Toronto Maple Leafs: So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance

The Toronto Maple Leafs, down three games to one in their first-round series, currently find themselves in a Mariana’s Trench-sized hole.

Just don’t pat down the grave quite yet.

Simply put, this version of the Leafs is far too talented of a group to scurry off into the moonlight without so much as a whimper. There’s another gear, or two, or three, waiting under the surface to be found.

In fact, the rookie-laden Leafs just so happened to find that gear 12 months ago, pushing the Presidents Trophy-winning Washington Capitals to six games.

That team had Martin Marincin in a top-four role. Don’t tell me this team isn’t better.

Yes, the path to Toronto’s first second-round playoff appearance since 2004 looks largely untenable at this point. Although, there’s a reason for why playoffs series are a best of seven. Miracles do happen. And god knows this franchise is due for one any day now.

Here’s how the Leafs can claw their way back from the brink of defeat.

Ice Your Best Lineup

In any other world, this would be pretty self-explanatory, right?

Each remaining game is, in the most literal of senses, do or die. Every goal against could be the one responsible for an early summer. And every goal for could let you live to fight another day. At this point, reputation, lessons, “gud pl’ers”, all of that gets thrown out the window.

I’m talking to you, Mike. In a month’s time, if you want to continue fighting for a Cup instead of worrying about your tee time, you ICE YOUR DAMN OPTIMAL LINEUP.

In other words, that means scratching Leo Komarov. I don’t care how much grit he has. And I certainly don’t care about how much of a “man” he is. Any lineup with Komarov in it moving forward is not an optimal one.

A large part of what goes into being a good coach is how well you manage the egos of your players. Sure, Komarov won’t be thrilled about sitting during the most crucial time of year.

Well, that’s just too bad.

Now is the time for players to shelve whatever personal visions of success they have for themselves and focus on the greater good of the team. That starts with Komarov.

Freddy Being Freddy

Show me a team who has won a Cup without stellar goaltending, and I’ll show you my membership card to the Club of Things That Don’t Exist™.

In the playoffs, your goaltender will inevitably be forced into stealing a game or two for you all by himself. It’s a product of the condensed schedule and rapidly thinning margin of error.

Through four games, Frederik Andersen and his .870 save percentage have not answered the bell.

Now, this isn’t to ignore how Freddy made arguably the greatest save in franchise history in the dying seconds of Game Three. It was astounding and caused me to scream at a pitch I previously thought impossible for a 22-year-old male.

It’s just that he’s also let in goals like this:

And this:

That, my friends, is unacceptable.

Game Four was the perfect encapsulation of how a team can dominate for nearly 60 minutes, and still get buried by shaky goaltending. All three goals against resulted from an error usually seen from October Freddy.

He failed to track of a harmless floater from the end boards on the first goal and wildly overcommitted on both two-on-ones for goals two and three. If Andersen stops two of those, it’s a 1-1 game. An overtime bounce very likely falls in Toronto’s favour after three periods of shotty luck.

Freddy’s been the glue holding this team together for the better part of 2017-18. No one’s denying that.

But, for the Leafs to possess even a scant hope of toppling the Bruins, he simply needs to be better.

Play Dermott More

Ian Tulloch wrote an absolutely phenomenal piece for The Athletic this week centring around a plea for an increase in Travis Dermott‘s ice time.

Folks, he’s absolutely right.

To preface this, I need to acknowledge how Dermott did indeed make a few cringe-worthy decisions in Game Four. By no means was it the rookie’s best game.

Then again, it wasn’t anyone else’s either.

Following his promotion to the Leafs on January 5th, the 21-year-old has done nothing but exceed any and all expectations placed before him. Dermott’s puck mobility is phenomenal, he can go end-to-end on a whim, all while still maintaining a remarkably steady presence in his own zone, despite being handed a Roman Polak-sized boat anchor as a partner.

Ron Hainsey is a constant threat to keel over from exhaustion at every stoppage in play. Nikita Zaitsev straight up cannot perform an outlet pass. And Polak is Polak.

There’s simply no excuse for Dermott to log the lowest ice-time of all Toronto blueliners by a margin of upwards of six minutes. It really doesn’t matter how young he happens to be or how few NHL games occupy his HockeyDB page.

Dermott’s done everything to prove himself worthy of a drastic uptick in ice time. Give it to him.

The Big Guns Need To Wake Up

By his usual dominant standards, Auston Matthews put forth a thoroughly lacklustre performance in Game Four. Ditto for William Nylander.

While the pair remains unworthy of total derision, the reality is they really do need to elevate their respective games.

Thankfully, with Nazem Kadri set to return for Game 5, a prime opportunity presents itself to Toronto’s young stars, begging them to grab their team by the reigns and ride them into June hockey.

After letting his team down in perhaps the most egregious way possible, given the circumstances at hand, Kadri will undoubtedly be primed for the game of his life on Saturday. Were he to prove himself a threat worthy of attention, Matthews and Nylander could sneak by undetected, overwhelming the Bruins with their unrelenting forward depth.

This Leafs lineup was built to roll four lines, each one capable of running opponents into the ground. Kadri’s return only reinforces that.

Next: Act Like You've Been There

In fact, it could very well be responsible for waking of a pair of sleeping giants in Auston and Willy.