Fewer goals, more wins for Leafs

Ten games into the post-Sundin era and the rebuilding Maple Leafs have a better record than they did at the same time last season.

That modest improvement - from nine points to 11 points - has arrived despite a dramatic drop off in goal production. It was projected that, with the departure of star centre Mats Sundin, the Leafs would have trouble finding the net. That was one of the few accurate predictions about this upstart squad.

Even after unexpectedly putting five past all-world goaltender Martin Brodeur in regulation time on Wednesday, Toronto is averaging just 2.6 goals a game. That's more than a goal off their pace of last season.

Not only has no one stepped up to dominate in the way that Sundin could - this is a Toronto team without a go-to offensive player - the Leafs have improved with several players underachieving early in this campaign.

Alexei Ponikarovsky tops the Leafs with nine points but that total had him tied for 35th in the NHL before last night's action. While Ponikarovsky's production has been a pleasant surprise and Nik Antropov's team-leading four goals is about what might be expected from the lanky Kazakh, several other Leafs have yet to be heard from offensively.

Former 40-goal scorer Jason Blake has just one goal and is actually behind his pace of last season when he managed a miserable 15 goals. Some thought this might be a breakout campaign for Alex Steen - isn't that an annual expectation? - but he didn't get his first goal until Wednesday.

Management projected that new players Nikolai Kulemin and Mikhail Grabovski would make up for some of Sundin's absent offence but, together, they combine for just three goals and have faded noticeably in recent games. Niklas Hagman has been handed more of an offensive role in Toronto than he had while scoring 27 goals for Dallas last season but he is on pace for just 16 goals.

Only three forwards on the Leafs have more than two goals. Matt Stajan and Ponikarovsky have three and Antropov, as mentioned, has four. Those three form the team's top line.

"We have a lot of guys that can score goals in here and have skill. It's going to come," said Stajan, who broke out with two goals in a Toronto 6-5 shootout win over the Devils.

"We're showing we can win games when it's not there, which is a positive. When we start getting goals consistently while playing defence the way we are and checking the way we are, we're going to be a tough team to play against and that's all we want to be."

The Leafs' speed, enthusiasm and work ethic has given Toronto one more victory than last year's squad largely because they have cut down on shots (against), penalty minutes and goals against while showing improvement on the power play.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us but we're going to be a good, fast team and hard-working team that gets a lot of shots on net. We've been getting that lately," said veteran defenceman Tomas Kaberle.

"We haven't scored as many goals as we probably would like to. But there's a good chance you're going to win hockey game if you keep your goals against low."

Last year's version of the Leafs played eight of its first 10 games at home. This year's team has split the games evenly between the ACC and the road, impressively winning three of those away games and losing another in a shootout.

"I think maybe we've exceeded some people's expectations. But we're all professionals and we knew we could do the job and we were going to be a competitive team," said defenceman Mike Van Ryn. "Time will see how it works out."