Daily Faceoff lists Maple Leafs as ‘swing team’ at U.S. Thanksgiving
Is there still room for optimism surrounding the Toronto Maple Leafs? Our friends at
Daily Faceoff listed the Maple Leafs as one of five key ‘swing’ teams at the U.S. Thanksgiving juncture, a point of demarcation where the playoff picture begins to clear up.
Toronto is off to a 10-11-3 start following Friday’s 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals, and widespread changes could be on the way imminently. Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin provided the following rationale for why the Maple Leafs are considered a swing team, prior to Friday’s game:
The Leafs have been genuinely bad this season. They’re a big, slow fossil of a hockey team, playing a style that may prove effective in the playoffs but that makes it very difficult to make the playoffs. Their play driving has been bad enough that we could actually call their record lucky so far this season. So does that mean head coach Craig Berube’s seat is hot? And will GM Brad Treliving shuffle his roster and trade underachieving defenseman Brandon Carlo?
It’s just too early to tell, as the Leafs do have an excuse. They’ve been absolutely decimated by injuries, playing one stretch earlier this month minus Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies, Carlo, Chris Tanev and Anthony Stolarz simultaneously. They’ve been bad, yes, but they’ve dressed a glorified AHL team many nights. If they get close to healthy and continue to struggle, it may be time to blow things up. But the Leafs could just as easily return to being an above-average team in a mercurial Eastern Conference. Few clubs have a wider range of outcomes between now and April.
We can’t argue against Larkin’s logic, and we’re choosing to take the glass half-full approach, whenever
it’s applicable. Matthews and Knies have returned to the lineup and it’s incumbent on the Maple Leafs’ captain to return to his 2023-24 form, or else the team could miss the playoffs for the first time in his career. Toronto needs to fix a porous defence that hasn’t been able to defend cross-seam passes, or rush attempts at all this season.
It’s an uphill battle entering December, and the Maple Leafs are joined by the New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins and San Jose Sharks as the teams most likely to be subject to the widest range of outcomes.
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