The Toronto Maple Leafs made some major changes this week to get back on track.
After last week’s multiple debacles in horrendous games against LA, Boston and Buffalo, the Toronto Maple Leafs made some intelligent decisions to get their season back on track.
First, they called up Nick Robertson. It’s extremely embarrassing that they kept him in the AHL at the expensive of Ryan Reaves and several victories, but he’s here now and he has four points in four games, and the Leafs won three of them.
Secondly, they scratched Klingberg for a game (not enough, but a start) and also benched and then scratched Ryan Reaves who should never play again.
They won both games.
Toronto Maple Leafs Weekly Thoughts and Ideas
The Leafs won a game they had no business winning against Tampa, played like crap against Ottawa, blew a 4-1 lead to Calgary and only played two periods against Vancouver.
But the Leafs are back baby!
(They aren’t, but it’s hilarious how myopic the coverage of this team can be).
The Toronto Maple Leafs are off until Friday as they agreed to an ill-advised mid-season trip to Sweeden, and they should use this time to make trades more significant than getting Nikita Zadorov.
This last week was good in the sense that it showed the Leafs are a much better team when they have four quality lines. Nick Robertson – Max Domi – Calle Jarnkrok has been a great line, and when you take Reaves off the fourth line, it’s pretty good too.
As I’ve been saying since Training Camp – it is just stupid for this team to have Bobby McMann and Nick Robertson in the minors.
The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t out of the woods yet though – Klingberg and Reaves are still here, despite being totally unplayable.
But beyond that, the blue-line is so bad it’s not funny.
Morgan Rielly is miscast as a #1, TJ Brodie is aging before our eyes, and Giordano is becoming nearly unplayable, it’s just that he looks good compared to Klingberg.
Jake McCabe was fine on Saturday, but he’s been a major problem since last season’s playoffs. That isn’t a very good top four when you don’t have NHL players for the third pairing.
Timothy Liljegren is awesome, but injured long-term.
William Lagesson was dummied against Vancouver and he isn’t likely an NHL player, nor is Simon Benoit who can’t even make the lineup when there are at least three complete duds in it already.
Still, having 2 of your 4 lines sabotage your game wasn’t working, and at least that appears to be fixed. One thing at a time, right?
The lack of games this week should make things around the Toronto Maple Leafs even more interesting. Let’s see what happens.