Toronto Maple Leafs: It Seems As if We are Seeing 2 Different Teams

Fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs have suffered for decades with failure and disappointment.

Sometimes things take awhile, whether we like it or not. Time is pitiless and progress is often slow.  Just when you think it can’t get worse, the Toronto Maple Leafs find a way to crush your spirit in a manner you couldn’t possibly imagine.

Mike Babcock might be long gone, but his message about “pain” remains true.

No matter how terrible different Leafs teams have been in the past, Brendan Shanahan, Kyle Dubas and Sheldon Keefe are on their own timeline. Fans may have suffered from the Ballard years to the Burke years and beyond, but that isn’t on the current regime’s collective heads.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Jekyll and Hyde…

Given the level of talent on paper, it’s fair to expect that the Toronto Maple Leafs should be a juggernaut of a hockey team. So far, that just hasn’t been the case.

On some nights they’re as great as they should be. On others, the team is lifeless and borderline unprofessional. Sometimes you see them play great against a real tough opponent. Other times you see them play down to the level of a team that’s in the basement. “Jekyll and Hyde” indeed.

Babcock and Hutchinson were with the team too long. Andersen has not been good enough. Barrie has underperformed. Both Rielly and Muzzin have missed significant time. Cody Ceci still exists. The bottom six forwards have largely not been producing enough, either.

This doesn’t excuse them for not showing up to play hard on many nights, but it does provide important context to the Leafs season. It’s been a perfect storm of bad luck and stupidity.

Embrace the Adversity…

There’s no other way to deal with this time at the moment without going mad. The team will play better, but for how long? Or they’ll show us they’d rather be golfing and should be shipped out.

At the moment they might be a bunch of gutless pukes half the time, but instead of falling apart when things aren’t easy, they need to learn to embrace the adversity. This is all on them.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are an absolute laughing stock because of a fluke loss to a team using an emergency goalie.  They are playing tonight down five regular players.

They can’t let that get them down, and they must rise above their problems.

Building a Winner Takes Awhile…

It’s definitely frustrating that the past three years this core group hasn’t gotten out of the first round. Even more so when they look arguably worse this year than they did last season.

That’s what hurts so much– a group of talented players that look like they’re not taking any steps forward. Losing sucks when Toronto Maple Leafs fans rightfully expect more from this team.

We can’t forget however, that it can take many years for great teams to win the Stanley Cup or even take a big step. Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals certainly didn’t win right away.

For now, the Toronto Maple Leafs need to wear their pathetic performances like a badge of honour. There is nothing better than proving everyone wrong. There’s no better time than now for the Leafs to start doing that. Reward the faith of the fans that still watch and cheer.

If they don’t, summer is going to be very interesting.