Five rules to follow if you're going to be a Leaf fan

1. Don’t overreact to each win and loss.

2. Don’t over value the Leaf’s better players and vilify their worst players.

3. Leaf ownership is committed to winning but actually getting there isn’t an easy matter.

4. The fans’ devotion to the team undermines management’s attempt to build a winner.

5. Exhibition games mean nothing.

After the first exhibition game and first loss we need to remind ourselves of these rules. The fans play as much of a role in the failure of the Maple Leaf team as management. We overreact to each win and loss. We build ordinary players into icons while at the same time chase decent players out of town. Our devotion to the team is a demotivating factor because players are constantly in the spotlight and do not need to work hard for that attention. It also makes the owner a lot of money.

Which brings me back to the pathetic game played by the Leafs last night. Forget about it!

A team with little depth that sits out key players is going to look like crap. Yes, even against another team’s back up players. Most guys out there are just getting a brief taste of NHL hockey before getting shipped out to somewhere else. There are about 20 players who have made this team already and if they were in the lineup last night it was to get themselves ready for the season. There are 6 players who are battling out for about 3 spots. These are the guys who everyone should be watching. If they were in the lineup last night it might have been difficult to show much against such a mediocre backdrop. But after the cuts this weekend, it will be their time to show what they got.

For me the real disappointment last night was the Leaf powerplay. Now you would expect poor production with the Leaf’s #1 sitting out the game. But the powerplay set up is the same one that Ron Wilson has used for the past two seasons with very little success. Three players playing high up by the blue line and 2 down deep has produced very few scoring chances. Everyone in the arena including the opposing team knows that the powerplay is designed to create shots from the point and those shots won’t be coming from Tomas Kaberle. So how hard is that to defend against? This is not a player personnel issue or a player execution issue. It’s a coaching issue.