The long nightmare that was the Leafs 2007/2008 season is finally officially over. Really, its been mostly over since around the time they took their road trip to California and essentially over since those two lackluster games against the Bruins a couple weeks ago.

McCabe played pretty shitty all year, Blake was a non-factor, Coliacovo despite playing well proved once again he is made of glass, Ponikoravsky all but disappeared, Raycroft proved time and time again (until the last couple of games of the year of course) that he's terrible, and so on. Outside of the performances of Mats Sundin, Nik Antropov (mostly) and Vesa Toskala its pretty much impossible to find a bright spot. Well, Tlusty played alright once he started getting more ice time as the season slipped away, most of the young guys did actually. Stralman was pretty impressive for the most part. So there were a few positives I guess...always look on the bright side and all that.

Now attention turns to what's going to happen next year. First they have to find a new GM. Most people are assuming its going to be Brian Burke which is fine by me. Only problem is they'll have to wait until the Ducks are eliminated which could be mid-June! It would be nice for the new guy to get in there and get going as soon as possible. But they sure as hell better do something, not just decide to let Cliff Fletcher hang around and give it a go.

I'm pretty sure Paul Maurice is finished as coach of the Leafs. You could argue he's been saddled with average to downright crummy teams his entire time here but there were just so many instances where the Leafs just seemed so horribly disorganized, unmotivated and unprepared that some of the blame has to be put at his feet. Honestly, I think they probably should have fired him at the same time as John Ferguson if they really wanted to shake things up...but then again who would they have replaced him with? But hey, it worked with Washington, guess you never know.

And what the hell is going to happen with the Leafs roster next year? I think its safe to say Raycroft is gone, time to bring Pogge up and let him be Toskala's backup. What about Blake? He's getting paid a lot of money to score goals, not just take wild and crazy shots from everywhere on the ice. Can McCabe be traded with that gigantic albatross of a contract? Will Bell still be around? He was pretty useless most of the time but did seem to respond well to getting more ice time in the last few games once Sundin went out.

Speaking of Sundin, what's he going to do? Does he still want to be part of a time that will more than likely not be too good next year once again? Do the Leafs even want him to come back? Will he stick to his 'I don't want to play anywhere else' stance or sign somewhere else as a free agent? That would be a real kick in the balls, I can only imagine what they could have gotten for him at the trade deadline.

It certainly is shaping up to be an interesting offseason, perhaps one of the most important in recent memory. Let's hope they don't fuck it up...though its more than likely they will.