The Toronto Maple Leafs have been doing bad – that’s no secret to anyone on this site.
I was looking up topics to write about today with respect to this team and outside of the rumours and speculation, the discussion is really all of the same. But, what I was interested in when I considered how bad these guys have been, is their actual record.
While I personally realized how bad the Leafs have been and I’m sure most fans had a good idea, it’s interesting to note that most fans aren’t actually aware of just how bad the team’s record has been of late. Whether this lack of factual knowledge is due to the notion of “What I don’t know, won’t hurt me” or not, I figured we should just lay it all out and accept if for what it is.
Since the AllStar break, Toronto has gone 1-6-1.
Over their past ten games played, Toronto has gone 1-8-1.
And to make things interesting, Toronto has gone 2-16-2 over their last twenty games played.
I’ll let you digest that for a few minutes because it might be a little to take in for some fans who thought they were doing poorly, but not 6pts in 20 games, poorly.
I tossed the above stats to a few co-workers this morning and a response I got back was “Team gave up a long time ago they're not this bad they just no they have no hope in hell of playoffs”.
The response got me to thinking – are they, or aren’t they actually this bad? It’s often hard to argue that a team is any better than where they’re placed in the standings, or what their record has offered over a certain stretch throughout the year. On that same note pundits often dismiss streaks (positive or negative) that come early in the year as there is so much time for said team to change and others around them, as well.
What’s interesting with this Leafs team is that they were on a stretch of 10-1-1 (just) before their aforementioned 2-16-2 stretch that we are currently discussing. It’s rather unusual for something like this to happen in the latter half of the year and yet, in good fashion, the Toronto Maple Leafs have surprised the masses once again!
But why is that?
Coaching change? – Sure, even I was saying that this is entirely plausible due to the number of changes this team has gone through. But at the end of the day, it’s been a fair number of games under the new coach and it seems like we have different players all together. In fact, you can stretch that to compare the current group vs the group that played against the Boston Bruins two years ago during the playoffs.
Same core with some different supporting cast (I argue a better supporting cast), and yet they look like one of the slowest, unconfident, uninspired groups out there! It’s mind boggling…it really is.
With all that being said, it should be clear that by now this group and it’s “core” are about to be dismantled and reconstructed in a way that (I hope) can compete with the best of them. Choosing a direction, staying on course, and not forcing improvement is all that this team needs right now. They have tried too many times to appease too many differing opinions due to a unified vision, and it has ultimately created this current mess.
The moves which are bound to happen any hour or day now should give us an idea of where this team is going and whether or not they are finally prepared to take the necessary steps toward being a successful team. I for one, trust Shanahan and I truly feel we are about to see some serious excavation over the next six months.
What about you!?
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