Last Updated on: 23rd September 2013, 08:38 pm
Well today the Caps sent Gonchar to the Bruins in exchange for basically ammounts to nothing. Hopefully this means that we can all stop talking about him and move on to a player that we actually need.
Leafs fans, myself included, have such a huge arrogance that it can shadow reality. We’ve all been guilty at one point or another of saying something like “why don’t they just go out and get gonchar?”. Well it’s pretty simple. Toronto is not the only team in the league that wants to improve or make deals….as proven with the Gonchar trade.
Inevitably on all the call in shows today it will be all talk about how the Leafs missed out on him but really, it has more to do with the fact that there are other teams out there. This year it was Gonchar, last year Niinimaa, year before that Blake. We always want the one big guy out there, and well… everyone wants that guy. People don’t want to acknowledge what the Leafs do do. We just want to complain. Last year the leafs went out and got Nolan more than a week before the deadline. He did not pan out last season the way we wanted but they did still go get him and he’s played well this year. At the beginning of last season they lost CuJo and signed the biggest goaltender out thereand look how he’s turned out for us. As shown in the lastmonth, we’re nothing without him. This summer they signed Joe Niewendyk and while he’s been pretty good this year I think we’ll see his true value in the playoffs.
The Leafs do still need to do something but it’s not as dark as it seems. Last night the Leafs were dominant on offense. The Sundin line could not be contained and save for a few mistakes the defense looked bad. Now those mistakes ended up in our net and they can’t be there during playoff time but I don’t think it’s as bad as people think. We need a good stay at home defensemen and hopefully now that Gonchar is off the market, that will be realized.
Also an interesting thought on the radio this morning was possibly adding a physical center. It may not look like we need that right now but if you look at the lines it makes sense. The Sundin line should stay the same, you’ve got the SkyLine with Joe, Pony and Antropov. The third line right now has Tucker and Nolan centered by … Reichel? That’s no good. Those two wingers are physical guys who can score. Reichel doesn’t fit with them. Get them a big play making center and you could be looking at the 3 very dangerous lines. That would leave Stajan, Domi and Renberg for the 4th line and I’ve got no problem with that. Sit Reichel for all I care. Or eat some contract and use him in a trade for his replacement or a d-man. he may not be great but someone will take a guy like that if you eat some of his contract. He has shown some promise before.
In closing. I’d just like to say that the space bar on this here computer is shit and I apologize for any run together words in this thing.
Oh ya, and it’s just me but I’d look for Leetch to be traded somewhere possibly even by the end of today. With Gonchar gone teams needing d-men could panic and over pay just to make sure they get him before anyone else. Just a thought.