The Toronto Maple Leafs are like a stock that was labelled “blue chip” and then lost the hedge fund so much money that hardly anyone noticed that that loss was a fluke.
Your humble scribe is like an insider trader who can’t believe that everyone is undervaluing the obvious potential of a future cash cow. Right now the Toronto Maple Leafs are the Tampa Bay Lightning as they entered the 2019-20 season (they were the best team of the modern era, and lost in the first round due to some random bad luck, but were about to be the Stanley Cup Champs).
One of the most frustrating things about sports that I didn’t realize until I had to write about them everyday, and engage constantly with a wide array of fellow fans, is that the logic of real life doesn’t apply to sports.
5 Toronto Maple Leafs Guarantees
In real life, people solve problems by identifying whether or not the reason something didn’t work was because of a flaw in the system or an outside influence that they had no control over (also called “variables”). They then test it (either in real life or by controlled experiments or by computer simulation) and find out how it performs over a large sample size, because it is a given that short sample sizes are prone to random outcomes and the only way to really know anything is to see what will usually happen in most cases.
But in sports, even the most obvious variables are shot down as lame excuses. Did your team storm back from a multi-goal deficit, out shoot their opponent 12-1 in overtime and then lose when an uncalled headshot on Alex Galchenyuk led to a fluke goal from 60 feet out?
Did you have to play the entire series without John Tavares? Did game seven see you without your captain and your best defenseman? Doesn’t matter, this is hockey and there is no such thing as reasons. Only excuses filtered through the worst kind of macho ignorance.
So with that said, here are five things I can guarantee about the Toronto Maple Leafs this season.
- Auston Matthews sets the Leafs franchise record for goals. If he plays 82 games, I’ll guarantee 60 goals and say he probably scores 70.
- Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner become the first pair of Leafs to each score 100 points in a season.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs finish ahead of the Florida Panthers.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs win a playoff series.
- Jack Campbell establishes himself as a top goalie.
I won’t guarantee it, but I do predict that the Leafs will win the Stanley Cup and that Auston Matthews will win the Hart Trophy. The reason the Leafs are going to be so good this year is that their talent is about to combine with a hunger that no other team can possibly match, and a feeling of righteous injustice over the perception of their team that they will channel into proving their worth over and over.