This season, the Toronto Maple Leafs present themselves as a properly matured team and, while a year ago they were indeed the league's youngest, they are now a much more balanced team, quite possibly a better team. If they stay healthy, they will enjoy a run in the playoffs next spring. If they don't, Ron Wilson and Brian Burke will be peddling their skills elsewhere.
Frankly, the Leafs are a good, young team that is improving and, if they win their home games, they have the capability of generating a huge and lucrative television (and online) viewing audience, while increasing critical branded merchandise sales, which is what the shareholders expect. On behalf of these fans, the board demands nothing short of sales success from its managers, delivering measurable objectives that they can control, which includes winning a slate of home games during the playoffs.
The Leafs today are certainly not an aging, washed-up team subject to frequent pulled muscles or broken bones, even with Tim Connolly in the lineup, but there will be injuries—an unlucky fall here and a bad bounce there. Thus, the equation of making the playoffs is actuall ...
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Article written by Graeme Boyce
Toronto Maple Leafs: Early Predictions Discount Critical Element of Good Luck
October 8th, 2011 by Graeme Boyce Leave a reply »
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