New Year’s Eve 2010 marks the end of the first decade of the 21st century.

Here’s a look back at some of the highs and lows for the Maple Leafs, over the past ten years:

2001: In an unlikely playoff sweep, Toronto knocked off their arch rivals, the Ottawa Senators, in four straight games. Overtime goals by Mats Sundin and Cory Cross were instrumental in the victory…A few weeks earlier in a regular season game in Philadelphia, Tie Domi got into a scuffle with Flyers fan Chris Falcone, who fell into the penalty box while taunting the Leafs enforcer as the glass separating the two combatants gave way…Domi earns the ire of the New Jersey Devils after elbowing Scott Niedermayer of Game #4 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Final, and is suspended for the rest of the playoffs plus the first eight games of the regular season…Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment launches the specialty channel Leafs TV.

2002: Leafs coach Pat Quinn wins the first Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey for Canada in 50 years. Toronto goalie Curtis Joseph does not play after Canada’s opening loss to Sweden…A vicious seven-game opening round playoff series against the New York Islanders features Darcy Tucker’s controversial hit on Michael Peca that knocked him out of the playoffs. Shayne Corson is suspended for kicking Eric Cairns and Leafs fans cheer “Steve Webb sucks”…The Leafs lose Mats Sundin for the next series against Ottawa. In Game #5 Daniel Alfredsson scores the game-winning goal after boarding Tucker but no penalty is called. Senators falter in Game #6 at home after Ricard Persson takes a five-minute major penalty, allowing the Leafs to tie the game and eventually win the contest, and the series…Sundin returns against Carolina, but injury-riddled Toronto squad runs out of gas in six games. Martin Gelinas eliminates the Leafs in overtime at ACC after a turnover by Alex Mogilny. After the loss, Joseph – an unrestricted free agent – says he would ‘absolutely’ like to stay in Toronto, but signs with Detroit in the off-season…Ed Belfour becomes the team’s starting goalie…Sundin is named a second-team All-Star

2003: Trade deadline frenzy results in Owen Nolan coming to Toronto in exchange for Alyn McCauley, Brad Boyes and a first-round draft pick…Leafs also acquire Doug Gilmour, Phil Housley and Glen Wesley in separate deals. Gilmour is injured by Dave Lowry on his first shift in a game against Calgary, never plays another shift and retires in September….Leafs take Flyers to seventh game but are shelled 6-1 in Philly in deciding match…Mogilny is awarded the Lady Byng Trophy…Pat Quinn steps down as GM, naming John Ferguson Jr. as his successor…Joe Nieuwendyk and Ken Klee are signed in the off-season.

2004: After the Leafs comeback to defeat the flu-riddled Senators 5-4 in a February game, Nolan gives a sarcastic “boo hoo” towards Ottawa.. Leafs bring in Brian Leetch, Ron Francis, Chad Kilger and Calle Johansson in separate deals at the trade deadline…Nieuwendyk’s two soft goals on Patrick Lalime in Game #7 of Eastern Conference Quarter-Final against Ottawa are key to eliminating the Sens…Jeremy Roenick of the Flyers ends Toronto’s playoff hopes with an overtime goal on May 4. Leafs have not been back to the playoffs since then…Ken Dryden steps down as team president…..Sundin and McCabe are named second-team All-Stars at centre and defence…Quinn coaches Team Canada to victory at the World Cup of Hockey, with Canada beating Finland 3-2 in the final game at Air Canada Centre. The NHL lockout starts the next day.

2005: Not much to write about for the first part of the calendar year, no thanks to the lockout. A new collective bargaining agreement is finally signed. With no prior regular season, a lottery system is set up to give all 30 NHL teams a chance to draft Rimouski Oceanic phenom Sidney Crosby. Leafs get the 21st overall pick…..Eric Lindros, Jason Allison and Alexander Khavanov are signed as free agents…The Leafs’ AHL affiliate is moved from St. John’s to Toronto where they are named the Marlies and play out of Ricoh Coliseum – to sparse crowds…Toronto and Ottawa open the regular season and play the first shootout in NHL history, with the Senators’ Dominik Hasek outdueling Belfour. Quick, check the TV to see if Allison has finished his shootout move yet.

2006: Leafs captain Mats Sundin wins a gold medal for Sweden at the Olympics in Torino. McCabe is named to Team Canada, who are eliminated in the quarter-finals by Russia… In an omen of times to come, Toronto fails to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since the 1997-98 season…Paul Maurice comes up from the Marlies to replace Quinn behind the Leafs bench…Leafs trade goaltending prospect Tuukka Rask to Boston for Andrew Raycroft, assuming that World Junior star Justin Pogge will one day be the team’s top netminder. Hal Gill, Pavel Kubina, Michael Peca and Boyd Deveraux are signed as free agents…On October 14th at Air Canada Centre, Sundin scores in overtime against Calgary to register a hat trick. It is his 500th career NHL goal.

