The Toronto Maple Leafs Lost Before They Even Stepped On The Ice
Another year, another embarrassing playoff collapse for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And this time, it wasn’t even in the real playoffs.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the most talented forward cores in the NHL. The defense has always been an issue for them, but they weren’t even the issue during the series with the Columbus, nor was Andersen, who, despite playing great in most instances, has a shaky playoff track record.
The problem was that for a long time now, this team’s mentality has been rotten to the core. Through both words and actions, the Leafs have shown time and time again that no matter how good things are going, they carry doubt in their minds, a lack of faith in themselves and each other.
In other words, the Toronto Maple Leafs are mentally weak.
Worst Enemy
How many times have we seen the Leafs completely dominate a game by all manner of metrics, then allow one weak goal and completely fold in on themselves? We saw it in Game 3 of the series against Columbus, Game 7 against Boston in 2018, and countless other times throughout the regular season careers of the modern Maple Leafs.
Despite all of the talent on this roster, they crumple in the face of the slightest adversity, sure, they have their miracle comebacks at time, like the Next Generation game against Carolina, or in Game 4 of the Columbus series, but for every statement game like those, there are 10 games where they earn a lead, then secede it in short order. No amount of truculence or belligerence is going to fix that glaring issue with this team.
I’m not going to pretend to have all the answers, and I’m definitely not a mental health professional, but it seems to me that the team may require some sort of mandatory counselling from a sports psychologist to remind themselves that they are the Toronto Maple Leafs, and they’re better than this.
One other suggestion that’s entered my mind: the Leafs at times do not seem like one cohesive unit. Off the ice, the players certainly seem to have their cliques, and yeah, it’s borderline impossible to assemble any group of 23 men who are going to be the best of friends with each other, but they at least need to be able to work as a team.
Perhaps a good-old-fashioned team retreat is needed to strengthen the bonds between the members of this team. In his autobiography Killer, Doug Gilmour described the 1993 Leafs getting away for a week before the playoffs, and we all know how close that team came to the ultimate glory, just a thought.
The Leafs seem to already know and acknowledge that team morale is an issue, as seen in this Frederik Andersen quote from his exit interview on what the Leafs need to find success:
"“Some belief in how good we can be when we do play our hardest, and playing hard in those tight games that are low scoring. Being able to push through & believe you can work hard…once we realize that, we’ll be really tough to play against”"
Mitch Marner is one of the prime culprits when we talk about players who may require a bit of help with the mental side of their game, as evidenced by this quote:
"“The first game, I wasn’t engaged at all, in the physicalness of play at all. And then from that point on, I felt like I got a lot more engaged and playing like my old self, but zero goals are not going to get the job done.”"
Marner made some similarly concerning comments back in March about staying off social media:
"“I know media is a big part in this city that we play in, and I think for our team it’s just about staying off that — the social media, people are just gonna start and get on us.”"
Neither one of these comments inspire confidence in Marner as one of the leaders of this team. They suggest that the young superstar-in-the-making may need to still do some maturing before he’s ready to lead. Perhaps Jake Muzzin and Jason Spezza should carry A’s along with Rielly and Matthews (in a home/away setup similar to San Jose) as all four players have been instrumental to the limited successes of the team in their leadership roles.
The Maple Leafs may need help on the ice, but their greatest area of need is off the ice.