The Toronto Maple Leafs had a pretty bad regular season last year - their goalie collapsed, they pulled out of season-ending tailspins at the exact right moment several times, and throughout the entire season they just never coalesced into the team they should have been.
What saved the Toronto Maple Leafs last year was that Auston Matthews turned in one of the single best seasons in the history of the NHL. That, and they remained relatively injury free throughout the season.
This year, they are hoping to replicate both of those feats, but they are off to a bad start.
Toronto Maple Leafs top 3 centres all appear to be hurt, but who knows?
Auston Matthews left practice on Tuesday and then missed the games against Ottawa and Montreal. He he has played once out of three games so far.
The Leafs - following the NHL's outdated and embarrassing injury protocols - announced that he had an "upper body injury" which is worse than saying nothing.
William Nylander and John Tavares both left Thursday's game against the Montreal Canadiens early.
Nylander - after being tapped on the butt by Nick Robertson, for reasons inexplicable - fell and seemed to get hit in the head by the Montreal Player's leg.
For Nylander, who may have suffered concussion related migraines in last year's playoffs, this is terrible. The last thing you want is for one of your best players to get hit in the head, and while there is every chance that he left the game for precautionary reasons, we just don't know.
As for Tavares - whose numbers last year were quite good despite some bad shooting luck by he and his linemates - he appeared to hurt his leg and left the game in the third period.
While all these injuries seem minor, it can't possibly be a good thing to play three games and end up with all three of your top centres injured. In fact, that is a very LEAFY thing to happen, and perhaps we should expect such things.
On the bright side, the Toronto Maple Leafs could be forced to give longer looks to players who were destined for the minors. Perhaps this will force them into doing what should have been obvious before camp even started: to have Easton Cowan and Nick Robertson in the lineup.
I look forward to some updates on these player's uncertain injury status, but even though the NHL is content to take your money from gambling, they do not feel like they should be forthcoming with information that directly affects what and how you might gamble. There is a word for that and it's "hypocrite."