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Host, TSN The Reporters with Dave Hodge

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There are fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs who are convinced that the future is bright and others who continue to believe the opposite. I am often asked to deliver a verdict.

Sorry, my thumb is neither up nor down. By explaining that such a view of the years ahead is not possible, I believe I am giving the proper answer, which is to say the Leafs don’t know, either.

The toughest thing for any team to do is to pick the year it will win a championship, or end a playoff drought or take the first steps toward one or the other. Timetables can’t be followed because timetables don’t exist, except in the minds of those who have to present something that passes for optimism.

Embedded ImageIt would be nice if every team could point to the Chicago Blackhawks and repeat their formula: Draft Patrick Kane No. 1 the year after Jonathan Toews at No. 3, miss the playoffs in Kane’s rookie year and win the Stanley Cup two years later. If that’s how it’s done, the Edmonton Oilers would have won the next two Stanley Cups that went Chicago’s way.

But as we know, the Oilers, after drafting No. 1 four of the last six years and getting picks No. 3 and No. 7 the other two years, haven’t made the playoffs in any of those years and seem destined to miss the post-season again for what would be the 10th straight time.

The Florida Panthers began this season with a rough idea of good times ahead, probably two or three years down the road. They’ve taken themselves by surprise by leading their division, way ahead of schedule. Except there is no schedule.

The Anaheim Ducks began this season as Stanley Cup favourites in the minds of many, including their own, and they will do well to sneak into the playoffs as the NHL’s lowest-scoring team.

The Leafs figure to get better, only because there are 27 places they could finish that are higher than the 28th spot they currently occupy, and just two that are lower. But either is possible. Chicago and Edmonton can bear witness.
 

The Waiting Game

Call me cynical, but until it is announced that Steven Stamkos has signed a new contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning, I will assume he prefers to play elsewhere.

In Stamkos’ situation, words don’t stick to paper but ink does. Today, tomorrow or the next day, Stamkos can prove he wants to remain with the Lightning by signing on the dotted line. He can’t prove it any other way.

Anything he says about liking it in Tampa, wanting to win in Tampa, sticking with his teammates in Tampa, is stuff that he has to say if and when he chooses to take questions from the media. If he has decided to leave at the end of the season, or earlier should a trade deal be presented to him, he can’t come clean and no one would expect him to do that.

Is it possible he really doesn’t know yet what he wants, but will in a month? Call me cynical again, but he and his agent Don Meehan have a very good idea of the term and the dollars available in Tampa vs. the open market.

Very little will change because not much can change.

Meanwhile, “thumbs down” to the waiting game. The dog days of February will feature Stamkos rumours, and Tampa Bay games, in that order. We in the media wait. Fans around the league, especially in Tampa, and okay, in Toronto, too - they wait. And Stamkos waits until the day he’s able to say more. In all probability, he knows what that will be, and the rest of us think we know.