For years now, veteran left winger Brad Marchand has been the master in Toronto.
He consistently haunts the Toronto Maple Leafs and thrives time and again against them when games matter most. So we’re talking about someone who’s been around and seen a lot.
As he and his Florida Panthers teammates prepared to take on the Leafs Tuesday night, Marchand weighed in on the current state the Maple Leafs are in. Toronto sits last in the Eastern Conference with an 11-11-3 record. After Monday’s NHL action, they’re six points behind the Philadelphia Flyers, which sit in the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot.
Marchand essentially said people who are pressing the panic button on the Leafs’ season aren’t accurately understanding how much talent there is in Toronto.
“Obviously with the media attention and the fan support they have in Toronto, things get blown way out of proportion up there,” Marchand told reporters Monday. “Yeah, they definitely don’t think that in the room. What are they, four points out of a playoff spot? If people are thinking they’re out of a playoff spot for the season…they got to find a new job.”
We don’t agree with everything Marchand says and does, but in this regard, he’s right.
As we’ve said often over the years, things are never as bad or as good as they can seem in the Toronto bubble. You can say the same for most, if not all, teams in any given city, especially in Canada. So this is not the time to press the panic button just yet.
Where Do The Leafs Stand? Playoff Team Or Lottery Team?
The Toronto Maple Leafs are outside of a playoff spot and aren’t playing great hockey, but despite that, there’s a clear path for them to turn around their season.
Instead, we’re looking at the Maple Leafs’ current state and seeing about another month’s time to stick the landing, go on a long winning streak and get back in the Stanley Cup playoff race. While that will be a tall order for this underperforming group at this stage, stranger things have happened than a late-season surge. Just ask the St. Louis Blues about how their season turned around later last season – or in 2019 when they won the Stanley Cup. Surges can happen.
And surges can happen for the Leafs if they get injured veterans Chris Tanev and Anthony Stolarz back and contributing meaningful minutes sooner rather than later. Tanev is hugely important to the Leafs’ playoff aspirations, as he’s got the best panic threshold on the roster, and he makes life easier for Toronto’s goaltenders.
That brings us to Stolarz. There’s no two ways about it – Stolarz hasn’t been great this season, posting a 6-5-1 record, .884 save percentage and 3.51 goals-against average in 13 appearances. If he can be better, Stolarz will give the Maple Leafs the difference-making goaltending he and Joseph Woll provided for the Buds last season.
In five of the last six seasons, Stolarz’s save percentage has been .917 or higher. So there’s a legitimate reason to believe he can make some adjustments and get back to where he was last year.
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Now, the Leafs’ playoff hopes could be in serious trouble if they’re in the same place by the time the calendar new year arrives. And the rest of their 14 games in December will go a long way toward where the Buds wind up in the Atlantic standings by the end of the season.
Toronto has games against the Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning, Dallas Stars, Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils before New Year’s Day, and not many of those games will see the Leafs as the favorites. That’s not an excellent sign for Toronto’s playoff chances, but a perfect opportunity to play up a level and build momentum.
By the time Marchand’s Panthers play the Maple Leafs again after Tuesday’s game against Toronto, the date will be Jan. 6. By that point, Toronto’s playoff chances will be far clearer. If they don’t start playing well above their current .500 hockey, the Leafs’ crater will be too large to climb out from, and there will be changes to this Buds team in the long term. But if Toronto turns it around, Marchand’s words of wisdom will be proven right.
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