Reluctantly I must report that Phil Kessel seems to be heating up, and the Leafs are not losing at a significant enough rate to guarantee the Boston Bruins a top 5 pick. Thursday against Montreal he had 4 pts, his best game as a Maple Leaf. In the last 2 weeks he has finally been earning his paycheque, which is quite a substantial paycheque. Now the Leafs find themselves 4 pts out of a playoff spot, and suddenly my Leaf fan buddy is texting me that this is a great season and Brian Burke should be elected Prime Minister. That's a little strong, but the Leafs are now winning hockey games, and the only correlating factor I can see is the goalie James Reimer. Is he the goalie of the future? It should have been Tuuka Rask, but alas he was traded by Terd Ferguson for Andrew Raycroft.
Ironic that they trade Kaberle, a great puck moving defenceman, and now the sports media is speculating that Toronto wants to add a puck moving defenceman. They trade Kaberle and now need to acquire a guy exactly like Kaberle? Then again, they did fetch a good price for Kabby, but it is a zero sum game if you now need to acquire exactly what you traded.
I like Kessel and I like the trade that brought him to Toronto. He will get 30 goals a year and Burke got a 1st round pick in 2011 back in the Kaberle trade which softens the blow from the Kessel deal. Kaberle moves the puck but he was 2 soft. The Leafs won't miss him and he was making too much money in the cap era for a soft puck moving defenseman. Burke is good. You have to look at his moves long term not on a short term one move basis, like watching a chess game.
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