What more can you ask of the Toronto Maple Leafs? Trick question, really. Team president Brendan Shanahan has said that, even if this franchise ever wins another Stanley Cup, the noise surrounding it — the cacophonous, sometimes silly, and essentially endless noise — will stop for a day, at most. And then, because it’s the Leafs, you can always ask for more.
Halfway through their most anticipated season in decades, the Leafs are something close to elite. They entered their 41st game Saturday night against Vancouver tied for the third-best record in the NHL. They were second in goals per game, second in goal differential, and had the league’s best scoring differential at 5-on-5.
They’re really good. That’s just not enough.
“I mean, it’s like anything: there’s good and bad,” says defenceman Morgan Rielly, in the middle of a career season by leagues. “There’s been periods of time where we’ve played really well, and you’re on the bench and you’re watching the game unfold, and you can’t help but think there’s a lot of potential to go a long way here in the playoffs. And there’s nights where you watch the game unfold and you think to yourself, we have a long way to go.”
“I mean, it’s like anything: there’s good and bad,” says defenceman Morgan Rielly, in the middle of a career season by leagues. “There’s been periods of time where we’ve played really well, and you’re on the bench and you’re watching the game unfold, and you can’t help but think there’s a lot of potential to go a long way here in the playoffs. And there’s nights where you watch the game unfold and you think to yourself, we have a long way to go.”
In fairness, they haven’t been themselves for very long. John Tavares has been better than advertised. Mitch Marner has exploded. But Auston Matthews, who has led the NHL in goals per minute played, has missed 14 games. William Nylander missed 28, Zach Hyman has been out eight, and Frederik Andersen, through injury or simply rest, has missed 10. His workload and health are probably Toronto’s biggest potential worries, actually.There are flaws, obviously. Ron Hainsey is too often miscast as a top-pair defenceman, and Nikita Zaitsev can seem miscast as a second. Nazem Kadri can’t stop hitting posts, and Patrick Marleau is fading, just enough to see. The now-concussed Garret Sparks hasn’t found consistency as the backup goaltender, and Andersen has missed four straight, though he is close to a return.
The Leafs are 6-5 against teams that started Saturday in the Eastern playoff picture; they are 3-3 against Tampa Bay, Boston, Buffalo and Montreal, and will likely face one of the latter three in the first round.
And still, there’s a lot here.
“Well, I like lots of things about us,” head coach Mike Babcock says. “I like our people, I like how bad we want to be good, I like our leadership, I like our depth. Sometimes I don’t like our details. I think we got to to be a way heavier team. Being heavy isn’t getting on a scale and measuring yourself: it’s a state of mind.
“It’s heavy on offence. It’s having the puck, it’s getting the puck back all the time, it’s checking the puck, it’s putting your work in front of your skill, it’s being determined offensively, instead of coming down and having a rush and being one and done. It’s multiple-shot shifts, it’s having some jam … And so I think we can do a better job there, and I think we can continually get better defensively so we are way better offensively. So we have a lot of work to do.”
Rielly talks about how much better the Leafs protect leads now, and how their defensive positioning has improved. Tavares talks about how he’s impressed how well the players focus despite that Toronto cacophony. Babcock talks about how “we still think there’s lots of growth from within, because we’re a young group.”
They think no matter how tight or mucked up the games get, no matter how many posts they hit, no matter the opponent, they can be the best team on the ice any night. That’s what’s on the table.
“I think … that feeling going into games that you can just kill another team’s will to win,” says Tavares, when asked what he wants to see between now and season’s end. “And just knowing that you just feel that when (the Leafs) come into your building, you just know what a tough night it’s going to be. Even if you play your best, you know the odds are still probably against you, where we just have the ability to kind of take games over that way, and generate that momentum. It’s hard to do that on a consistent basis.”
Is that possible?
“I think so,” says Tavares. “There’s certainly probably times when we’ve had it already, where we’ve had two, three games, but it’s the ability to carry that over for long stretches.”
Listen to them, and you hear how good they think they can be. Sometimes it’s better to zoom out a little. They’ve gotten this far without a full team for all but eight games, and most of those were with Nylander trying to get up to speed. Before Nylander and Matthews were both back, their adjusted puck possession was 12th: not bad, not great. With everyone, it’s sixth.
So now it’s about figuring out how not to get rolled by a Boston, how not to blow one against Tampa, how to show up and be the baddest team on the ice every night. Half a season left until the real stuff, and we’ll see if they’re ready when it starts.
Now they face the Nashville Predators in a Monday night tilt at home.
PK and Rinne and a slew of good checkers, risk free D - men, and Ryan Johanson.
A tough opponent, to be sure.
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