Toronto Maple Leafs: Opening Night Thoughts On a Contender

The Toronto Maple Leafs entered last season amidst a cloud of failure that even my best efforts could not paint a rosy picture upon.

When the Toronto Maple Leafs blew a 3-1 lead to a garbage Montreal Canadiens roster that had no business even being in the playoffs, the fans were upset.

Ridiculously, I actually thought that people would look at the team, look at Tavares’ injury, and the fact that Matthews couldn’t shoot the puck, and conclude, like I did, that they were just a great team that got unlucky.

But that isn’t how humans work.

Some Toronto Maple Leafs Fans Think Results Actually Matter

To a normal human being, results matter. In fact, that is pretty much all they care about. Sure, most people, can easily understand the benefits to sticking with something in the face of an unusual/unlikely result – they just don’t want to.

It feels good to get mad.  It feels good to demand action, to say someone should be blamed, fired or shipped on the first bus out of town.

Sticking with the cause and being patient is not very satisfying.

Even for me, a guy who – as far as the Leafs offseason went – got everything he wanted (that is to say: no Campbell extension, no Mikheyev contract, Giordano back, Nylander still here, and the coach and GM retained) it is not very satisfying.

I like the team, I am higher on them than most people seem to be, but even I could have used that one exciting off-season acquisition that reignites the fan base and the belief in the team.

The Leafs, however,  have made the toughest choice, which is to run it back for a second straight year with hardly any significant changes.  Making the harder choice is usually also the same thing as making the correct choice.

It would have been much easier just to fire someone, or everyone. It would have been easy to take a mulligan and redo the vision.  It certainly would have been  more popular with both fans and the hockey media establishment.

But they didn’t do it. They are back.  Again. They are probably currently the most underrated team in the history of professional sports.  That is because how good they are, and how sick of them their own fans are, is a combo that might not have ever happened before, if only because most owners re-do the vision at the first sign of failure, never sticking around long enough to know for sure.

The Leafs are sticking with the plan, and I respect that.  It would be way more fun to do something else, but that’s only because we are addicted to the Breaking News.

Last year, it felt like it was Now or Never.  There was an urgency after failing against Montreal.

I don’t feel like that exists any more.  Last year they were within a Jack Campbell injury of being the best team in the NHL, and they deserved to move on against Tampa.  Even if you don’t give them that much credit, they went up against the best team of their generation and held their own.

It was a good series, and the Leafs showed what nonsense all this crap about being built for the regular season is.  They are built for the playoffs, as was proven by their outplaying of the best playoff team anyone has seen in recent decades.

The Toronto Maple Leafs enter this season as a battle wearied contender.  They know what it takes to win in this league, and they know how it feels to lose.  If any of the clichés about experience, leadership, hard work or determination are even 1% true, this year’s Leafs team is going to be nearly unstoppable.