With all the Trade Deadline stuff going on, it can be easy to forget that the Toronto Maple Leafs are pretty much the NHL's streakiest team this year.
Though the Toronto Maple Leafs have only won five in a row twice and have not hit six wins in a row. Neither have they lost four games in a row. The Leafs have, however, had nine separate three-game win-streaks and four separate 3 game-losing streaks.
Recently they went on a 9-1 run and barely managed to gain any points in the standings, such is life in the Atlantic Division.
The Leafs most recent loss was Saturday against the Colorado Avalanche. The Leafs will finish up a pretty bonkers road trip tonight against Utah and then it's back home for four games beginning Wednesday against Florida.
The Toronto Maple Leafs look to avoid losing 4th straight game
The Leafs recent losing streak resulted in the Panthers taking a four point lead in the Atlantic. The Lightning are a single point back, while the Senators are ten points back, but have a game in hand.
The importance of winning the Atlantic is obvious to all Leafs fans at this point, which is why the Leafs Trade Deadline was so inexplicable. The more I think about it, the dumber it seems - I tried to be optimistic on the day it happened and give them a C Grade, but honestly, it just seems crazy to have spent two firsts and Fraser Minten on two non-star, extremely minor upgrades.
The Leafs blue-line is still a major team weakness, and they did nothing to address scoring. In fact, since Laughton is technically a winger, they barely addressed their needs at all.
I would have said the Leafs needs heading into the Trade Deadline were a top-pairing puck-moving defenseman and a centre. They didn't really get either of those things, and they paid a massive price. At the end of the day, the Leafs are a safe team obsessed with name-brands who is utterly incapable of taking smart risks or swinging for the fences.
The best long-term solution is for this team to lose and then make major managerial changes. I'll st ill be cheering for them to win, but they are frustrating team to cheer for.
Tonight's game should see the Leafs start Joseph Woll, but it is not confirmed. It will see them once again refuse to do the common sense thing and skate Marner, Matthews and Nylander on different lines. That is confirmed.
In Brandon Carlo's first game, he posted a 43% puck-possession rating, while being on the ice for two goals for and two goals against. He posted an Expected Goals rating of 48%. Kind of a crap game, but he's new, the Leafs didn't play Chris Tanev and they were up against Colorado.
In Scott Laughton's first game, he was completely awful. The Avs had the puck 71% of the time he was on the ice, outshot the Leafs 6-1 and outscored them 2-0. His Expected Goals was 20%. There are bad debuts, but this was the rapper from Prince's early 90s records debut album levels of bad.
Hopefully tonight is better.