The Pressure on the Toronto Maple Leafs:

The Toronto Maple Leafs, an original six franchise, has always been at the center of attention in the league. Despite their lack of playoff success in half a century, specifically in Canada, they have consistently been a top tier market in all of hockey. As the largest sports team in all of Canada and a long history of phenomenal players, they have immense pressure to succeed. Additionally, with the mass media and a city that is hockey crazy, the team has very minimal room for error. In recent years, the Leafs have been a polarizing team. For the past four years, their roster has drastically improved. Especially in the past two seasons, general manager Kyle Dubas has placed extra emphasis on improving his team from the outside, specifically on the defensive side of the puck. With the addition of Jake Muzzin, Tyson Barrie, and Cody Ceci in the past year, the team’s Achilles heel and scapegoat has definitely been improved. As a result, after this year’s playoffs how much can Kyle Dubas’ Leafs defense be blamed? There are many fewer excuses this year. 

Additionally, Dubas has been successful in adding players like Kyle Clifford, Alex Kerfoot, and backup goalie Jack Campbell to stabilize their overall lineup. 

With the addition of these new players, there were many changes in their locker room this year. With the usual pressure, the firing of Mike Babcock and the team’s inconsistent play throughout the season, this team needed this long term break. This mental break from the seasons’ chaos should provide an extra boost of energy come August 2nd. The Leafs were fortunate as Dubas and Leafs management were not afraid to move on from coach Babcock. The team needed a change, as he was not treating the players right, specifically the younger players like Mitch Marner. As a result, former Marlies Coach Sheldon Keefe has definitely been a good addition behind the bench. He seems to be well-liked by the players and has brought a much more relaxed presence to a team that has had enough pressure. 

Although the franchise has been stable in terms of leadership in the past decade, Dubas and Leafs management have been very vulnerable and easily influenced, especially in the past two years. Unlike former General Manager of the Maple Leafs Lou Lamoriello, recently Dubas has been very malleable with the financial negotiations with his players. Unfortunately, after Dubas “gave in” and overpaid some of his players, the team’s play has not echoed management’s expectations for the team. To put things into perspective, however, the Maple Leafs are in a very strong division with teams like the Lightning and Bruins at the forefront of the league’s standings each year. While acknowledging this, this team should have been better this year. With all of their talent on offense and a top ten goaltender in the league, the Leafs should always be competitive with the top tier teams like the Lightning and Bruins. They should have secured a playoff spot when the season was paused. At that juncture, they were merely three points in front of the Florida Panthers.

For natural hockey fans, it is very difficult to comprehend the Maple Leafs and their lack of playoff success as a team. The Leafs have a very well balanced lineup each year. The team already has a very young core of all-star players. Additionally, they also have veteran all-star players: both captain and veterans John Tavares and Morgan Reilly who have served as the team’s leaders in recent years. Unfortunately for those aging veterans, how much time before John Tavares fails to consistently score thirty goals a season? Relatively speaking, instead of using the Leafs defense as a scapegoat for their lack of playoff success, one could make a better argument that their core players are a bit immature considering the amount of money they make. Most other teams don’t pay twenty-three-year-old players like Nylander (the most overpaid of the group), Marner, and Matthews substantial money unless they feel extremely confident in their future success. These “core players” specifically, need to have higher expectations for themselves. Unfortunately for the Leafs, these players have yet to realize that their future is now. This team has lost three years in a row in the first round-- two of them against one of their biggest rivals: the Boston Bruins. 

In hockey, merely meeting their expectations is not enough, especially in a city like Toronto. 

Their star goaltender and maybe most important player, Freddie Anderson will be a free agent next summer. Without him, this team wouldn’t be in the playoffs these past few years. He is undervalued and does not receive enough credit for his value on such a star-powered team. This team needs him. Consequently, with their current money situation, we can’t see how the Leafs will be able to afford him in free agency. If so, how much longer is the Leafs “window” to succeed? Their window and time frame are not as large as their players perceive it to be. 

Additionally, the city of Toronto is starving for success. The team notoriously has the longest Stanley Cup drought in the whole league of over FIFTY years. They deserve success, as they never fail to garner attendance and attention towards their team. To put it into perspective, just look at what happened to the city of Toronto when the Raptors won the championship last season!

The league also needs them to succeed. More specifically, the media in Canada (AKA Sportsnet) are very vocal as to their bias towards the Leafs. Hockey Night in Canada has always been part of Canadian culture as hockey is LITERALLY everything in that country. However, after the Raptors championship last year, the city of Toronto has started to shift, as basketball has taken somewhat of increased popularity among the youth after winning the championship. As a result, for the sake of the sport and the league, the Leafs need to win soon. 

Their journey to success will start very soon when they will be facing the Columbus Blue Jackets this weekend. In Toronto, losing to a worse team like the Blue Jackets in the play-in round would be a catastrophe. Unfortunately for the Leafs, this could easily become a reality in the next ten days. This is because the Blue Jackets pose the largest challenge to the Leafs. In fact, we believe that this was the worst matchup that the Leafs could have endured in the play-in round this summer. The Jackets play a disciplined and defensive game: a perfect matchup for a team that is known for their offensive capabilities. In the end, this series will come down to “skill vs will” and will be a very interesting matchup to watch. Despite the inevitable chaos among Leaf fans if the team does lose, they would shockingly have a chance at the number one selection in the 2020 draft this year! For the league’s sake, this cannot happen. It is obvious that everyone in the NHL’s headquarters will be emphatically cheering on the Leafs in their playoff series. The league will clearly lose some of its credibility during the Coronavirus outbreak if the Leafs lose in the play-in round. For a team with such star power, they cannot and should not even have the ability to get the consensus number one overall pick in Alexis Lafreniere. 

Lastly, so far, the Leafs players have individually shown their worth this season. Auston Matthews was in the running for the scoring title this season with 47 goals. Mitch Marner had a solid season with 67 points and Nylander had a breakout year with 31 goals. However, focusing on the regular season for this team is not enough. At this point, for the next couple of years, the Leafs regular season will be of much less significance. They will be judged exclusively by their playoff performances. Both management and the players need to be aware of this reality and be ready for August 2nd. For a team with such potential, the playoffs are the only thing that is relevant throughout the year. More specifically, the Leafs need to find a way to beat Bruins or at least win a playoff round. The Leafs need to evoke a sense of excitement and buzz in Toronto once again. The city deserves more and the players need to show them that Dubas’ actions were justified when overpaying his players. So really, how long is left for this current “core” to win a Stanley Cup? Probably not much longer. Therefore, this team needs to win NOW, or else there will be serious consequences.