No. 3: Stay Healthy
You can put together the greatest team on paper, but if they get hurt, it doesn’t matter anymore.
Toronto has already gone through COVID troubles and have seen Mitch Marner injured for quite some time, but they can’t afford to lose anymore big players for the playoff run.
Over the past few seasons, they’ve continued to get unlucky with injuries and it’s hurt them. I know the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup with an injured Steven Stamkos, but they had the best goaltender in the world. They could have had even more players injured, but as long as they had a healthy Andrei Vasilevskiy and Victor Hedman, they would be fine.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, on the other hand, cannot afford injuries to their roster. If Auston Matthews got hurt, their season is over.
Last year, John Tavares and Nick Foligno’s injuries seriously cost this team and if they were both healthy, who knows what would have happened.
As a result, the Leafs need to stay healthy if they have any chance of winning anything next year.