Toronto Maple Leafs Need A Great Start To Season

Toronto Maple Leafs to begin the 2021 season tonight.

The moment every hockey fan has been waiting a looong time for has finally arrived. The puck finally drops on the beginning of a new NHL season and the Toronto Maple Leafs kick off the week against a couple of familiar foes, the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators.

After am extremely long offseason, one in which the Leafs seem to have drastically improved their team, anticipation is at an all-time high.

Here are a few different things that I, and many Leafs fans, will be looking for early on in the season:

Toronto Maple Leafs Chemistry

Kyle Dubas was very active in the off season, signing several free agents as well as shipping out a few of the Leafs mainstays from the last few years. With all of this turnover it will be important for the team to develop chemistry quickly and establish their respective roles.

Morgan Reilly may finally have the reliable partner we have all been hoping for him to one day get to play with. TJ Brodie was brought in as a free agent and will be immediately thrown onto the Leafs top pairing with Reilly. It will be interesting to see how they play off of one another from the beginning and if they will become comfortable in their roles.

Reilly is at his best when he can skate more freely and have a partner he knows will always be covering him when he jumps up into the rush. I expect it might take a few games for them to become the formidable duo the Leafs need. Their development together will be interesting to observe over the course of the season.

Other than the top pairing defense, the Leafs forward lines will also need to develop chemistry quickly. All four lines have been shuffled around, and new faces have been sprinkled throughout the forward group.

Thornton/Matthews/Marner – Chemistry is not the only challenge for this trio. I am also curious how Thornton can keep up with the young duo and how he settles into an unfamiliar role on the LW. Expect Thornton to skip a few shifts over the course of the game with Hyman likely playing a few shifts with Matthews and Marner.

Vesey/Tavares/Nylander – I’m looking for big production from Tavares and Nylander this season and getting off to a good start will play a major factor in boosting their confidence out of the gate. Vesey won’t have to do much, as long as he can finish his chances and not be a liability in the Leafs zone this line should find success.

Mikheyev/Kerfoot/Hyman – It seems Kerfoot is healthy and should be good to go for the season opener. Keefe has been hyping up this line all training camp as a potential difference maker. I am looking forward to seeing them in action against the opposing team’s top lines. If they can hold their own against the top players in the Canadian Division that can open up potentially salivating opportunities for the Leafs top two lines.

Goaltending

The goaltending position for the Leafs has been a sore spot for the fan base for the entirety of the salary cap era. For years we could not find a number one goalie until Freddy Andersen came over from Anaheim and gave us a consistent number one. Then it was the back-up position that was much maligned. It is almost too painful to bring up the likes of Michael Hutchinson and Garret Sparks, but thankfully that is all in the past.

The duo of Andersen and Jack Campbell now will be under the spotlight all season. Andersen is notorious for having slow starts to the season so it will be imperative for Jack Campbell to step in there and take some of the pressure off of Freddy in the early going.

Campbell should be thrown into the mix immediately with the Leafs going back-to-back Friday and Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators. These first three games over four nights will tell us a lot about what we should expect from this goaltending and from the Leafs in general.

All in all, it’s just exciting to have hockey back. Hopefully the Toronto Maple Leafs can finally live up to their potential.