The Toronto Maple Leafs have lost two in a row and five of their last eight games.
It isn't exactly time to panic for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it is time to start addressing some of their problems.
The Carolina Hurriances were extremely aggressive and proactive in their trade for MIkko Rantanen. Not only did they add the best player any team is going to add this year, but they did it several weeks out from the trade deadline.
The Toronto Maple Leafs must respond. Not only do they have their own well-known problems already, but a team they have to get through to win just get way better.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Path to the Stanley Cup Just Got Infinitely Harder
Before adding Mikko Rantanen, the Carolina Hurrianes were already the 6th best team in the NHL by points-percentage, but the fact that they were 1st in puck-possession and 1st in expected-goals percentage suggested that, results aside, they were the best team in hockey.
And they just added a no-doubt top-ten player.
The Carolina Hurricanes are the 6th best team in the NHL despite the 31st ranked 5v5 goaltending. That is inasne. Their goaltending will regress positively no matter what, and they will have Rantanen. Look out, the rest of the NHL.
The Leafs, on the other hand, are 4th in 5v5 goaltending and 8th overall. That isn't good because future results will always be better if your current results do not rely heavily on goaltending.
Because winning the Stanley Cup just got way harder for the Leafs, it's important for them to be proactive as soon as possible.
They desperately need to stop playing Philippe Myers, Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins as half of their blue-line. OEL should be your worst defenseman, not a key component of your blue-line.
The Leafs need an upgrade on the blue-line worse than any other contender. They need a puck-moving superstar, ideally a number-one, but good luck with that.
They are also desperate for a centre, or two. The Leafs lack depth scoring and their bottom six isn't even good at defending. It's the worst of both worlds!
The Leafs are also capped out and lack a lot of trade assets. To compete with Carolina, the Leafs need to address their two biggest needs and they'll have to be extremely creative to pull it off.
Otherwise, if they can't, their only hope is to count on Matthews and Marner finally getting hot in the playoffs alongside above-average goaltending. It could work. It hasn't yet. But it could.