Hot Take No. 3: Leafs Will Get Swept In First Round
If you read anything I've written throughout the season, or offseason, you would have noticed a trend. I don't like what Brad Treliving did with this roster and am waiting for it all to crash and burn.
This might be my hottest take ever, but I'm predicting that the Toronto Maple Leafs go out in the worst possible fashion this spring.
Four straight losses to whatever juggernaut the ridiculous NHL seeding system serves up for them.
It's very easy to hide your defensive issues in the regular season, as long as you can score. The Leafs fortunately have a ton of fire-power, but once the playoffs start, the ice begins to shrink. You obviously need to score, but power-play's become less common and a physical defenisvely-sound 5v5 game becomes utmost important.
Unfortunately for the Leafs, they have huge defensive problems that weren't addressed at the NHL Trade Deadline. Ilya Lyubushkin and Joel Edmundson were the team's biggest additions, which isn't enough. They still need that number-one defenseman who can log 30 minutes per night and carry the load, but they didn't make that trade.
As a result, I have a bad feeling that this team will fall apart in the First Round and their defensive issues will be at the front of it. Teams continue to shutdown Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner in the playoffs, so that trend will continue and Sheldon Keefe will ultimately be fired the day after the season ends. It's a tough pill to swallow and I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see a positive future for the Leafs.