It's a travel day to Montreal while the Maple Leaf trade-watch continues.

It sure feels as if Phil Kessel is being forced out the door. He seems beaten down, by the expectations, by the media demands, by the losing, by the way his coach treats him.

When all is said and done on Kessel's career, he'll go down as a consistent 35-goal scorer.

Put him in a market like Nashville, or maybe Florida, or Arizona, and he'd be the most popular player on the team. But in Toronto — where every failure to back check, every puck battle is documented — and it's as if his flaws are greater than his assets.

There are — maybe — 15 or 20 "complete" forwards on the planet. Players who can skate, pass, shoot, score (at an elite rate), hit, check, back check, defend. Kessel's sin in Toronto is that he is not one of them. That's not Kessel's fault.

It's management's fault that they haven't found one since Mats Sundin left.

To Kessel's credit, he hasn't cared if the media was on him, if the fans were on him. He cares, really and truly, about playing hockey. About getting that puck (well, actually, having it passed to him) and going in on net for a scoring chance.

But now, it seems to be wearing on him after he acknowledged Thursday night his future may not be in Toronto . Maybe he'll have more to say on that Friday in Montreal. As a guy with a limited no-movement deal, he's in the cat-bird seat as far as picking his next destination.

UNUSUAL SUSPECTS

Brendan Shanahan, GM Dave Nonis, and assistant GM Brandon Pridham were all on in Long Island. That in itself was a tad unusual.

Shanahan, sure, has family and friends in the New York area, so it makes sense there. Nonis would typically be scouting other teams, so perhaps — speculating here — there was something with the Islanders.

Pridham is still learning the ropes of the job but if there's a salary cap question to be asked, he's the expert with the answers.

So Pridham will probably be around a lot leading up to the trade deadline, an invaluable resource to have for his knowledge of the cap and the collective bargaining agreement built in all his years with the leaugue.

SAVE A JERSEY



Mailbag day, and we start — not with a question — but with a pretty funny email from John McLean, a retired Computer Science teacher from Central Tech in Toronto, who has an app and website to let you throw a jersey without getting arrested.

He's referencing (and acknowledging) a column by our Vinay Menon .



"I created a website called " SaveAJersey.com ." Sound familiar? :) Leaf fans can login and throw a Leaf jersey on to the ice without getting arrested. There are even random booings from the crowd when you toss a jersey."

The player's name and number of times his jersey has been thrown on the ice, is recorded (everyone using the app) and shown on the "Hockey Wall of Shame."

TO THE MAILBAG

QUESTION: Hello Kevin,

I think the players should be earning their bonus, in other words, every pro player (any league) should be signed with only a base salary contract with the understanding that if they excel in what the club expects them to contribute to the betterment of the team they earn their bonus, if they don't live up to that expectation only the base salary will be paid at the end of the season.

What do you think Kevin?

Alex

ANSWER: I think you're dreaming in Technicolor (TM). Sure, it sounds great. But really, the players' association will never go for it and it's not worth it for Gary Bettman to fight for it. It won't make the owners any more money, since the players — no matter who they are — will have to get paid. Players do get paid more in the playoffs, the Stanley Cup champions getting the most.

QUESTION: Kevin, why would they trade Kessel who is usually a sharpshooter and just needs to surrounded by a good centre? Why don't they use this time to check out Spencer Abbott, and some other young players.

-Ken Woods

ANSWER: I remember when the Leafs got Kessel, the joke was: Finally a scoring winger for Mats Sundin. (Of course, Sundin had moved on by then.) Yes, I agree that Kessel would be a better player if he played with a better centre. But then, so would you and I.

When you are the team's best player, you are supposed to make others around you better.

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Now, I don't want to pick on Abbott or any of the other Marlies, but there is no one on the Marlies who can help this team right now. And among the current Marlies, only William Nylander is a projected top line guy. Maybe Connor Brown. And only in time. Why bring up any young player — meaning rush them before their time. That has been the Leafs' problem for the better part of four decades. Better let them develop — he way Detroit lets them develop — than expose them to the NHL too soon. Abbott, by the way, is 26 and 29 other teams passed on him as a free agent this summer.

QUESTION: I'm not convinced David Clarkson's benching is Peter Horachek's decision. I would expect his mandate was "figure out what these players have." Benching someone high profile is a move that gets players' attention. Maybe that helps inform what their character is, but it doesn't seem to me (to be something) an interim coach comes up with all on his own. Maybe Leafs management is hoping this takes them down the Komisarek route. They don't have a buy-out amnesty, but it does save them almost a $1 million if he plays for the Marlies. It would also soften up the no trade, in the event they can ever find a taker.

Barry Porozni

ANSWER: You're on to something there. I wrote about it on Thursday.



QUESTION: Morgan Reilly as a leader because he had an end-to-end rush against the second-last team in the NHL. Where were his leadership skills during the franchise record-smashing 11-game losing streak?

Ralph Aiello

ANSWER: Gelling. He's emerging as the leader.

QUSETION: Seriously ?!

-Ann Beechey

ANSWER: Yes, seriously.

QUESTION: Haven't seen one comment by a T.O. scribe on Don Cherry's comments concerning what ails the Leafs from Saturday night. A lot on whale blubber and Evander Kane. Cherry said what I wrote to Shanahan about in the summer . . . bring back the TOUGHNESS . . . guess the writers in T.O don't care that much about actually fixing the Leafs, otherwise why not at least recognize Cherry's comments. . . . What if he's right? Is it that unpalatable in T.O to have a tough, entertaining team . . . that might actually start winning?

McCabe, Ottawa

ANSWER: If you mean toughness, as in bringing in enforcers, let me ask you: who would they fight? No one fights any more, not as a primary job anyway. But yes, all teams need toughness. Tough players to check, to block shots, to stand up for their teammates (the way Korbinian Holzer did on Thursday night). This team is not tough. It's one of the softest Leaf teams I've seen.

QUESTION: Is there a valid explanation why Gardiner has not been tried as a forward? For all purposes this season is lost. We have an interim coach. Why not experiment with the available talent to see just what we have or better what we need. I think back to the Red Kelly era. We traded for a Norris D-man and converted him to a forward and the rest is history. Gardiner has had his problems on defence. He appears to have the talents of a power forward. Excellent skater with good edges, will go to the corners and is not hesitant to go to the net. Think the time of trying to fit the round peg into the square hole has long since passed. Experiment and see!

Jack Wilson