That looked like last year's Leafs

Have the Maple Leafs come back to earth? Leaf Nation doesn't appear to be panicking but that listless effort Thursday night against the Rangers was disturbingly familiar. How many times over the past few season have we seen this team take the night off? The opponents play a little used backup against the Leafs and the team responds by barely challenging the second string goalie. The Leafs dig themselves a hole in the first period and then mount a futile comeback later in the game. Usually too little and too late.

Thursday night the opposition beat the Leafs to the puck most of the night. The Rangers blocked shots and won all the battles. Well, except the fight between Orr and Boogaard. That was pretty much a draw. The Leaf powerplay looked much like last year's version which was the worst in the league. The only positive had to have been the play of Luke Schenn who may finally be gaining some confidence.

A playoff contender cannot afford to take many nights off. This team hasn't played 20 games yet, in fact they haven't even played 10 games. By the quarter season mark we should know whether the Leafs are pretenders or contenders.

Interestingly enough the weakness on the team has been identified as secondary scoring. For me that suggests a weak second scoring line. However, the second line in many respects in better than the first line because they are better suited for the role they have. Frankly neither Bozak or Versteeg have shown that they deserve to be skating alongside Phil Kessel. They are playing on the first line almost by default. Here is how the lines break down by goals scored and ice time.

1. Kessel-Bozak-Versteeg: 6 goals on 20:00 ice time per game
2. Kulemin-Grabovski-MacArthur: 6 goals on 16:30 ice time per game
3. Sjostrom-Brent-Armstrong: 3 goals on 15:30 ice time per game
4. Brown-Zigomanis-Orr: 1 goal on 6:30 ice time per game

I think the first line has not produced considering the ice time they receive including prime powerplay time. Until they become more productive I would share some of their ice time with the second line.