Top 5 Toronto Maple Leafs Storylines of the 2021 NHL Season

As we close the chapter on 2021, let’s look back at the wonderful and crazy storylines that happened with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The 2020-21 season didn’t even take place in 2020 this year as the Toronto Maple Leafs started their season in January, 2021. With the world in disarray, the NHL, along with many other leagues, had to start later than expected.

The Canadian government banned the public from the arena and we spent an entire season watching games without fans in attendance. Although many people wanted to get out of their house and enjoy a hockey game, those pleasures were disrupted as the Leafs played every regular season game without a single fan in attendance.

Ontario is limiting capacities once again, but there will continue to be fans in the stands for the foreseeable future. It just won’t be a full arena.

When I look back on watching those games without fans, it’s something I don’t even remember happening. The idea of seeing a professional sporting event with nobody cheering is so bizarre and the fact that happened for 56 regular season games last year with the Leafs is crazy to me.

However, at the end of the day, the 2020-21 season was a great escape for many of us, and the 2021-22 season continues to be as well.

Let’s look at the top-five storylines from the past year.

1. Auston Matthews Chases 50 Goals in 50 Games

Auston Matthews ultimately finished with 41 goals in 52 games last year, but there was a legitimate discussion around him scoring “50 goals in 50 games.”

Matthews scored 18 goals in his first 19 games was lighting up the division. Since Matthews was going to be continuing to play against the same six teams for the entire season, it actually seemed possible that he could score in almost every single game he played against.

Ever since he got drafted, everybody knew how powerful and surprising his wrist shot was. His ability to disguise his stick and angle it was something we’d never seen and that scared goaltenders across the league.

However, during the 2020-21 season, he worked on his slap-shot and made that a part of his repertoire, which made him even more dangerous.

With an ability to score in every possible way, Matthews showed that he’s the best pure-goal scorer in the NHL and eventually won the Rocket Richard Trophy, as a result.

He may not have scored 50 goals in 50 games, but it was a very hot-topic discussion throughout the season.

3. North Division

With zero vaccines and travel restrictions in full-affect, the NHL decided to run a North Division, which included all seven Canadian teams battling it out in their own division.

This was the only way where you could still execute a season, as all the Canadian teams were forced to play in Canada and not able to battle against their typical rivals.

It was a strange season because Toronto had to play the same six teams 9-10 times and it felt like a baseball season, as Toronto would go on the road for a three-game set against one team.

It wasn’t the most ideal situation as the games got boring and seeing the same opponent grew thin, but it was nice to see hockey again.

The North Division was criticized all year because it was “too easy,” when that was all a load of crap. Sure, the Ottawa Senators and Vancouver Canucks weren’t any good but the division still had a ton of talent, as shown by the playoff results.

4. Morgan Rielly Extension

For the past few years, the salary cap has been the most talked topic in professional hockey, which is sad. You shouldn’t have to lose players who want to play for your organization for a few bucks, so it was interesting to see what would happen to Morgan Rielly.

As the longest tenured Maple Leaf, it wouldn’t have been shocking to see him go to Free Agency, because that’s something he’d never done before. Being the big-name free agent defenseman is very appealing to players, because it shows them their true worth on the open market and it’s obviously great for their bank account.

However, money isn’t always everything in those situations and Rielly decided that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side and signed a big extension with the Leafs.

Although many fans wanted to see a change and see his cap-space get allotted to someone different, Toronto made the right decision to lock him up to that contract. Rielly has been an incredible player and great role model to the city for so many years and it only makes sense for him to be part of the future moving forward.

5. Another Choke Job for the Toronto Maple Leafs

Like clockwork, the biggest storyline of the past calendar year was the Leafs “choking.”

It pains me to keep writing about this, but I’ll do it anyways.

The Toronto Maple Leafs were the best team in the North Division. For the first time in forever, the team won their division and gained home-ice advantage. However, in Leafs fashion, they couldn’t even enjoy home-ice, as the government still wasn’t allowing fans in the building.

In Game 1, the energy was alive in the city, despite everyone being at home. We were excited because all the team had to do was beat the Montreal Canadiens, then another Canadian team and they were in the Conference Finals. After dominating all year, how hard could that be?

Then 10 minutes into Game 1, the season was doomed. Captain John Tavares had a freakish injury, which left all of us panicking. The Leafs couldn’t recover and eventually lost the game.

Despite the injury, Tavares’ injury seemed less concerning a few days later, as he was skating and the team was up 3-1 in the series. Finally, they were going to win a playoff series…

You all know the rest of the story, as a few days later the Canadiens won Game 7 in Scotiabank Arena and marched all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. Toronto was finally supposed to win, but they choked away one of their easiest opportunities in recent years.

Let’s hope those choking seasons are behind us, because if I’m writing the same thing in December, 2022, I’m not going to be happy.