Last year, the Leafs started the season 4-0-0 and there was even MORE optimism than this year. Then the Leafs lost something like 8 games in a row and threw in the towel. This year, we’ve started 4-0-1 (now 4-1-1 thanks to a 6-2 drubbing by Boston), but even though our record is worse, I still have faith.

I’ve watched a couple of the games this season and we have been playing well. Our stars and scorers have been doing well (Kessel is leading the league in points and tied for the lead in goals) and we actually won two games by coming back from a two goal deficit in the third period! True, some players may be overachieving (I don’t think Kessel can live up to his pro-rated 114 goals and 197 point totals); that’s why there are some other solid players on our team who can pick up the slack.

As part of this faith and excitement, I’m also thinking who’s jersey I should get. I don’t necessarily want to “buy high” on Kessel, and I’m not sure how long Phaneuf will be captain (plus, I’ve seen a lot of Phaneuf jerseys). I could get Schenn, signed for another 5 years, but is struggling this year and our best trade-bait. Grabovski Crosbovski is UFA at the end of the year and Kulemin will be next year. Reimer may become another Raycroft and Kadri is also trade-bait (plus, is he going to stick with 43??). Ah decisions, decisions.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: hockey