Toronto Maple Leafs: Ready to Feast on Some Roast Duck

The Toronto Maple Leafs will take on the Anaheim Mighty Ducks tonight.

It is the fifth and final game on what has been a pretty crappy road trip for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Things started off well enough with a win vs the Jets, but then they lost to Vegas,  San Jose, and last night, LA.

Since the San Jose loss was in overtime, a win today could salvage at least a 50/50 West Coast Trip, which, all things considered, isn’t too bad.

In fact, the Leafs being a .500 team right now should give us some room for optimism. 

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Ducks

When Auston Matthews, William Nylander,  Michael Bunting and John Tavares stop combing for less 5v5 goals than David Kampf, perhaps it will be time to panic.

But that one sentence pretty much says “If that is happening after nine games, and you’re breaking even, you’re gonna be fine.”

Auston Matthews has two goals in nine games.  (all stats naturalstattrick.com).

Relax.

The power-play has been pretty good, but it could be better with some luckier results.

The penalty-kill has been an abomination, and is among the worst in the NHL, but it’s virtually guaranteed to get better.

They don’t have to do anything but continue to exist and almost everything will balance out in their favor.

The Leafs will start Erik Kallgren today, which is his third game out of ten. The fact that they have had to play their 3rd stringer three times in the first ten games, and a different goalie in three of their first four games is another reason to cut them some slack.

Ilya Samsonov is perhaps the lone bright spot on the team so far this year, and once the team starts putting pucks in the net – which is inevitable – they are going to win most of their games.

If, however, they lost tonight, I don’t know what will happen.

The history of the Toronto Maple Leafs is littered with ex-coaches who either didn’t return or didn’t recover from a disastrous West Coast road trip.

I’d like to see  this team once they get back Timothy Liljegren.

I’d like to see how they look once Matthews starts filling the net.

I’d like to see them go back to the Kampf/Engvall shut-down line they used last year.

I’d really like to see Marner and Matthews on a different line.

But most of all, I’d just like to see them string together a few wins.  This team doesn’t have to care about October games.  This little rough patch will be long forgotten when they are in first place, as they eventually will be.