The Toronto Maple Leafs are currently out of a playoff spot, trailing behind the Florida Panthers by four points.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs do not make the playoffs, it will be a major disappointment to the fans, the city and the whole organization.
It’s been an odd season to say the least. Injury after injury, and even when you think they are getting past it all, another injury occurs. But it has been especially hard as a fan.
Not only are the injuries hard to watch, but so is the inconsistency. After the loss to the Chicago Blackhawks before the bye-week and all-star break — Sheldon Keefe called their performance “immature”.
And of course, he’s right.
This Toronto Maple Leafs team is good — when they want to be. At some points it looks like they’re the best team in the NHL, and in others it looks like they didn’t even show up to the game. It’s frustrating, but at the same time this can be almost 100% attributed to injuries.
One of the hardest parts of this whole season is that we thought a quick playoff exit wouldn’t happen this year, but now it looks like they won’t make the playoffs at all.
The Toronto Maple Leafs still can make the playoffs.
If you look at the season so far, it’s been hard. Injuries have been racking up, players aren’t have the best year so far and it just hasn’t had a flair to it, like usual.
It’s all starting to come together, though.
It looks like Jake Muzzin and Trevor Moore are ready to return back into the lineup. And while Moore hasn’t been a key missing piece, Muzzin has.
Without him, this Toronto Maple Leafs team looks lost in the defensive zone. Once Muzzin does return though, he’ll add something they’ve needed since he left the lineup — good defensive zone coverage.
In the 10 games before Muzzin went out with an injury, the Toronto Maple Leafs were 8-2-0 and when he wasn’t in the lineup in the past 10 games, the team was 4-3-3.
It seems like the teams inconsistency isn’t just in-game though. After suffering a six-game losing streak in November, the Toronto Maple Leafs come back in December and January and do the opposite — win six games in a row.
While the six-game winning streak was a performance where the Toronto Maple Leafs outscored their opponents 32-18, it was one of their strongest runs with their defense core this season.
It’s nice to admit that I have witnessed a change in the team and that’s finding a way to win. That’s a trait that this team couldn’t do for a while, but they’ve now found it.
With that, some consistency, a good defense core and some good goaltending (which I didn’t mention), the team will be one that’ll be hard to handle.
If they don’t find all four of those traits, and use them, fast, they could be going back to Augusta to golf sooner than they thought.
It’s either golf, or knowing our luck, facing the Boston Bruins in the first round again. Take your pick in which you’d rather have by April.