Toronto Maple Leafs: A Look on the Bright Side

No matter what type of lunacy occurred last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs are a good hockey team.

Are they flawless? Absolutely not. No team in the history of sporting competition can claim to be. But, that certainly doesn’t mean they stink either.

Leading up to last night’s debacle in Buffalo, the aura surrounding the Leafs had turned particularly sour. I guess a three-game losing skid will do that.

Twitter became an absolute tire fire (when is it not?) making it far too easy to forget just how overwhelmingly successful this season has been to date.

Well, I want to change that.

As we embark on a desperately needed four-day break from Leafs hockey, I’m about to go full millennial. Allow me to send some positive vibes out into the atmosphere, man.

Here are a few little positive nuggets to reflect upon whenever the Leafs get you feeling down.

We’re Not Buffalo

Yes, I know it might not be the best timing to write this, coming off a loss to the Sabres less than 24 hours ago. But, we really need to thank our lucky stars here.

If memory serves me right, this is the second consecutive year where Sabres centre and Tim Horton’s drive-thru enthusiast (google it) Ryan O’Reilly has eviscerated his team publicly.

Buffalo being jealous of Toronto? Well, I never! What are you going to expect me to believe next? That water is wet?

Were it not for an assembly of the most absurd puck luck ever put to ice, and a highlight reel assist from a referee, the Sabres would have been run out of their own building last night.

Well, I guess “their own building” may be too generous of a distinction, considering roughly 70% of the paying audience were Leafs fans.

No matter how bad things start going in Toronto, it’s always worse in Buffalo.

Alas, it’s not all doom and gloom for Sabres fans. By beating the Leafs last night, Buffalo now sits only 35 points back of Toronto in the standings!

Watch out, guys. The gap is closing.

Prospects

Shout out to Blue Jays Nation‘s Richard Lee-Sam, who last night stumbled upon his old stash of The Hockey News’ “Future Watch” issues and decided to share the gory contents with us.

Look at that. Just look at it. 

2008 was 10 years ago. Now, that may seem like a long time, but it’s not that long. Those guys are all in their early to mid-thirties right now, otherwise known as an athlete’s prime.

And not a single name from that top-five, save for Nikolay Kulemin who I straight up forgot played for the Islanders, is in the NHL today.

Alex Foster plays for Brampton of the ECHL. Robbie Earl, once the Leafs third-best prospect(!), is in Switzerland. Justin Pogge, the once great goaltending hope, is in the Swedish tier-two league.

Today, the Leafs posses such a bounty of dynamic young prospects, they literally cannot fit them all in their lineup. Kasperi Kapanen and Travis Dermott, two bonafide NHLers with upper-lineup potential, were stuck in the AHL for most of this season simply because there just wasn’t enough room.

And let’s not forget about Andreas Johnsson and Timothy Liljegren, two bonafide young talents who both reside in a completely different hockey stratosphere than any of the names on that godforsaken list.

To truly appreciate how bright the present and future are, we cannot ignore the darkness of the past.

Playoffs

Not sure if you guys remember, but prior to last year, the last time the Leafs qualified for the playoffs in a full season was 2004.

I was eight years old.

These days, the playoffs may seem like a foregone conclusion, but let’s not forget just how elusive a birth once was. In 2015-16, if you had told me that a mere two years into the future, the Leafs would have all but stamped their ticket to the playoffs by early March, I would have called the police.

And now, here we are.

It’s easy for the regular season’s grind to warp a fan’s perception. Although, I don’t know about you, but eight-year-old Mike would have gladly sold his soul for this level of success.

Fun

The dynamic trio of Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner have each brought with them a number of positive changes to the Leafs organization. And yet, in the midst of all their on-ice accolades and success, perhaps the most notable has been an injection of levity.

Watching hockey is fun again.

In 2015-16, otherwise known as the Tank Year™, I remember receiving a notification on my phone telling me the Leafs game had started, and the first thought that entered my mind was “there’s a Leafs game tonight?”

Now, every game is appointment viewing. We don’t miss a second of it.

It’s gotten to the point where watching the Leafs has morphed into something resembling a social club, where all that’s required for membership is a game stream and a phone.

Earlier this year, I went to go see “Murder on the Orient Express” with my mom on a Friday night, like the good son I am. The outing was planned in advance, and as luck would have it, the Leafs happened to be playing the Bruins that night.

Once the movie finished (it was underwhelming btw) the first thing I did was check my phone for the score, only to see that the Leafs were down 2-1 with two minutes left.

Sensing a comeback, I dragged my mom to the restaurant next door, where we watched this happen.

Two years ago, there’s no way the evening would have gone like that. A notification would have told me the Leafs lost, and I’d go on with the rest of my night.

Not anymore. Leafs hockey is fun again, and it’s bound to stay that way for a long, long time.

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