The Toronto Maple Leafs First Place Opinion Bonanza

The Toronto Maple Leafs will take on the Montreal Canadiens tonight, after not playing since Saturday, which, in this pandemically condescended season, feels like about two weeks.

When last we saw the Toronto Maple Leafs they were dismantling the NHL’s most overrated team (and you simply must see the press conference where the NHL’s most overrated player discusses his recent benching from one of the NHL’s worst coaches).  The win over the Jets all but guaranteed a first-place finish, and I must say, I am quite satisfied with the situation.

But back to that benching for second: I wish I had a job where, when I screwed up, I got time off.  Sports is weird that way  – at most jobs, if you do poorly, you are not asked to just sit down and chill for a while.

I get punishing a fringe player by taking away ice-time, but punishing star players is counterproductive and petty.  It’s also a pretty good sign the coach is done.  How much you want to bet that both Torterella and Maurice are done with their respective teams after this year?

Anyways, back to the Leafs.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Some Things That Are Happening

Wonder Woman 1984 was a piece of crap. Everyone I know is watching Superstore and calling me Jonah. I haven’t left the house in weeks.  I’m not yet peeing in bottles, but it’s close. I go for walks with my new dog and cross the street when I see people coming and if you didn’t know better, you’d think I was very afraid of old ladies. Which I am. I eat too much pizza and watch what might be a divorce-inducing amount of hockey.  I spend roughly the same amount on rent as I do on tipping delivery people.

I honestly can’t complain. I was always weirdly agoraphobic for an extreme extrovert, so I actually kind of like staying home.  I never get bored, I just read more.  I’m playing Zelda II the Adventures of Link with my son.  It’s been over a year since I got mad because a person was  looking at their phone while in a conversation with me (I’ll call it out every time too).  In fact, if we’re looking for positives, that’s the big one – I almost completely forgot about the Phone People. (How I loathe them).

Anyways, I realize that wasn’t much of a game preview, so here’s some quick random fire Leafs Opinions to keep you satiated:

• I don’t care if Andersen is healthy or not, Jack Campbell is the goalie for me.
• Very few people seem to know or care how much better Travis Dermott is than Zach Bogosian.  He’s much better. Dermott is an elite defensive player.
• Victor Hedman is playing easy minutes and doing poorly. Reputation is all that matters though, so expect him to win the Norris. Adam Fox deserves it, but Morgan Rielly and T.J Brodie both deserve some consideration.
• Montreal probably isn’t going to miss the Playoffs…..but Vancouver does have a lot of games in hand.
• The Toronto Maple Leafs are only five points back of Vegas and didn’t get to spend the season beating up on the Sharks, Kings, Ducks and Coyotes.
• The Leafs are second in the NHL (to Colorado) in Expected-Goals Percentage.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you are all doing well and enjoying yourselves the best you can.