The oddsmakers suggest that the Toronto Maple Leafs will miss the playoffs for the first time in 10 years, but there are three reasons to be optimistic.
It's hard to believe that the Leafs are last in the Eastern Conference through 22 games after winning the Atlantic Division last year. We've seen tough stretches of hockey throughout the regular season over the past nine years, but it's never been this bad.
With a goal differiential of -8, you could argue that the Leafs are a few bounces away from being right near the top of the conference, as six of their 13 losses have been one-goal games. On the flip-side, five of the team's nine wins have been one-goal decisions as well, so virtually every game has been incredibly tight thus far.
You don't meet too many optimstic Leafs fans these days, but there are reasons to be positive in Toronto right now.
Health Issues
There are only six players who have played all 22 games thus far, with important players such as Chris Tanev, Matthew Knies Scott Laughton, Steven Lorentz, Auston Matthews, Brandon Carlo and Anthony Stolarz all missing signficant time.
When your number-one centre, defenseman and goaltender all get injured, it's tough to expect wins. The Stolarz injury has the possibility of having the biggest impact on the team, but fortunately enough Joseph Woll has actually been pretty good in his absence, so if Woll can steer the ship for the next few weeks, it may be OK.
As for the rest of the team, Matthews and Knies look like they'll be returning to action soon, so having two-thirds of your top-line back will inject some life in ths offense. You can't judge this team until they're completly healthy, so as long as they can get back to full-health in the next month, they have a chance.
Their head coach
It's possible that MLSE goes crazy and fires Craig Berube before he has a chance to help get this team out of a slump, before they continue to employ him, there's no better coach in the league to help get a team out of the dumpster.
When the St. Louis Blues won a Stanley Cup in 2019, they were the worst team in the NHL in January, but rallied around a newly hired Berube who guided the team to a championship. With this only being November, the former Cup winning coach can use that experience to help the Leafs win.
A desperate general manager and ownership
It's pretty clear that MLSE doesn't want to rebuild anytime soon, but they may be desperate enough to make a splash. It probably doesn't mean that Auston Matthews or William Nylander is getting traded but GM Brad Treliving and the team's ownership may be willing to make a big move ahead of the deadline.
We wrote about the team possibily acquiring Quinn Hughes this week, which is the type of move ownership needs to make to win make the fanbase and change the locker room. There are too many of the same players on this roster who are content with losing in the First Round, so hopefully this downslide can finally be the thing that helps trigger change for the better.