2-on-1: Teams Without a Win

Every Monday during the season, two of our hockey writers will debate one topic. It's the 2-on-1. This week, Adam Gretz and Bruce Ciskie talk about the two teams without a win (the New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs) and end up focusing on what's wrong with the Leafs?


Adam Gretz: OK, Bruce, we have two teams without a win, the Islanders and the Maple Leafs: Which team gets a win first?

Bruce Ciskie: That's easy. Has to be the Islanders. After all, they're too young to understand how bad they are, and therefore are generally still trying most of the time. The Maple Leafs have ridden their outstanding veteran defense to an intolerably bad start, and it looks like their spirit is broken. Plus, the Islanders play two games before Toronto plays again. Yes, I cheated.

Gretz: The Islanders have at least been competitive on most nights. Prior to their game with San Jose, every loss was a one-goal loss, and three of them were in a shootout or overtime. So they've been close.

But, admit it, you didn't expect Toronto to stumble this bad out of the gate, did you? Did anybody? I didn't have them as a playoff team before the season started, but I at least figured the Leafs would hang around in the race for the No. 8 spot. And, granted, they still could, but it hasn't been a very inspiring start, that's for sure.

Ciskie: No way did I expect this. Burke added some guys on the blue line that I figured would make them better defensively, and while I knew they would miss Phil Kessel until he was ready to play, it looked like there was enough talent up front to keep the team competitive until he returned.

Instead, the defense has been terrible, the goaltending is worse, and there hasn't been nearly enough offense. I'm not one to second-guess Brian Burke, but shouldn't he be considering bringing up a forward from the Marlies who can at least present a goal scoring threat? It's nice to have attitude, but it does you no good when no one on your team can score.

Gretz: Obviously, it's still very, very, very, very, very, very early, but the team that has to be laughing the hardest at Toronto's early struggles is the Boston Bruins with that first-round pick (Taylor Hall!) sitting in their possession. I mean, obviously Toronto needs to get Kessel in the lineup, and they could probably get better goaltending from Goldberg of Mighty Ducks fame than what they're getting out of Vesa Toskala and Joey MacDonald, but is the return of Kessel and "The Monster" going to be enough to get this team out of this funk?

That's a lot of pressure on two guys, especially one guy that has two NHL games under his belt.

Ciskie: Unless you think Jiri Tlusty is the answer to solving their offensive problems, you better believe in Kessel.

As for The Monster, well he did look better than either MacDonald or Toskala. Not that I'm saying very much there.

Reality is that neither of these teams look like they're going to be a serious playoff contender. That's not exactly surprising, because we all knew there was still work to be done, but what is really surprising about Toronto is that they just aren't competing consistently. It's the one aspect of this team I thought Burke would be able to fix. So far, no dice, because they look like the same crappy, loafing bunch that he said wouldn't watch again after last year.

Gretz: The thing is, they were a top-10 team in goals scored a year ago, and, on paper anyway, seemed to upgrade their defense. It's just a very confusing team so far. The only positive is they have plenty of time on their side to get this thing back in the right direction (and I still think they will!).