The Leafs need more talent and prospects need to pan out...

from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,

If you’re just watching the standings or not really watching the Leafs at all, you’ll look at their record and think not a whole lot has changed since Peter Horachek was helpless to stop the club driving into the ditch last season.
And you would be wrong.

Much is changing. Just not things you can detect by looking at a simple scoresheet.

When this Leaf team loses the puck, for example, it now chases it down like a group of irritated worker bees. And everyone does it. Nobody’s on a special program, allowed to leave the difficult chores to others.

The team’s breakout is improved. People are more often than not in their correct places, the puck is moved crisply, the zone is exited.

As a group, the team is much better at shielding opposing players from the net, although it needs to get better yet. In other words, while defending, there’s a whole lot less puck watching going on.

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