With the Leafs mired in another death spiral, the core is coming under increased scrutiny. The major question in Toronto is whether you can win with Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf.

It's certainly possible. And you have to look no further than the team who has won two of the last five Stanley Cups.

It’s almost funny how poorly the NHL’s image has suffered since the Olympics. It didn’t even take a day after I posted about Ovechkin and Cooke for another player to violently injure an opponent. James Wisniewski (not Andy Wozniewski, he sucks even worse), a defenceman for the Anaheim Ducks, raced in from the blueline to deliver a retaliatory check on Chicago Olympian Brent Seabrook. Earlier in the play Seabrook laid out Corey Perry in what maybe should have been a penalty, maybe not. Hard to say really. It certainly wasn’t anything to lose your mind over. The refs didn’t call anything, so Wisniewski took matters into his own hands. Seabrook didn’t have the puck. In fact, the player he passed to had enough time to pass the puck. Seabrook was unsuspecting. To compound the matter, Wisniewski leapt from his feet and launched Seabrook into the boards from a few feet away. Seabrook was out before he hit the ground. It was sickening.