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PHOENIX — The consensus among the Toronto Maple Leafs' ownership group, management and the players is that the struggling NHL team has time to turn around the season.
So there likely won't be any drastic shakeups before the Leafs' next game, against the Montreal Canadiens at the Air Canada Centre tomorrow, even though Toronto, 8-11-5, has lost six of its past seven games and has fallen to 14th place in the Eastern Conference standings and 27th overall in the 30-team league.
“Who likes losing? We're in a winning business,” Leafs forward Mats Sundin said after Toronto was dumped 5-1 by the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday. “As I've said, we have plenty of time to turn this around. But we better start doing it soon.
“If you look around our dressing room, with the exception of Ottawa [Senators], we have just as much talent as the rest of the teams. You can find all the excuses you want about why we're not winning, but the bottom line is the players in here are responsible and we have to do better.”
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- Dallas Stars
- Montreal Canadiens
- Ottawa Senators
- Phoenix Coyotes
- Jason Blake
- Tomas Kaberle
- Pavel Kubina
- Bryan McCabe
- Mats Sundin
- Darcy Tucker
There has been a clamouring among the Leafs' faithful for changes, such as getting rid of general manager John Ferguson, firing head coach Paul Maurice or making a major trade.
Sundin, however, backed his coach and said the players are responsible for the team's woes.
“I think Paul Maurice has done a great job since he got here,” the captain said. “I have all the respect for him and the job he's done. The performance on the ice is because of the players in this dressing room. Paul Maurice has done everything he can to prepare this team as good as he can and there is nothing to blame him for right now.”
The talk throughout the league is that Ferguson has been trying feverishly to make a trade, but he has yet to find a willing partner. One of the obstacles he faces is the no-trade contracts he dished out to several players.
Sundin and defenceman Bryan McCabe have no-movement clauses. Blueliner Tomas Kaberle has a straight no-trade contract. Forwards Darcy Tucker and Jason Blake, as well as defenceman Pavel Kubina, have no-movement periods in their respective contracts, which means there is a window after the season when they can be dealt.
Ferguson admitted he is trying to address the Leafs' shortcomings on the roster.
“It's not any given day that [trades] happen,” he said. “But those are discussions that are ongoing on different levels.”
The big problem with the Leafs has been scoring goals since they changed their focus to a defence-first game plan this month. The Leafs have scored only 14 goals in the past seven games, and five of them have been on the power play.
But the Leafs' play with the man advantage went awry in their losses on the two-game trip against the Dallas Stars and the Coyotes. They were 0-for-10 on the power play.
After Saturday's dreadful effort, the players held a players-only meeting and Ferguson and his staff had an hour-long session with Maurice and his assistants.
“There is no question that dropping two games in a row on the road is a setback and you go back to our last seven games we need to be better,” Ferguson said.
“We understand what we have and we have to get more out of the group. … But we look around this league and it is evident there is parity in the first quarter of the season. There were teams that were two, three, four or five games below .500 that are now above .500. You have teams that started out 7-0 and now dropping to two games over .500. We know what have to do and we're going to do it.”
The only strings the Leafs have been able to put together this season have been on the losing side. Ferguson said he is not worried about tenuous employment and he hasn't been frustrated at the way this season has developed.
“It's too early for me to use that word,” Ferguson said. “This is an 82-game schedule where we need to get to where we want to get to at Game No.82. We have to be better next month, but we're still looking for ways [to win].”
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