Bring on the post-season
Toronto isn’t the only team killing time until the playoffs. The schedule should be shorter
Last month, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announced it will shorten its season next year, to 64 games from 68.
What a novel, smart idea. Can you imagine how much better NHL fans would be served by such a concept?
For starters, we’d have an earlier start to the playoffs, and an earlier conclusion. As well, it would produce a more sensible final few weeks of the season when, as is again the case this year, very little is left to be decided in terms of the Stanley Cup tournament.
We already know at least 14 of the 16 teams. The remaining playoff races are only for the bottom few spots. In the East, the Washington Capitals or New York Islanders might catch the Detroit Red Wings, and in the West there’s a chance the Minnesota Wild or St. Louis Blues could reel in the defending champion Golden Knights and put a very different spin on all of Vegas’ much celebrated deadline wheeling and dealing.
But these unfinished stories involving teams in middle of the standings are nothing a 70- or 75game season couldn’t satisfactorily resolve. The notion that expanding the playoffs would be a good idea, meanwhile, would only add drama for the bottom half of the league. The top dozen or more teams already know they’re in, and about where they’ll stand when the tournament begins.
The Maple Leafs are pretty typical of most playoff-bound squads. They know where they’re headed. They’ll finish in the top three of the Atlantic Division unless they lose a pile of games. Barring a wild winning streak, they also won’t catch the Florida Panthers or Boston Bruins for first or second.
So, coach Sheldon Keefe’s team is essentially just killing time waiting for the playoffs, hoping something bad doesn’t happen to any players. Mitch Marner might get healthier, but others will just get more beat up over the final 16 games.
Except for that tiny group in the middle of the pack, it’s just about whether teams with playoff spots locked up will still provide interesting hockey to watch. Saturday night’s 5-4 loss to Carolina might have been disappointing for the Leafs and exhilarating for the Hurricanes, particularly with newcomer Jake Guentzel scoring the shootout winner. But it wasn’t a meaningful result in the standings, and therefore was noteworthy only because it was an entertaining, highscoring game worth investing a few hours in as we near the end of a winter that never happened hereabouts.
Next Saturday’s home game against the Edmonton McDavids should be something similar. It was a treat on Saturday night to watch the Oilers and Colorado Avalanche go at it, and having Zach Hyman return next weekend as a possible 50-goal scorer while Alberta boy Bobby McMann continues to grow into a more important player for the Leafs are just some of the side stories that will make for a good contest between two top Canadian clubs.
But it won’t change anything. Edmonton is second in the Pacific and probably won’t catch Vancouver. The Oilers are also just waiting for the playoffs.
Before that game, the Leafs will play in Philadelphia on Tuesday and Washington on Wednesday. Against the Hurricanes on Saturday night, Toronto’s inability to protect a two-goal lead in the final few minutes wasn’t exactly new to those who have watched the team all season. The Leafs are particularly poor at killing penalties, and that again showed itself to be a crucial shortcoming against Carolina.
Keefe has been unable to generate positive changes on that special team all season. Adding Connor Dewar and Joel Edmundson to the penalty-killing unit hasn’t yet made much of a difference. Should that pattern of late-game struggles and penalty-killing issues stretch into the playoffs, the Leafs won’t be a participant for very long.
There’s no certainty that Keefe and his staff can fix this stuff in a month given they haven’t done so in the past six months. There’s also no certainty that Ilya Samsonov will clearly establish himself as a better goalie than Joseph Woll, or that either Nick Robertson or Noah Gregor will deserve a spot in the playoff lineup. Ditto for Simon Benoit, who lost his spot through no fault of his own. Not sure where Mark Giordano stands.
More regular-season games won’t prove anything. If you agree the Leafs are typical of most playoffbound clubs, then what the heck are the next four weeks about? Let’s get on with the games that truly matter!
Of course, we know why this won’t happen. NHL owners want to line their pockets as much as possible during the regular season, and that includes revenue from merchandise sales and food and beverages. Can’t sell overpriced beer until you get the folks in the building, right?
The fact that there’s even a discussion of returning to Atlanta for a third expansion attempt is proof that NHL owners and the Gary Bettman administration couldn’t care less about quality control. They’re just hooked on those expansion monies.
So, the Leafs will play out the string, waiting to see if Boston or Florida will be their first-round opponent. Toronto will be an underdog in either series. Had they hung on against the Canes, it would have been a third straight win over an Eastern team after struggling against clubs from their own conference all season.
But that didn’t happen, so it remains part of the unanswered questions pile.
The Bruins and Panthers also have questions they won’t know the answers to until the post-season begins, as do all playoff teams. This is the nature of the second season. No more excuses. No more promises. You win or you lose.
Wouldn’t you just love to get to the games that provide the meaningful answers sooner?