The Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5 loss to the Ottawa Senators is probably the best thing that could have happened to this team.
If you’re a Toronto Maple Leafs fan and you’re angry about what happened on Monday night, that’s fine, but that anger shouldn’t last more than five minutes. It’s literally just one loss and there’s a million of positive things you can take from that game.
The Leafs are now 11-3-2 and have a 1-1-1 record against the Senators, who are the worst team in the NHL. Sure, Toronto should be 3-0 against them, but at the end of the day, who cares? On Wednesday night and for the rest of the season, the Leafs are going to make Ottawa wish they never completed the comeback.
It’s kind of like when your little brother beats you in video games. For the rest of time, you’re never going to let him take joy from beating you and you’ll do everything in your power to defeat him every time moving forward, until he cries.
Besides the Chicago Blackhawks 2012-13 run, where nothing seemed to go wrong, the eventual Stanley Cup winner has numerous terrible games per season. In fact, every winner will lose a game by three or more goals or even sprinkle in a 7-2 loss here and there.
Why would a blown 5-1 lead that resulted in a loss be any worse than an 8-2 defeat the Washington Capitals had against the Philadelphia Flyers in their 2017-18 Stanley Cup season? They’re a division rival, so that’s pretty embarrassing, don’t you think?
Or what about the 8-4 and 5-1 losses that the Winnipeg Jets handed the St. Louis Blues during the 2018-19 season they won the Stanley Cup? Both of those defeats came at home too, so that’s a pretty uncomfortable feeling to get beat like that in front of your own fans.
In a regular season that spans six months, these losses have no negative barring on playoff success and can only help a team rally towards a positive result.
Leafs Embarrassing Loss Will Fuel Team for Rest of Season
Let’s look at the positives of this loss against Ottawa. Sure, they blew a 5-1 lead but they did score five goals. If Toronto scores that many goals against the Senators again this season, they will win the game every time.
Secondly, Auston Matthews extended his point-streak to 13 games and has 13 goals in that timeframe. Now that Joe Thornton is back in the lineup, his goal-scoring ability will only improve. Papi is playing out of his mind and will be a Hart Trophy candidate at this rate.
As cliché as it sounds, when it comes to winning a Stanley Cup, you need adversity. Prior to the loss against Ottawa, this season has been incredibly easy. They’ve scored three or more goals in 14 games and haven’t faced much trouble.
This team has continued to get praised and it probably got to their head as they were sitting the dressing room during the second intermission up 5-2. If Ottawa accepted defeat and the Leafs ended up holding onto a win, they probably would’ve thought they were invincible. Now that they’ve been defeated, they’re not going to let this happen again and this experience will be crucial when they’re holding a lead later in the season.
If you’re wondering if this loss will spiral the Leafs season out of control and they’ll never be able to secure a four-goal lead again, calm down. This loss will only help bring the team closer together. Also, as long as they have Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner on the roster, they’ll be fine.
Whether you lose by one or a thousand, a loss is just a loss, so let’s move on. Watch for the Leafs to dominate the ice on Wednesday and Thursday and take back control of the Battle of Ontario.