The Toronto Maple Leafs are going up against the NHL’s best team and they will be doing so extremely short-handed.
Not only are the Toronto Maple Leafs reeling from having three of the six defensemen they started the season with on the I.R, but they haven’t done a damned thing to address it.
Now, the Leafs will take on the Boston Bruins with what has to be close to the worst blue-line a non-expansion team ever used for a regular season NHL Game.
Oh, and to top that off, they’ll dress Ryan Reaves – a player who should not be dressing for the worst NHL team, let alone one that wants to win the Stanley Cup.
Toronto Maple Leafs Dress Extremely Weak Lineup vs Bruins
The Toronto Maple Leafs can’t just go out and make a trade because other teams are clearly jacking their prices way up when they smell desperation, but regardless, the GM should never have let things get this bad.
The fact is, the Leafs blue-line entered the season with 5 x players over 30 (and the oldest player in the NHL) and no physical component to speak of (to say nothing of it’s lack of elite players or depth).
Add in 3 x major injuries to that already horrible blue-line, and you have a full-fledged disaster which has been hidden by favorable and lucky results.
Playing a 4 point game against Boston with McCabe and Lagesson on your 2nd pairing is a fireable offense for everyone involved. #LeafsForever
— Editor in Leaf (@EditorinLeaf) December 2, 2023
The Leafs are in a decent place in the standings considering how they’ve played. If they are proactive and address their problems before they have to pay the price for their bad play, then things can still work out for them this year.
But every game that goes by without addressing the issues makes winning the Stanley Cup this year a longer shot.
The Leafs need to win the division in order to have the best path to the Cup. Tonight they will play a four point game against the league’s top team with a blue-line that likely wouldn’t be the best one in the AHL. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
TJ Brodie can no longer handle top-pairing minutes. Jake McCabe and William Lagesson were a disaster against Seattle: With McCabe on the ice, the Leafs had the puck just 35% of the time and were outshot 15-5.
Good luck playing Boston tonight. It is absolutely unbelievable that the Leafs are dressing the same lineup they used against Seattle, because it was embarrassing.
Now, it’s even worse because they are adding Ryan Reaves into the mix.
To date, Brad Treliving’s performance as Leafs GM has been indescribably bad.