Toronto Maple Leafs Weekly Thoughts Week 4 Volume 1

The Toronto Maple Leafs recently beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in a great comeback victory to save the opening of their season from being a complete disaster.

The Toronto Maple Leafs actually destroyed the Lightning for basically the entire game, but bad goaltending, some sloppy play, and horrible penalty killing almost caused a disaster.

Instead of sitting here with a 3-2 record after winning the statistical battle in four of five games, they’d be 2-3 and we’d be talking about how much Samsonov sucks.

Instead, things are OK to Good and we’re talking about Joseph Woll, the current number-one prospect in the organization and someone perhaps on the verge of stardom.

Toronto Maple Leafs Weekly Thoughts Week 4 Volume 1

• If Joseph Woll becomes an above-average starting goalie, it will be the first time the Leafs developed such a thing since the early 90s when Felix Potvin owned the crease. 
• Ironically, if Matthew Knies continues on the path to stardom he’ll be the first non-top-ten pick the Leafs have had that became a star since Tomas Kaberle in the late 90s. 
• Speaking of the late 90s, anyone who complains about today’s music should be forced to listen to a CD of top hits from 1999 on repeat for eternity.
• Capitals, Stars and Predators this week, all on the road, with a real chance to put together a nice winning streak and also a weird 6 PM start tonight.
• Mitch Marner has taken some heat for a bit of a slow start, but he has a 65% expected goals rating, the team just happens to be shooting 4% when he is on the ice.  He can’t control that and with time it will work itself out.  He isn’t playing badly at all.
• The Toronto Maple Leafs blue-line is an outright disaster.  GM Brad Treliving better start proving his worth soon.
• When I hear people talk about Ryan Reaves, I really just want to donate money to a library or something.
• TSN broadcasts are still unwatchable.  The Quiz is the worst thing on TV (literally) and their panel continues to be offensively bad. I honestly couldn’t tell you if Gord Miller is still there or not (hopefully not) because on the chance he was, I played music during the last game they broadcast.
• Ex Leafs Travis Dermott was the first player to defy the NHL’s ridiculous rule about pride coloured hockey tape.  It’s always nice to see an ex-Leaf in the news for something good.

• Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander have all been on the ice for more goals against than goals for, despite every single one of them playing great hockey. The fact that this has occurred and the Toronto Maple Leafs still have a winning record bodes extremely well for their future record.