We’ve known for a while that whenever the NHL season resumes, that the Toronto Maple Leafs would likely be playing the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the NHL playoffs.
Whether the NHL finishes the regular season or jumps straight to the playoffs, the most likely scenario is that the Toronto Maple Leafs play Tampa.
Once again, the Leafs – and Tampa, and Boston- are at an extreme disadvantage in any Stanley Cup Tournament because the NHL’s divisional playoff format never accounted for the possibility of the three best teams in the league being in the same division.
Whatever the format this year’s playoffs ultimately take, the Leafs vs Lightning is something more akin to what the Final should be, not the first round.
Regardless, the Lighting could be in for a major surprise because depending on when the season starts again, the Toronto Maple Leafs will have a very different team.
Toronto Maple Leafs Optimal Lineup
You would have to go back to last February (2019) to find a game in which the Toronto Maple Leafs dressed their optimal lineup. That is, they played a game without anyone being injured.
It was the Leafs vs Blues, February 19th 2019, and Nazem Kadri suffered a concussion in the first period. It was the only period last season where the Leafs were fully healthy.
They haven’t even played one period fully healthy this season.
It’s kind of funny when people rip on the team, despite ignoring the fact they have played two straight season without ever dressing a fully healthy lineup.
Injuries apparently don’t matter, and yet, it’s a BIG DEAL when the Leafs acquired a fourth line player they play for under ten minutes per game.
Should the NHL not come back until August or September, there is a chance that Andreas Johnsson could return and play again this year.
Ilya Mikheyev would already be back if games were going on.
If the break goes long enough, the Leafs might actually dress a healthy lineup, and that would make them a much different team than the one who struggled through this regular season (mostly because of injuries and bad goaltending).
Because the Leafs still finished 12th overall, despite changing coaches and learning a new system, getting some of the worst starting goaltending in the NHL, and never playing a healthy lineup, it’s reasonable (and correct) to assume they’d do much better under better conditions.
If you can go through everything they went through and still finish 12th (8th under Keefe) it’s reasonable to expect them to be a VERY good team when fully healthy.
Just consider for a second that a fully healthy Toronto Maple Leafs team would have a THIRD line of Johnsson-Kerfoot-Kapanen, which is absolutely ridiculous.
No team in the world is coming close to that. No team in the world could match a fourth line featuring Clifford-Spezza-Engvall.
A healthy team makes the Leafs impossible to contain. Look out Tampa.