To quote the late great NFL head coach Dennis Green about the Toronto Maple Leafs, “They are who we thought they were.”
That sums up the Maple Leafs after another blown lead Tuesday night against the Edmonton Oilers. The Maple Leafs have now lost four games in a row, blowing multi-goal leads in three of the four games.
It is the third straight game now where the Maple Leafs have lost a game with three minutes or less left in regulation. With how the Atlantic Division standings are right now, the Maple Leafs are fighting for a playoff spot. It’s something nobody expected entering the season.
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However, the Maple Leafs continue to have the same structural issues that have plagued them over this past with the “Core 4 or Core 5” of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, Morgan Rielly, and William Nylander.
Defensively, this team is not as good as they were a year ago under head coach Sheldon Keefe. While that is not saying much, the leads the Maple Leafs are surrounding do not happen to Stanley Cup-contending teams.
Just look at the goals they have given up in the last three games, especially the last two. The puck gets deep into their zone, and the Maple Leafs cannot get it out. Teams can cycle and cause structural confusion, leading to game-winning goals. You saw it against Detroit Sunday night and again Tuesday night against Edmonton.
The Maple Leafs are missing that true number-one defenseman. It is an issue that goes back long before John Tavares signed with the Maple Leafs six years ago. Most agree they did not need to sign him, but Tavares has lived up to the contract, propelling the Maple Leafs to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2004.
However, there are flaws on the back end. Even with Toronto down to their third-string goalie Martin Jones and Ilya Samsonov back in the mix, they gave the team in front of them chances to win. But Toronto again folds under the pressure.
Mitch Marner stated they feel confident in the group in the room. He knows they have a good hockey team and must block out the noise being created. However, you can see there is frustration with the Maple Leafs.
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However, as TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button pointed out with Jay Onrait on SportsCenter, it is just the same old Maple Leafs.
“The Toronto Maple Leafs are what they are. You what they are? Not a Stanley Cup contender. They can’t beat the good teams. They don’t know what it takes to win. They don’t know what it takes to grind down and dig into a game and not let an opponent back into it. And they think they’re Stanley Cup contenders. I’m not buying. I’m not buying with this group of players and it has nothing to do with the core five. It has to do with the construction of the team around them. And you can continue to believe in the core five, they are not getting enough help around them. And I have to say those too, the same things keep rearing their ugly head anger head coach Sheldon Keefe.”
These are the same problems that were documented earlier in the season about the Edmonton Oilers on NHLRumors.com. Now, the Maple Leafs are having those same problems. It costs one team their head coach; it might cost another.
The bottom line is that the Maple Leafs are who we thought they were, and to turn things around, they need to play before defensive hockey or the chatter around the head coach will continue.