When your a sports team the word desperation is never something you want associated with your team. You often hear of teams having to play desperate towards the end of a season as they look to make it into the playoffs, or desperate in order to over turn a 3-0 deficit at the end of the first period, but rarely do you see a team getting desperate just six games into a season with a goalie crisis on going from game two that has gotten so bad that the forth string keeper from the minor leagues is promoted to the bench. But if you haven’t seen this kind of thing before then you haven’t seen the 2009/10 Toronto Maple Leafs yet.

I’m not even a Leafs fan and I am beginning to feel sorry for the team and mainly it’s over-loyal fans that have put up with mediocrity for so many years now and just when they thought this year might see the ship turn in the right direction they have to deal with the fact that it might only be starting to sink.

Leafs management will tell you there is no panic yet just six games in and there is a point to be made for that. In an 82 game season six defeats is not the end of the world and the gap to 8th place can potentially be clawed back, but when you are a team some thought might fight for a playoff spot then getting too far behind too early is never good. Come the new year all teams will begin to ramp it up, and if you’re chasing even before then, then you could be too far behind.

Had the Leafs won four and lost three before dropping six straight there might be less worry going around, in fact the above paragraph about having plenty of time to turn things around again would be understandable. The Leafs however have won zero games so far, actually, they have yet to lead in a game at any point and so the desperation is evident.

The fans and management it seems have given up on starting goalie Toskala and are basing their hopes and dreams for the year on a rookie goalie who has played just one NHL game and is now injured. Given the pressure on goalies in Toronto and how only a few in history have been able to cope with it, this is a lot to ask of a young rookie who is in his first few months living away from his native Sweden.

Their key summer signing, Phil Kessel from Boston is still injured and the first round pick for 2010 they gave up to get him could very well turn into a number one overall pick at this rate, though Kessel is still more seasoned yet still very young in his own right so should he come back soon and play well it’ll still work out for the Leafs. Of course, the pressure on Kessel’s shoulders to save the ailing team will be enormous, even more so potentially than Gustavasson in goals.

It isn’t that the players are not trying as some people might suggest. Quite the opposite. The Leafs players appear to be trying too hard. The lack of a win or a lead in a game is in their heads and they need to get around it and somehow find a way quickly.

The Leafs play again this Saturday before taking an entire week off. They will then head on a West coast road trip so the last thing they need to do is drop another one this weekend and have a week to think about it before hitting the road.

Some Leafs fans are furious at what they are seeing after hearing their fearless leader Brian Burke proclaim that the team was playoff bound just a few months ago, but I still maintain what I said over the summer when I seen the kind of signings Burke was making, that the Leafs are just not good enough yet. The defence got better ‘on paper’ over the summer but the general area of the team that was improved was team toughness … a willingness to drop the gloves if necessary and nobody getting away with cheap shots like in the previous few seasons. But improving your muscle and fighting skills on a poor team is not going to make you a good team. It might make you entertaining with the fights, but it won’t win you games anytime soon and with at least a fight per game so far but no wins, that theory appears to be holding true.

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