At the start of this season, I wrote about how hockey has to do the talking, as many of the “distractions” were now behind us. Well, hockey has been speaking, and I don’t think I like what it’s saying.
The Toronto Maple Leafs currently sit seventh in their division, 14th in the conference, and 26th in the league. They’re a point outside of a wild card spot, meaning if the season ended right now, we’d miss the playoffs. I refuse to believe this is not a playoff team.
Maple Leafs recent play
The reason why I refuse to believe that is that we have seen evidence of the potential of this team. Since my last fan therapy, the Leafs have played five games. Last Monday against Pittsburgh, the Leafs phoned it in for 40 minutes and then remembered that the goal of the sport is to put the puck in the net sometime in the second intermission.
Berube’s press conference afterward is unlike any I’ve seen after a win. He came out looking dejected and defeated, waxing about how he does not understand how to motivate his guys.
Wednesday against the Mammoth showed signs of life in this Leafs team. They played a complete game, and while the shots were in favour of Utah, the Leafs dominated in scoring chances and high danger chances.
Coming out of the Utah game, the Leafs were on a three-game win streak. November was turning out to be different from October, and we were seeing flashes of the dominant regular season team of last year. Auston Matthews looked far more like himself, his patented quick release netting a couple goals. John Tavares was honoured for his 500th goal, and the vibes were on the up.
Three straight losses
Then Boston came to town. The Toronto Maple Leafs should beat the Boston Bruins. In fact, there is not a single team in the NHL that the Leafs are incapable of or unlikely to beat, on paper. However, reality paints a much different picture.
The loss against the Bruins was disheartening. Yes, it was a random game in early November. There is so much more hockey to play, and teams evolve. But we are also almost 25% through the season, and the evolution needs to come soon.
And the last two games… well, they haven’t been good. At all. The Leafs look like a lottery team, and we don’t own our first-round pick.
Anthony Stolarz is struggling
Since publicly calling out the team, correctly, a few weeks ago, Anthony Stolarz has looked rough. In the game last night, he was pulled after the first period, and Hildeby looked fine as his replacement. With Joseph Woll back with the team and undergoing a conditioning stint with the Marlies, hopefully, help is on the way.
The defence is also struggling. The injury to Chris Tanev certainly does not help, and we wish him all the best in his recovery, but Philippe Myers is a straight-up liability out there. The defence looks slow, confused, and incapable of handling the puck.
There have been some positives recently. The power play has looked good, and the team is still scoring a lot. Nylander and Tavares are on a tear, but it just doesn’t matter.
Matias Maccelli and Nick Robertson also look really good. I’ve been impressed with Robertson this season. He seems to have actually made a step. The third line is rolling, although the latest Laughton injury has messed up the bottom-six again.
Minten and Carlo are hilarious
That’s mostly where the positives end, and we have to finish with the icing on the cake. Fraser Minten came back to Toronto and buried the Leafs with the Bruins’ fifth goal of the game on Saturday. Of course, it had to be Minten, especially with how Carlo has looked this year.
Giving up Minten AND a first-round pick for Carlo looks like a Phil Kessel-like bad trade right now. Carlo has been horrible, looking like a bottom-pair depth piece more than anything else. We’ll see how it ends up, but with the Leafs luck, the Bruins will be picking sixth overall with the Toronto Maple Leafs pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
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