"Brian Burke's forward formula of top six/bottom six might require a change in calculation. But few in Leafs Nation are complaining that goals are spilling over all three lines in back-to-back season opening victories, and even the fourth line if you count Colton Orr and Mike Brown being on the ice for one already. "It's not how it's designed," coach Ron Wilson said as he began delving into the 5-1 win over Ottawa, giving the Leafs their best start since 1999-00. "We want offence from our first two lines, defence from our third and beligerence and defence from our fourth. Any time the third can score it's a bonus." Second-line winger Clarke MacArthur hustled to set up Nikolai Kulemin less than two minutes into the game, while Kris Versteeg did likewise for linemate Phil Kessel. Rags to riches third-line centre Tim Brent then added his second in as many games after Orr and Brown had the pluses on a line change when he scored against Montreal. "It's nice to chip in," said Brent, who waited an agonizing five minutes as the NHL's Toronto war room looked for video confirmation that Sens' goalie Pascal Leclaire pulled the puck from behind the red line. "We have to continue to do our job in our own end. Colby (Armstrong) and (Fredrik) Sjostrom are so good protecting the puck that we'll get our fair share of chances." After eight goals in two games, Kessel and MacArthur have three points each, Brent, Versteeg, Kulemin and Mikhail Grabovski two, as well as defencemen Tomas Kaberle and Mike Komisarek. "If we are going to be a successful team in this league, we are going to have to get contributions from everyone," Versteeg said. "Guys who are not normally expected to step up, have to step up. We need that for a full season." For Wilson, the goal celebrations had their roots back in the Leafs' zone, with Jean-Sebastien Giguere's work in goal - 17 of 18 saves with a late goal by Jason Spezza - but mostly by effective team puck movement. There were no deer-in-the-headlights episodes, pucks were chipped out off the glass and not over it and crisply to each other or off the boards. "We never really veered away from the things we talked about in our zone," Wilson said. "We wanted to put their defencemen under pressure all night. (Ottawa) played last night (losing a 2-1 home opener to Buffalo) and we wanted to come out quick and hard and jump their D. But for that to work, our forwards have to work hard to get to positions where they're open. "I like to say it's keeping five guys in the picture all the time, if you're thinking of an old TV screen where the zone is only half-size. Our forwards and our defence moved the puck as best I've seen them. This is the result." http://www.torontosun.com/sports/hockey/2010/10/09/15644591.html
So far, I'm enjoying what I've been seeing, especially the defined roles that Burke spoke of a few years back when he first got the GM job in Toronto. I remember he wanted a top 6 and a bottom 6. Players like Stajan, Ponikarovsky, Hagman, Blake and such never wanted to make that distinction in their play. They put up enough offence to be better than bottom 6 players, but didn't bring enough to their games to play either side of the coin. They were definitely not good enough defencively or physically to survive on the bottom 6 either. These are the kinds of players teams don't need, and Toronto immediately improved after their departure. They were just dilly-dallying about and wasting our time and, it seems, that was a problem this organiation has had for a long time. Players like Kessel and Versteeg know their role is to score, players like Armstrong know it's their role to cause fits for the opposition at both ends of the ice, and the 4th line is there to enforce, though they don't hurt the team in any way because players like Brown are penalty-killers and are unrelenting on the for-check! I'm not a fan of Ron Wilson, but I'll have to agree with him on why the team looks better:
