Jeff Finger?

To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld: what's the deal with Jeff Finger? He's been a healthy scratch six games in a row and in those six games the Leafs defense has started to gel. There's a lot of Garnet Exelby hate around these parts but lately our defense has been rock solid.

Compared to Finger, Exelby's salary is a lot lower. I think Finger's a good defender and he put up points last year, but do you pull Exelby out of the lineup and mess with a winning formula to make it more expensive?

Is Finger injured? That made sense earlier in his scratch streak but LTIR means a player would only have to miss 10 games or 24 days; Finger hasn't played since 10/24, so he's 50% of the way there on days missed and he hasn't played in six games which could jump to eight by Sunday. Players can be placed on LTIR retroactively which means there's a chance that Toronto will do that to free up some cap space as a matter of principle.

Is one of the Leafs' D corps being showcased for a trade? I'd have to imagine Komisarek, Beauchemin and Schenn aren't going anywhere, and if we take Burke at his word he's keeping Kaberle. That leaves Ian White and Garnet Exelby, both of whom are UFAs at the end of the season.

So what do you think is going on with Finger? Are the Leafs planning to sit $3.5M in the press box all year or is something going to happen?

Why is Finger scratched constantly?