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head coach: Mike Murphy

roster: C - Darby Hendrickson, Steve Sullivan, Alyn McCauley. LW - Fredrik Modin, Wendel Clark, Todd Warriner, Derek King, Kris King, Igor Korolev. RW - Mats Sundin, Sergei Berezin, Tie Domi, Mike Johnson, Martin Prochazka, Lonny Bohonos. D - Sylvain Cote, Dimitri Yushkevich, Mathieu Schneider, Jason Smith, Rob Zettler. G - Felix Potvin, Glenn Healy.

injuries: Mathieu Schneider, d (sore groin, day-to-day); Craig Wolanin, d(knee sprain Nov. 1, out for the season (placed on injured reserve Nov. 1)); Nick Kypreos, lw (post-concussion syndrome Sept. 15, indefinite (placed on injured reserve Sept. 15)).

transactions: Recalled Lonny Bohonos, rw, from St. John's (AHL); recalled Jeff Ware, d, from St. John's; returned Jeff Ware, d, to St. John's; sent Daniil Markov, d, to St. John's.

standings:

Western Conference - Central Division
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   
x-Dallas     75  43  21  11    97  219  155  
x-Detroit    76  41  20  15    97  230  181  
x-St Louis   75  41  26   8    90  227  179  
Phoenix      75  30  33  12    72  206  209 
Chicago      77  30  35  12    72  185  187  
Toronto      74  26  39   9    61  170  213  
x - Clinched playoff spot

game results:

3/24 at Phoenix    L 4-2
3/26 at Dallas     W 1-0
3/28 NY Islanders  W 4-3 OT
3/30 Los Angeles   L 3-2
4/01 St. Louis     L 6-4
4/04 San Jose      L 5-3

team news:

by Jonah Sigel, Toronto Correspondent

Failure Across The Board(s)

Big changes. That was what occurred following the 1996-97 season in Toronto. Very big changes.

The GM and President was effectively fired, veterans were let go, new ones were brought in and, of course, an entirely new management team was put in place. The coach remained, as did the scouting staff. Actually the only real casualty of the Fletcher regime was his secretary. Two other staff members quit during this season, but let's put them aside for now. Recall that after a long summer spent searching for the right general manager, Ken Dryden found himself looking at the man in the mirror. At that time the entire summer had been wasted and no real changes could be made, training camp was set to open.

At the time camp broke, head coach Murphy set three goals for his club:

1. Achieve a .500 record
2. Make the playoffs
3. Cut goals against by 50

As we head into the home stretch, the Leafs have played 75 games and it appears that the coach has failed miserably. To be honest, the coach is a whopping 0-3. As of Monday morning, prior to a tilt with Dallas (good luck boys) the Leafs have the following record to call home to Mom about: 26 wins, 40 losses, 9 ties for a total of 61 points. They have scored 174 goals (second worst to only Tampa Bay) and given up 219 (sixth worst in the league).

With the aide of a calculator and some rough math it can be estimated that the Leafs will likely finish with the following record as compared to last seasons:

Season          W       L       T       Pts.    GF      GA
97-98           28      44      10      66      190     239
96-97           30      44      8       68      230     273

As is evident, barring a serious miracle, the coach has failed on all three goals. The club is far from .500, nine points back of a playoff record and is on pace to finish with 34 fewer goals against as opposed to his goal of 50.

Lately the coach appears to be lashing out at the media suggesting he is going to be benching those who are no performing. It is so nice to see such action when so much is on the line. Where was this attitude months ago when a gain could be realized? Murph's boys have folded up the tent and gone home. The last few games are nothing but formalities and that is a sign of a team that is not well prepared and lacks character. It is obvious that a message has not been delivered that if you can't make it on this team you will be gone and, well, if you couldn't make this team how do you figure that you'll make any other NHL team?

Enough blaming the coach for what has gone wrong this season, there is plenty of blame to go around. Of the players who were on the roster at the beginning of the year only three have shown an improvement statistically: Tie Domi, Dimitri Yushkevich and Jason Smith. All other players have shown next to no improvement or have actually declined in their production this year (rookies, of course, are exceptions).

Last, of course, is the management team. Through all the bad that can be mentioned there is one thing that has been established with this group, and that is patience.

In prior years, whether right or wrong, players were shipped in out and all the time. This included veterans as well as kids and draft picks. For the first time in years the Leafs are entering a draft with a full arsenal of picks. The issue of how well they are able to make those picks will be addressed in a latter issue.

One of the costs of being so patient and thus instilling stability is that a perception of ineptitude and abandonment has grown. Those familiar with the team questioned from day one of camp where the team would get their goals from. Goal scoring has been an issue all season, yet management did nothing all year to help the team. When certain players were available management was either too late or not interested. A classic example is Ray Whitney who was waived by Edmonton as well as Russ Courtnall, who signed late in the season with LA. Both were players that can put the puck in the net and Leaf scouts simply were not able to either recognize the talent or convince their bosses to act.

It has been another trying season for the Blue and White. Next season they move conferences and will face much stiffer competition. It appears that all the change that occurred last season was for not. Let's hope that their will once again be a big turnover this year and it will bear fruit.

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