A playoff berth is more an expectation than a hope for the Maple Leafs this season, and more than anybody, it's coach Ron Wilson who is under the gun to produce.

Head coach Ron Wilson, pictured at practice on Wednesday, thinks the current group of Leaf players is the best he's had since arriving in Toronto. "This is the clearly the deepest team and most skilled team we’ve had,” he says. “It’s an entirely different feeling."

By:Kevin McGranSports Reporter, Published on Wed Oct 05 2011

Tyler Bozak was asked on Twitter the other day just how excited he was, on a scale of 1 to 10, to start the season.

His answer was simple and honest: “Those numbers aren’t high enough.”

It’s off the scale how much this team can’t wait to play Montreal on Thursday night to open the season.

“We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” Bozak said after practice Wednesday. “It’s been too long since we’ve had a real game. Winning like we did at the end of the year, we kind of got the feel of what it’s like to win a lot of games.”

There hasn’t been a Maple Leafs season with this much anticipation in quite some time.

Coach Ron Wilson, when asked to compare this group of Leafs to the previous three teams he coached coming out of camp, believes it’s the best one yet.

“This is the clearly the deepest team and most skilled team we’ve had,” said Wilson. “It’s an entirely different feeling.

“We started well last year, the first four games. What makes us feel really good this year is we believe in our goaltending, probably more than we ever have. Our back end is much more mobile than it’s been since I got here.

“Those two factors right there, keeping pucks out of your net and getting the puck out of the zone as quickly as possible, are huge.”

That said, Wilson declined to offer a guarantee of making the playoffs. Paul Maurice did in 2007. He was fired in 2008.

“I never make any guarantees,” said Wilson.

Nonetheless, in Year 2.5 of GM Brian Burke’s rebuild, a playoff berth is more an expectation than a hope. And more than anybody, it’s Wilson who is on the hot seat. He’s in the final year of his contract and Burke — quite on purpose — did not offer him an extension.

In Burke’s mind, he’s been loyal to his coach, friend and fellow Providence College alum. Burke has stuck with Wilson through losing streaks and bad times and repeated seasons of missing the playoffs.

Burke fired a warning shot across Wilson’s bow in the summer, forcing the coach to fire two of his assistants, Tim Hunter and Keith Acton. Wilson replaced them with Greg Cronin and Scott Gordon, himself a former NHL coach.

The team is likely to start the season with both Tim Connolly and Nazem Kadri on the injured reserve list. Either can come off at any time, but both were listed as IR on the team’s website Wednesday. And a roster move would be required to open up a spot.

The arrival of centre David Steckel forced the team to assign Joey Crabb to the Marlies.

A bad start for this team — say through the first 20 games —and the calls for Wilson’s ouster will begin.

“That’s the last thing on our mind,” said defenceman Luke Schenn. “If things were to go wrong, the guys in the room and on the ice are a lot more accountable than the coach.”

His players don’t want a coaching change.

“He’s done a good job here,” Bozak said of Wilson.

Schenn, who’s been a Leaf for as long as Wilson has been the team’s coach, disagrees that Wilson is under the gun.

“Maybe if we had a bad finish to the end of the year, maybe there’d be a lot more heat on him,” said Schenn. “But we finished off good and part of that is because of the coach.

“They’ve been teaching us lots. There has been a lot of turnover. Burke and the management have stressed to us and to the fans and the media that they’re loyal to the coach.”

All that turnover is another reason the heat is on. Burke has added the kind of players Wilson wants. Steckel, the best faceoff man in the league, is in to help the penalty kill. John-Michael Liles is in to help the power play.

Special teams — the coach’s forte with his former clubs — have been a perennial Leaf weakness under Wilson. It’s time for that to stop.

“We’re going to work on (special teams) all the time, every day, and try to make ourselves better,” said Wilson. “Your power play and your penalty kill have to be adjusting all the time. Other teams are seeing what you’re doing on the special teams all the time and you have to add a different wrinkle to negate their advanced scouting.”

A good start, say the players, will be beneficial to all.

“We owe it to the fans, and everyone, and to ourselves to get off to a good start,” said Schenn. “That’s one of the bonuses — he (Wilson) would get rewarded because of it. We’re all one big family, one big group and we all want to do well.”

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