Are the Toronto Maple Leafs playoff ready?
That’s a good question. The short answer is not really, but the long answer is a bit more complicated. The Toronto Maple Leafs have had an interesting couple of months, to say the least, but the fact remains that they are a very good team.
If you listened to all the nonstop complaining about this team, you might be forgiven for not realizing that they’re 20 games over .500, in fifth place overall, and have a +42 goal differential.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a 99.98 chance of making the playoffs, according to the Athletic, and can clinch as soon as Saturday.
So are they ready?
Leafs and the Playoffs
A lot of people might look at Freddie Andersen’s recent play and say no. I am not worried however. Goalies are crazy, you can’t account for what they’ll do or how they’ll perform at any given time. Andersen is usually among the best in the world, so I am not going to spend any time worrying about him.
Other than Andre Vasilevskiy and possibly Carey Price, there’s no one I’d rather go into the playoffs with, so who cares if he’s in a bit of a slump? He’s entitled to.
What about the Leafs recent record? There’s lots of talk of them being a .500 team since Christmas.
This is a pretty arbitrary stat posted by people who wish to be overtly negative. If you dig into it, you can see that the Leafs went through two bad stretches – one without their Vezina deserving goalie, and then another where they were down two of their top four defenseman.
If you look at the period preceding the Gardiner/Dermott/Kapanen injuries, the Leafs went on a quarter season run that prorated to a President’s Trophy season and 119 points.
I think it’s 100% more accurate to look at their (mostly) healthy lineup and judge them rather than include the two periods of time where they were ravaged by injuries.
So are the Toronto Maple Leafs ready for the playoffs?
Yes, once Gardiner and Dermott are back they will be. Andersen will be fine, and the nonsense about the playoffs being a “different style” is complete and utter B.S.
The Leafs almost beat the Capitals two years ago. They only lost to the Bruins last year because of incredible bad luck. This year, they’re a much, much improved team.
Most of the time, the Stanley Cup goes to the most talented team. Not the toughest. Not the grinderiest. It’s just made-up confirmation bias nonsense that the NHL somehow becomes a totally different game when the Playoff start.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a team that is in 5th place overall. The only difference between them and the Bruins is that the Bruins got lucky in a bunch of one-goal games and racked up a bunch of loser points.
The Leafs were only entirely healthy all season for a single period of hockey. Should they enter the playoffs with their optimal lineup, there will be no stopping them.
The only thing that will dictate whether the Leafs are ready for the playoffs is the health of Jake Gardiner and Travis Dermott.