by Aj Brady

Created on: April 30, 2008

When such an ultra-successful National Hockey League (NHL) franchise as the Toronto Maple Leafs misses the playoffs a few years in a row, the panic buttons are soon hit.

This was the case at Toronto coming into season 2007-08.

To arrest their recent period of failure, the Leafs traded aggressively in the off-season, acquiring goaltender Vesa Toskala and Mark Bell from San Jose for draft picks, and signing free agent Mark Blake to a five-year, $20 million contract, fresh from a 40-goal season for the New York Islanders.

The Maple Leafs had six picks at the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, however none were hyped too much prior to the draft.

Days after the season began, boom recruit Blake announced he had a treatable form of leukemia, but would continue playing during his treatment.

For a team hellbent on returning to the playoffs, the first month of the season could only be described as "just okay" for Toronto, as they went 5-5-3 for the month of October.

Their home record of 3-4-2 for the month did not impress the powers-that-be at Toronto, and rumblings were beginning in the front office.

November wouldn't see much improvement for Toronto, as they dropped four of five games mid-month, to post an unimpressive 4-6-3 record for the month.

By the end of November, with a season win-loss record of 9-11-6 and a points total of 24, the Maple Leafs were staring down the barrel early.

December saw a brief resurgence for the Maple Leafs, as they won five of their first six games, including a 6-2 thrashing away to New York Rangers, and a 6-1 home thrashing of Tampa Bay.

However, the Maple Leafs couldn't capitalize on this good form, winning only one of their final seven games for 2007.

January was again not great for Toronto, as they posted a 5-8-1 record for the month, including a disastrous 1-6-1 away record.

A highlight for the franchise during this difficult time was defenseman Tomas Kaberle's selection to the Eastern conference for the 2008 All-Star game, where he hit all four targets with his four shots to take out the accuracy competition.

The rumblings in the front office finally saw change on the 22nd of January, when team General Manager John Ferguson Junior was fired, replaced on an interim basis by former Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher.

The change saw a marked improvement from Toronto on the ice, as they went 8-4-1 for the month of February, including winning five of six games late in the month.

By the end of the month, their season win-loss record of 28-28-10, and a season tally of 66 points,

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