The Maple Leafs GM Needs to Act While Division Title Still Possible
The Toronto Maple Leafs smashed the Anaheim Mighty Ducks by a score of 9-2 last night.
The Toronto Maple Leafs may have dressed an extremely light lineup (no Jarncrock, Rielly, Tavares) but it didn't matter, as they had their most lopsided game of the season anyways.
Auston Matthews scored his second straight hatrick, which I believe gives him 34 goals in his last 31 games, and even Tyler Bertuzzi scored a goal finally. For Matthews it was the first 5 point game of his career. Timothy Liljegren added three assists.
Even Martin Jones was fine, as the Leafs cruised to a very easy victory.
Toronto Maple Leafs Destroy the Ducks
The two points moved the Leafs to within ten of Florida and nine of Boston.
The Leafs have 2 game in hand over each team, so that could be as little as six points back. That sounds daunting, but it's only three wins.
So far this season, there hasn't been any kind of hope of the Leafs catching Boston (or Florida) because while their winning games, they mostly rely on their stars to do that and haven't been able to find any consistency in their blue-line or goaltending.
The outline of a good team is there, but managment has failed miserably to augment the core, and Treliving hasn't even brought in any reenforcements despite emergancy situations on the blue-line in net.
The thing is, you still expect that he will. So if the Leafs can stay within possible striking distance until additional help arrives, the division title is not completley out of reach....just unlikely.
The Leafs will play an afternoon game tomorrow on Holiday Monday, then the Coyotes on Wednesday before embarking on two games against Vegas and one against Colorado. It's a tough schedule but hopefully their will be reenforcements.
Rielly has already served three games, so he has one or two more (depending on the outcome of his appeal) and you have to figure that trades are going to happen any time.
The trade deadline is March 8th, just under three-weeks away. The Leafs can't wait that long, however. In three weeks the division could be completley out of reach, and it's a miracle it's reachable today. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
With a couple of smart additions, specifically a goalie and a top pairing defenseman, the Leafs would go from pretender to contender very quickly. The bones of an elite team already exist on this roster, and with literally any NHL-level goalie they will improve drastically.
But with an impact goalie added to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the entire hierarchy of the league changes.
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Treliving must act now, he can't wait another three weeks.