I'm the first person to give credit where credit is due, but let's not give Brian Burke the key to the city just yet. Leaf fans everywhere are doing cart-wheels in anticipation of the '09-'10 season, which kicks off with an exhibition game against the superior Bruins this Wednesday. To steal a phrase from the outspoken GM himself, the trainer isn't going to have to tape my wrists from doing cart-wheels. Sure they're tougher, but exuberance, grit, and collecting PIMS won't do much for the win column. Hold on Slink... "It worked in Anaheim!" you say. Sure it did, but they also had Ryan Getzlaf, Andy McDonald, Scott Niedermayer, and the ageless Teemu Selanne. If you know of anybody even close to as good as any of those four on the current Leafs roster, please enlighten me.
Don't get me wrong, I want to believe. I want to believe Mikhail Grabovski and John Mitchell will continue to progress. I want to believe Jason Blake will get back to the 30-goal plateau. I want to believe Mike Komisarek will make Tomas Kaberle better. I want to believe "The Monster" is the real deal. The bad news is that hope is a dangerous thing. The good news is if it all goes down as planned, there's nothing stopping Toronto from making it into the playoffs - perhaps as high as the 6th seed.
Here's what I know - there are only four teams that we can pencil in for playoff spots (Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia, and Boston). Beyond this impressive foursome, the field is wide open, because much like the situation in Toronto, the rest of the teams in the East will have to deal with a surplus of variables and question marks from the moment the puck drops on October 1st.
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