Toronto Maple Leafs: There Are Some Positives This Season

As the season has started, the Toronto Maple Leafs are off to an OK start. At the very least, their record is OK.

All in all, the Toronto Maple Leafs seem to be firing on the right cylinders which is by being consistent with the puck, including having the defense involved with the fore-check and producing points on a nightly basis.

The main aspect for the Leafs is that they are winning games, at a level that they can excel from to be an elite team. The Core 4 has stepped up to a point that cannot be debated, including mass production from captain John Tavares.

Here are some positives to counterbalance some of the more recent complaints about the team.

Toronto Maple Leafs: There Are Some Positives This Season

The Toronto Maple Leafs can and are a dominant team and can overplay their opponents. With the basic form of textbook play and having an offensive-powerhouse coach in Sheldon Keefe.

I thought the team was really good against Dallas Stars. They weren’t so great against LA (and this was written before last nights game) but the effort of the team, the goaltending of Joseph Woll, the power-play and the play of the core four have all stood out as excellent so far.

Joseph Woll has been superb, keeping his team in a tight game versus the Tampa Bay Lightning, and than providing shut down goaltending in his next two games as well is giving him confidence to play at an elite level, and become the eventual number-one goaltender for the Toronto Maple. Leafs.

Woll has stolen two wins for the Leafs, which must put him near the top of the Calder Trophy race for the NHL’s rookie of the year after the first month of the season.  Even in his worst game, against LA, he looked alright and couldn’t really be blamed too heavily for any of the goals.

From what has been observed, the Toronto Maple Leafs have the right ingredients  on offense, even if it is taking the team a little time to gel.

The defense has been about what was expected, although both Timothy Liljegren and Mark Giordano are stepping up while being forced into larger roles.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been OK thus far, but could obviously be better. As long as they don’t play any more games like the one against LA the other night, they should be fine.