Dangerous Maple Leafs could miss the playoffs
With Andersen lost to injury, GM Dubas needs to act before season slips away
Off the record, the coach was confused.
This is a coach who has seen the Toronto Maple Leafs a lot this season. Seen them score a ton of goals. Seen how Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner have worked their magic on a line together, how William Nylander has rebounded after a miserable season, and how Sheldon Keefe has freed the team offensively.
He’s seen them dominate. But at the same time, he’s also seen them grossly underachieve.
This could be a Stanley Cup winner, said the coach. Well, if they can just reach the playoffs first.
“I actually don’t mind their team,” the Eastern Conference coach, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said of the Leafs during the All-star break. “I can’t say that it’s a bad team. It’s a weird team.”
He then added: “I still wouldn’t want to face them in the first round.”
No one would. As it stands, no one will.
Following Monday’s 5-3 loss to the divisional rival Florida Panthers — a game that saw goalie Frederik Andersen leave in the first period with an upper-body injury — the Leafs now have the 10th-best record in the crowded Eastern Conference. They’re two points back of Philadelphia for the first wild-card spot, one point back of the New York Islanders for the final wild-card spot, and also tied with the Panthers for third place in the Atlantic Division. But while the Flyers have played the same number of games as the Leafs, the Islanders have three games in hand and the Panthers have two.
Which means that, with two months remaining in the season, the Leafs are playing catch-up. And beginning on Wednesday, with a game against the New
York Rangers, they’ll be doing it without their starting goalie.
At their current pace, the Flyers will finish with 100 points, the Panthers with 101 points and the Islanders with 104 points.
For the Leafs to get close to those numbers, it will require them winning 19 of their final 29 games.
That’s a margin that doesn’t leave much in the room for error.
One key injury — like the one that will keep Andersen out of the lineup for the foreseeable future — or one mini-slump, like the one that the team experienced heading into the All-star break, and the Leafs will miss the playoffs.
Imagine that. What happens if the Leafs, who have the highest payroll in hockey and three players among the top-26 in scoring, fail to make the playoffs?
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The Leafs weren’t supposed to have to scratch and claw just to gain a wild-card spot. When the season began, the goal was winning the division, or at least, securing home ice advantage for the first round.
Reaching the second round was a must. Reaching the conference final was considered progress. Do both and Mike Babcock was expected to keep his job.
Four months later, Babcock is out and Andersen is day-to-day with a neck injury, forcing the Leafs to play a game of playoff musical chairs with the Blue Jackets, Panthers, Islanders, Hurricanes and Flyers. Six teams battling for four spots, with only two points separating them all.
To get into a playoff spot, the Leafs will have to leap past two of them. That’s no easy feat.
The Panthers are 8-2-0 in their last 10 games. The Blue Jackets, who are playing with house money after knocking out the top-seeded Lightning in last year’s playoffs, are an inspired 8-1-1, while the red-hot Flyers are 7-2-1. Even the Hurricanes, those bunch of jerks who seemingly have nothing to lose, are 6-3-1.
Toronto is 4-4-2. And now, they’re missing their most important player.
For a team with this much talent and potential, missing the playoffs would easily be the most disappointing end to a season since a star-studded Toronto team that had Mats Sundin,
Eric Lindros and Ed Belfour and many others on its roster came out of the 2004-05 lockout and missed out by just three points.
That was a team that went
9-1-2 in its final 13 games before running out of runway. This year, despite a 112-point pace since Keefe took over in mid-november, it’s starting to feel like another case of too little too late.
GM Kyle Dubas waited too long to fire Babcock. And he waited far too long to find a capable backup goalie for Andersen. Now, with the Feb. 24 trade deadline looming, he can’t wait any longer.
The Leafs need a backup goalie who is better than Michael Hutchinson or Kasimir Kaskisuo.
They need to ensure — even if it means giving up more than they wanted of the future — that they don’t miss out on a playoff spot.
This might be a weird team, but it’s also a dangerous team. One that no one wants to face in the playoffs.
It’s just a matter of getting in.
I actually don’t mind their team. I can’t say that it’s a bad team. It’s a weird team. I still wouldn’t want to face them in the first round.