Another busy (and important) week ahead

The Leafs are finally starting to turn some heads.

As we have noted recently, line combinations and individual player roles are at last defined on this club. All along, coach Ron Wilson has said that the lineup shuffling would stop once the team started to show signs of progress.

During the last 12 games, most ardent Leaf fans can tell you the line combinations without much prompting.

The same goes for a deep defensive unit.

That is a sign of progress and stability.

Despite all that is positive, the Leafs have not moved up in the Conference standings—yet.

What they have done with their recent 8-3-1 spurt is to reel in a number of rival clubs. That’s what makes this week very important. The Leafs find themselves within a mere two points of no fewer than five teams in the East and within four points (with a game in hand on the Habs.) If Toronto can win at least 3 of the 4 games, they will finally see tangible prove of their overall improvement and will move up in the standings.

That is not to say that there aren’t a couple of concerns on the roster.

The Leafs sat out sophomore defenseman Luke Schenn for the first time since he debuted with the club last year. This move was anticipated for a couple of weeks as Schenn’s game has slipped a notch and his minutes have been heavily reduced, when compared to his rookie season. He has been viewed as an important piece of the long-range plan with the Leafs so it will be interesting to see is he will continue to be held out of the lineup over the next few days.

In goal, Vesa Toskala’ play has improved after a wretched start and has at least given some indication that he can be a viable top goalie alternative. He has thrived with the chance to play in the absence, due to injury, of Jonas Gustavsson. That’s still an area of concern, though, because the Leafs have to be worried about the young Swede’s health. The Monster has certainly impressed in a number of his starts and the Leafs would like to consider him as a potential long term fixture in the Leaf net. Their quandary is that he is on a one year deal and the Leafs want to be able to make a proper evaluation here.

Both of these problem areas are longer-term issues.

The short-term looks positive, as it has for the last three weeks.

It’s time to get the payoff for all that good work, with another good week.

Tags: jonas gustavsson, Luke Schenn, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vesa Toskala