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Toronto Maple Leafs
Overall: 21
Northeast Division: 5
The Maple
Leafs are on the move. They're shifting from the Western
Conference to the Eastern Conference, which will enable
them to play the Canadiens, their fiercest rivals, more
often. Then, in February, Toronto will ditch Maple Leaf
Gardens, its home since 1927, for
the Air Canada Centre, a spiffy new $174 million arena.
Unfortunately for Toronto fans, their team won't move in
the most important place, the standings.
If the Leafs (30-43-9 last season) are to improve, they
must upgrade an inept offense that in '97-98 scored only
194 goals, the fourth fewest in the league. To make matters
worse, Toronto's anemic power play produced on only 11.4%
of its opportunities
(25th in the NHL). Center Mats Sundin is the Leafs' prime
scoring threat, but he's unlikely to surpass his 33 goals
of last season without help. Derek King is the only other
Maple Leaf to score
more than 20 goals. Toronto is
counting on injury-plagued free-agent signee Steve Thomas
to bolster its
attack, but he scored a scant 29 goals over the last two
years with the
Devils.
Behind the bench Pat Quinn, 55, replaces Mike Murphy, who
was fired after failing to guide the Maple Leafs to the
playoffs in his two seasons in Toronto. Quinn hopes to
punch up the Leafs' offense with an aggressive attack that
features a quick
transition game. He'll also work to improve Toronto's mental state,
something he feels held the Leafs back last season.
"If you're not sure you can win, that's a bigger
obstacle than a lack of skill," he
says.
Goaltending is one area in which Toronto
is skillful. In July the Maple Leafs signed star free agent
Curtis Joseph to a four-year, $24 million deal. The plan
was to trade last year's starter, Felix Potvin, for a
scoring forward, but at week's end
Toronto hadn't been able to work a deal for
him.
Quinn hopes the new arena and the conference switch might
help reverse Toronto's fortunes, but he says the most
important change would be the Leafs' figuring out how to
win. "A team can get so
defense-oriented that it views breaking up the other
team's attack as success," he says. "We have to alter
the mind-set of the team. Instead of sitting back, we have
to get in someone's face and make him beat
us."
Fast Fact
Since Dave Keon got
the Conn Smythe in
1967, no Maple Leafs player has won a major NHL award (Hart,
Norris, Ross or Vezina), the longest such streak by any
team in the
league.
—By B.J.
Schecter
Keys To Success
- New goalie Curtis Joseph must be as stingy in the regular season
as he has been during the postseason for Toronto even to think
about qualifying for the playoffs.
- The Leafs have to get tougher now that they've moved to the
more physical Eastern Conference.
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