There is one group that has yet to take a share of the blame in the breast-beating over the Toronto Maple Leafs’ recent struggles – us.
Us would be the media and fans, at least those who projected a long run in the NHL playoffs for a group that has yet to win even one postseason series. Somehow, in the wake of a seven-game loss last year to the Boston Bruins (who likely will be the first-round opponent once again in a few weeks), the addition of John Tavares and the emergence of players such as Morgan Rielly and Mitch Marner as elite NHLers, the expectations for this team got out of whack.
Why else would there be so much sound and fury as the Leafs stumbled through March with a 5-4-2 record despite the fact they were missing two of their best defencemen?
Leafs head coach Mike Babcock wanted no part of that discussion. He wisely chose not to question the expectations of the people who buy tickets. As far as the media goes, he doesn’t really care, which is as it should be.
“Well, I think the expectations of the fans are perfect,” Babcock said after Leafs practice on Sunday. “I don’t know [about the media]. I think the way we’ve been playing, in all honesty, we had four games that weren’t very good. So when you’re not very good are people allowed to say something to you? I think so.
“I walk around town every day. The fans that I talk to, that talk to me, are jacked right up about our hockey club. Why are they jacked up about our team? Because we’re in the running. We got a team, it looks like we got players, it looks like we‘re going in the right direction. We think we can really improve our team. That’s what we’re trying to do every day.”
Babcock conveniently overlooks the fact that fans who find themselves in his presence are not likely to say what they’ve been saying to their friends or on social media. However, there is ample evidence to the contrary.
He may have been the last person who should have said as much, but Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk had a point when he fired that rock from his glass house, saying the Leafs forgot about defence in their rebuild. Actually, the Leafs have more problems than just their defence. Frederik Andersen’s wobbles up until last week showed he could use a more reliable backup goaltender in order to get more rest and it would be nice to get a few more goals out of the fourth line.
All of those areas are important in the postseason. Secondary scoring, for example, has to be there because, more often than not, at least one of the top two lines will be neutralized by the emphasis on checking in the playoffs.
Come to think of it, the Leafs aren’t getting much primary scoring these days, either. And this after finally showing some improvement in keeping pucks out of their own net.
In their past six games, the Leafs have scored six goals that were not empty-netters. Three of them came against the woeful Buffalo Sabres. On Saturday, all the Leafs could manage against the equally woeful New York Rangers was one in a 2-1 overtime loss.
So for all the screaming lately about how the season will be a disaster if the Leafs lose in the first round of the playoffs to the Bruins, maybe people are missing the point. Maybe the Leafs just aren’t ready yet. Maybe their struggle of late is just water reaching its own level.
Yes, there is no doubt the Leafs are a better team than the one that took the Bruins to seven games a year ago. But the Bruins are better, too. Nobody who is any good in the NHL stands still.
Leafs president Brendan Shanahan did a tremendous job in early 2015 persuading Leaf fans to accept a lot of pain while he tore down their hockey team and began a rebuild. Thanks to drafting Auston Matthews and Marner and the right call in trading for Andersen among other moves, the rebuild found some traction earlier than expected and the Leafs made the playoffs in 2017 and again last year.
But some people think nothing less than the Eastern Conference final will do this spring. All that patience Shanahan sold the fans (and media) is gone.
Every Stanley Cup champion has to go through a couple of years of coming close before learning and developing what it takes to win. This team hasn’t even won a playoff series yet and, thanks to the NHL’s divisional playoff system, there is no guarantee the Leafs can get past the first two rounds even if they do straighten things out, simply because the two teams in the conference better than them are the Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Sorry, but the pain is still part of the deal.