My son Adam and I like nothing better on Saturday evenings than to curl up and watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play on Hockey Night in Canada. Coming into this season we were very excited about the Leafs prospects because of all the young players that did so well last season. Pohl, Wellwood, Steen, Stajan, Bell, White, the list is a long one and provides hope for long-suffering Leaf fans.

I was quite disappointed, then, when the so-called “professional prognosticators” of the game in Toronto unleashed a scathing verbal assault on our beloved team starting before training camp. The Leafs would be life and death to make the playoffs, they said. No superstars on this team, they said.

After all, for Leaf fans hope springs eternal and every year could be THE YEAR! Yes, this very 06-07 season could be the big one where the team brings home the Stanley Cup.

We’re only a few games into the season but already the Leafs have justified the hope Adam and I had before it began. Sure enough, the young players are bringing the speed and energy we hoped they would. Raycroft seems to be worth his $2 million salary. Sundin is banging home goals at a torrid pace. In short, what we’ve seen so far is exactly what we expected.

I’m starting to understand the modus operandi of these cynical media hockey watchers though. Anyone listening to Leaf talk on the radio or reading the sports pages will have noticed a cautiously optimistic tone creeping in. That fits the pattern. The way they play it is simple: start off the season preaching doom and gloom; when the Leafs win a few games, move onto the back of the bandwagon; in mid-season, temper the rising expectations of the fans; and when we get into the playoffs (as we will!) become total sycophants. In other words, make only negative projections so that if the team rises above them the media can join the cheering without risking their reputations as canny, objective observers.

Since Adam and I are true Maple Leaf fans, none of this worries us unduly. Our motto is simple and our loyalties clear: Go Leafs Go!