2007: The Leafs defeat Montreal on the last day of their season to earn a chance to qualify for the playoffs. The next day, the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils play to a shootout. Islanders goalie Wade Dubielewicz outshines the Devils’ Scott Clemmensen, allowing New York to squeeze into the eighth and final playoff spot…With the Raycroft experiment a bust in Toronto, the Leafs acquire Vesa Toskala from San Jose….Jason Blake, along with Clemmensen…are signed as free agents.

2008: Tomas Kaberle refuses to waive his no-trade clause, nixing a deal that would have sent him to Philadelphia for Jeff Carter and a first-round pick. After the Leafs miss the playoffs for the third straight year, Maurice is fired and replaced by Ron Wilson…Meanwhile at Ricoh Coliseum, the Marlies are having more playoff success than any other pro Toronto sports team in recent memory (save for the Argos winning the 2004 Grey Cup, and also advancing to the CFL Eastern Final in 2007). The team plays thrilling seven-game series against San Antonio and Syracuse before bowing out to Chicago in the conference final. However, since it’s the Marlies and not the Leafs, barely anyone in Toronto notices…Ferguson is fired leaving Cliff Fletcher to manage the team on an interim basis. His free agent signings include Jeff Finger and Niklas Hagman…Fletcher trades up at the draft to secure Luke Schenn…Free agent Mats Sundin begins his fence-sitting, leaving speculation wide open as to his future…November 29: the Brian Burke era begins. Pugnacity. Belligerence. Truculence. Testosterone…In December, Sundin signs with the Canucks.

2009: Sundin returns to Toronto to score a shootout winner in a Vancouver uniform…Burke tries the college route for talent, signing Christian Hanson out of Notre Dame and Tyler Bozak out of University of Denver…Leafs draft Nazem Kadri from the London Knights. Expectaions, what expectations??…Mike Komisarek, Francois Beauchmein and Colton Orr are signed in July as free agents…September 18: Burke deals two first-round picks and a second-round pick to Boston for Phil Kessel.

2010: January 31: Dion Phaneuf is acquired in a seven-player deal with the Calgary Flames. The one-time Calder and Norris Trophy nominee becomes the team’s captain in June…On the same day, Blake and Toskala are traded to Anaheim for J.S. Giguere…Burke’s son Brendan tragically loses his life in a car accident…Days later Burke and Wilson lead Team U.S.A. to a silver medal at the Olympics in Vancouver…Kris Versteeg and Colby Armstrong are among the free agent signings….Oh yeah: waffles.

Remember when they were Leafs? Corey Schwab, Tom Barrasso, Jeff O’Neill, Clarke Wilm, Alexander Khavanov, Alexander Suglobov, Yanic Perreault (again), Luke Richardson (again), Dominic Moore, Martin Gerber.

..probably not, because they never played a game for Toronto, and were Leafs property for just a few days: Colin Stuart, Martin Skoula.

Gone but not forgotten: Billy Harris,, Carl Brewer, Sid Smith, Steve Stavro, Roger Neilson, Lorne Carr, Red Horner, Gaye Stewart, Walt Poddubny, Ted Kennedy, Peter Zezel, Pat Burns, Vic Lynn, Don Simmons, Murray Armstrong.

Leafs fans are left with little optimism that the next 10 years will bring any more success then the previous ten.

Nevertheless, Happy New Year, and Happy New Decade!

---

Rob Del Mundo is the author of Blue And White Beat, and is a regular columnist at TMLfans.ca

Follow TMLfans.ca on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tmlfansrob

Blue And White Beat: Leafs aren’t waffling

A puzzling form of protest was exhibited by a patron at Air Canada Centre at the end of Thursday’s loss by the Maple Leafs at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers.

A disgusted fan tossed waffles onto the ice, obviously displeased at shelling out hard-earned money only to see the home side produce a lacklustre effort in a 4-1 defeat.

Who brings waffles to the game?” chuckled Flyers defenceman Chris Pronger.

Yet as confusing as the exhibition of displeasure was, the Leafs on-ice execution over the past five games has been equally as mind-boggling, leaving viewers left to wonder which incarnation of the team will show up on a given night.

The loss to Philadelphia was preceded by a pathetic effort in Pittsburgh after which head coach Ron Wilson fumed that the turning point of the game was “when they dropped the puck.”

And yet the two games against Pennsylvania opponents followed a pair of resilient comeback wins.

On December 4 against Boston, Leafs agitator Colby Armstrong returned to the lineup after missing 16 games with a finger injury, pestering long-time Toronto nemesis Zdeno Chara. A power-play marker by Kris Versteeg in the final minute of regulation sent the game into overtime, setting the stage for Phil Kessel’s eventual shootout winner against his former team.

Two nights later, Toronto staged a third-period comeback with three consecutive goals to erase a 4-1 deficit against Washington. Once again, the shootout provided the vehicle for the Leafs to steal two points, this time off a ‘spin-e-rama’ move courtesy of Mikhail Grabovski.

