Message to Leafs Fans

Your team is not as bad as you think. That being said, they were downright awful tonight versus the Rangers. After a 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Rangers you'd think the finger would be pointed at the goaltending. No, I'm not talking about some drunken Leafs fans gesturing at Raycroft, I'm talking about the blame game. After games like these, the coaching staff has to relax, and analyze what exactly did they do differently in this game that led to such a terrible result. The defensive woes are clear, but I'm sure it has more to do with strategy and match ups than the goaltending. Were the Leafs prepared to deal with the Rangers powerplay? Were they prepared to contain Jagr? Sure it's easy for us to say they weren't because we've seen the result, but believe it or not, the Leafs have to actually take something out of this game. Maybe it's more video analysis, or just a better job at matching up. The possibilities are endless, and it's up to the coaching staff to pinpoint exactly what went wrong, and what they can do to prevent future collapses of this sort. The great thing is that these are all things that can be corrected. The old saying that teams are never as good as you think they are when they win big, and never as bad as you think they are when they lose big rings true. Raycroft was not at fault tonight. Even if he was on his "A" game the score would still have ended up 3 or 4 to 1. Toskala would have helped, but that is irrelevant because it is not their issue.