The Leafs Third New Year’s Resolution
The Leafs third resolution is for them to continue to play as well as they were heading into the holiday break.
At the time of writing this, the Leafs have won three games in a row, and have only lost two regulation games since November 12th. They have only lost three times in regulation since October 30th.
Sure, the Bruins are an unstoppable force that cannot be tamed, but the Leafs are holding their own. Eventually Boston has to crack, and hopefully the Leafs can then make up some ground in order to avoid yet another first round matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
In 25 games leading into the short pause, the team was 17-3-5. Toronto’s firing on all cylinders. Their big four, Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares, and Mitch Marner, have all been producing.
In fact, while Auston Matthews hasn’t been as incredible as he was last year, Marner and Nylander are both having career seasons, giving the Leafs 3 x Franchise Players on their roster.
Even with the all the injuries to their defense core, the Maple Leafs steadied the ship and continued racking up wins. They’ve done so even though Matthews hasn’t been scoring at the torrid pace he was on last year. He’s been playing well this year, it’s just not going to be a history-making campaign for him individually. Luckily for the Leafs, it doesn’t need to be.
Happy New Year to all the Maple Leafs fans. May 2023 be the year that the Leafs end their Stanley Cup drought.