A win Saturday night over division rival Montreal elevated the Leafs record to 3-2-0 in the last five outings. With Toronto stacked against the current top five seeds in the Eastern Conference over that span, many predicted that Toronto would flounder to the point of changing team personnel involving players or the coach, if not both.

“We had a really good week,” said Wilson, the lightning rod of the criticism aimed at the club that still sits third-last in the NHL standings, despite the recent success. “On Sunday I was going to do my Christmas shopping, that’s all I was thinking about. I was either going as Santa Claus or Scrooge.”

The team prepares to embark on their annual road trip to western Canada with an opportunity to overtake each of the two Alberta-based teams in the overall standings. On Tuesday the Leafs will be looking to avenge an embarrassing home ice loss to Edmonton two weeks ago. Then on Thursday the spotlight will be on captain Dion Phaneuf in his return to Calgary since being dealt by the Flames. The trip concludes on the weekend against Vancouver.

The challenge for the squad is to keep its composure when trailing. “We keep doing it to ourselves,” said Phaneuf of the team’s propensity to fall behind by wide margins. “Until we learn to not spot those leads, it’s pretty tough to win games.”

Perhaps the message that the projectile-tossing fan wished to communicate is for the Leafs to produce a 60-minute effort on any given night, instead of, well – waffling.

---

Rob Del Mundo is the author of Blue And White Beat, and is a regular columnist at TMLfans.ca

Follow TMLfans.ca on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tmlfansrob

Blue And White Beat: Leafs have a pulse

You know those medical dramas in which the patient flatlines, the monitor beeps a continuous high-pitched tone, the doctor yells “Clear!”, applies the shock paddles, and miraculously hears the faint but distinct ‘blip-blip-blip’ of a heartbeat?

That’s what came to mind when watching Saturday’s thrilling comeback by the Leafs over the Boston Bruins.

Face it; the team in blue and white was given up for dead just 48 hours earlier, after an embarrassing, effortless showing against the lowly Edmonton Oilers. Critics had assumed that the players had stopped playing for Toronto coach Ron Wilson. I was one of them. We couldn’t wait to log in to Twitter to pronounce the time of death on the Leafs season, Wilson’s job, Burke’s job, or any combination of the three.

Last night’s matchup at Air Canada Centre certainly didn’t favour the home side, with the league’s second-worst offence facing the NHL’s stingiest defence.

Throughout much of the game, Boston backstop Tim Thomas looked impenetrable. it was the same clichéd refrain. “The Leafs are making the opposing goalie look like a damn Vezina Trophy winner!” (hey wait a minute, that guy IS a Vezina Trophy winner, ok it’s not just them that have trouble scoring!)

But the unexpected happened. The Leafs found a pulse.

Despite Thomas’ continued heroics, Toronto never quit.

Phil Kessel and Kris Versteeg continued to fire pucks on net – finishing the night with six shots on goal each. Versteeg was rewarded for his efforts with the game-tying goal with just 43 ticks left in the third period.

Colby Armstrong continued to get into the face of Zdeno Chara, dutifully playing the role of antagonist as he has done his whole career. Armstrong’s absence was certainly felt during the 16 games that he missed – 17 if you don’t count the fifty-two seconds that he played on October 26 before injuring his finger in a game against Florida.

And few would have been surprised to see a collective Leafs collapse after Thomas’ larcenous save off Francois Beauchemin in overtime.

Fewer still would have batted an eye had Kessel, goal-less in eight games against his former team, missed on a shootout attempt, knowing that his counterpart in the oft-criticized trade Tyler Seguin had been successful, giving 19,483 skeptics in the stands another reason to call for Burke’s head.

Yet Kessel managed to take advantage of a rare miscue by Thomas, who played the shot from far too deep in his crease as the winger-converted-centre squeaked the puck underneath him.

The goal moved Kessel into second place on the all-time NHL shootout winning goal list with 12, trailing Sidney Crosby by one.

This single victory doesn’t move the Leafs any higher than the 13th position that they occupied prior to the game, let alone a playoff spot. Fans astute enough to recollect the month of October know that even a four-game winning-streak does not dictate a season that is twenty times as long.

But as the Leafs face a tough week with visits to Washington and Pittsburgh before returning home to host Philadelphia and Montreal, Saturday’s win can only bolster the club’s otherwise fragile psyche.

***

Why does Don Cherry insist on playing the “I told you so” card every time Nazem Kadri shows a flash of brilliance? Yes Kadri’s sweet backhand shootout goal over Thomas’ shoulder was instrumental win. Yet, the ‘bad habits’ that Wilson continues to try and correct are the ones that Cherry keeps overlooking. Or did Grapes not see the turnover on the Leafs power-play that allowed the Bruins to clear the zone, just prior to Versteeg’s goal?

---

Rob Del Mundo is the author of Blue And White Beat, and is a regular columnist at TMLfans.ca

Follow TMLfans.ca on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tmlfansrob