The Toronto Maple Leafs are the NHL’s best team.
Sure, the Toronto Maple Leafs are in 4th place overall, but if you put the standings in context, it’s pretty easy to see who the favorite to win the 2023 Stanley Cup is at the moment.
The Bruins, New Jersey and Las Vegas are predictably good, but the Leafs have only lost once in the last month, and are doing so as the NHL’s most injured team.
Tonight the Leafs will take on the Dallas Stars tonight, and I believe it will be the first time in NHL history that two players with 18 game point streaks (or better) will play each other.
I didn’t think that Dallas had the star power to contend (pun not intentional) but I didn’t realize that Jason Robertson was this good.
I don’t think Nick Robertson is as good, but I think he will also surprise a lot of people once he gets up to speed.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Dallas
Tonight’s game will feature the Toronto Maple Leafs debut of the recently acquired Conor Timmins. Timmins is way better than the kind of 24 year old post-prospect you usually acquire as a stop get when you have 34 injuries.
He may never live up to it, but there was a time that he looked like a near-certain star player.
As for tonight’s game, it will feature Matt Murray in net.
NHL injury visualization. Man games lost to injuries and health protocols versus team wins. Bubble size represents cumulative quality of players lost for games (Lost-ps metric) pic.twitter.com/iqi3la3XCm
— Man-Games Lost NHL (@ManGamesLostNHL) December 3, 2022
In even more exciting news, Semyon Der-Arguchintsov is making his NHL debut tonight. The Leafs prospect system is extremely exciting right now, as players drafted five years ago are starting to make an impact.
Keeping in mind that the Leafs haven’t had a top ten pick since 2016, and that the Mark Hunter drafts were awful, there low-key prospect pipeline is really much better than all but the most dedicated hockey-nerds realize.
Lacking in name-brand blue-chippers, the Leafs will have a ton of trade chips and NHL ready replacements over the next couple years. But the real quality will reveal itself only when a player or two exceeds expectations and becomes a star, which is only a matter of time.
TJ Brodie is not playing tonight, but is on the trip and may play soon.
Wayne Simmonds will be a healthy scratch. You got to give it up for Wayne who is battling a lot of younger dudes to keep his career going, and at the very least, he’s providing an awesome role model to the younger players, while contributing every other game or so.
It is impossible to love hockey and not love Wayne Simmonds.
The Stars are a solid team, but after getting kind of screwed over by the refs on Saturday, expect a hungry Leafs team to put them away.