of these clubs as a playoff team.

Luckily, the NHL season does not play out “on paper”. Leaf fans have plenty of reasons to be excited for the upcoming campaign. However, this has become an offseason of “wait-and-see” for Leaf fans. For the time being, we have lost the ability as a fan base to effectively argue the legitimacy of our club’s strengths. After a couple years of optimism heading into the pre-season, nobody will listen anymore. The canned responses are already prepared – “That’s what you guys say every year”, “The Leafs have no number one centre”, “Is James Reimer a legitimate starting goaltender?”

Until the Leafs play their way out of the depths of their post-lockout failures, the arguments will persist. This is why Leaf fans should just sit back and wait for the play on the ice to dictate the level of respect given to their favorite club. In the end, the Leafs haven’t yet shown why they are deserving of anything more, aside from a few promising post All Star break stretches.

Leaf fans know the reasons why their club is vastly superior to the line-up that took the ice last October. And compared to the team Brian Burke inherited that saw the likes of John Mitchell lining up beside our prized (and at the time, only) goal-scoring threat Phil Kessel… well… there is no comparison.

This year’s club puts forward the realization that before Mr. Burke took the helm, Leaf fans have been treated with the opportunity to watch glorified AHL teams scratch and claw their way to 9^th place finishes. Remember John Pohl? How about Andy Wozniewski? There are reasons why many of the players who suited up for the blue & white during these failed seasons haven’t come remotely close to the league since.

The JFJ era wasn’t all bad, however. Aside from a pair of truly horrifying trades for “starting goalies”, the regime made a few positive contributions. Fergie and the Maple Leaf scouts drafted well and contributed multiple successful draft picks to the current organization. Carl Gunnarsson, Nik Kulemin, James Reimer, and Matt Frattin are just a few in a long list of excellent draft choices.

Regardless, these have been some dark years in Leaf land since the departure of captain and franchise player Mats Sundin. To use a tired cliché, we are now seeing the light at the end of that tunnel. The Leafs are one of the youngest teams in the league and have the opportunity to develop together and build something special that will bring the magic back to Leafs nation. It’s been too long. Jeremy Roenick’s overtime winner stands in time as the last memory of the blue & white partaking in meaningful springtime hockey.

To this point, the Leafs have deserved the criticism and ridicule. However, no one who follows the Leafs with a fair an objective view can deny the changes in atmosphere throughout the entire organization. Burke has built an all star management team and has eliminated any sense of entitlement amongst the players. Burke’s philosophy is simple, if you don’t want to win as badly as he does, you don’t deserve to wear the Maple Leaf.

How will it feel when the Leafs play their way back to respectability? I for one will take delight in seeing the band wagon fill up again, with smiling faces cheering along for a team they once took such joy in belittling.

Regardless of whether or not the Leafs make the playoffs this year, the organization now has a purpose. They have emerged with a sense of identity, and a penchant for winning. After all, Burke has stated countless times that this club is not being built to merely sneak into the playoffs. This club is being built to win the Stanley Cup.