For any other NHL team’s fan base, losing eight games in row down the stretch run of the regular season while competing for a playoff spot would come as a complete utter shock. However, for fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs, they know that extremely uneasy feeling all too well, given their troubled history since their last Stanley Cup championship run in 1967. Perhaps that’s exactly why fans of the Buds are hurting so much right now. What should be a feeling of disbelief has just become the norm for a franchise that just can’t seem to pull through in the clutch.
Saturday night’s loss at home to a playoff race counterpart in the Detroit Red Wings, was the latest of a series of disappointing performances by a Leafs’ roster that is healthy, yet for some reason ineffective. It was a game that was plagued by a must-win mentality that the Leafs clearly can’t seem to handle. That lack of execution is unfortunate because that is exactly what the Leafs need to do in order to make the playoffs. Along with getting the help they need from other teams, they just need to win. It’s that simple.
According to www.sportsclubstats.com, after their tough loss to the Red Wings, the Leafs now have a 6.5% chance of making the Stanley Cup playoffs. The funny thing about that stat is that fans of the Buds are now asking, “So you’re saying there’s a chance?” Unfortunately for them, that’s hardly the case. Besides pretty much winning their remaining six games of the season, the Leafs would have to be done a number of favors for that to happen. In this day in age in the sporting world, nobody cares about anyone else, and rightfully so.
The teams that the Leafs are currently battling for a playoff birth are the Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets and the Washington Capitals. All three teams have two games in hand on the Leafs, with two of them (Detroit and Columbus) having two more total points on the Buds already. If that doesn’t spell disaster enough for the Leafs, they themselves have to finish their season playing their final three games on the road. Given their current record away from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, 14-17-7, winning all three of those games seems highly doubtful for a team that can’t perform under pressure and when solid play matters most.
In the end, to answer the question of how the Leafs can possibly stop their losing ways and make it to the promised land, one has to believe that even if they win their remaining games, making the playoffs is highly unlikely for Toronto. They would have to win their final six games and hope that Columbus, Detroit, and Washington all mimic the current slide that the Leafs now find themselves taking.
Teams would have to not only beat these three clubs, but also beat them in regulation. With three total points between two teams up for grabs each and every game, the Leafs can’t afford Columbus, Detroit, and Washington to push their opponents into overtime and salvage at least one point out of any of their final games.
The Leafs had their chance. They were done a series of favors over the past couple of weeks and couldn’t do the same for themselves. This isn’t about asking a certain player to step up their game. This is about a team as a collective unit looking each other in the eye and asking themselves how they can turn things around. Unfortunately for them, they would also have to ask other teams around the league for some assistance. We all know what the answer to that question would be. The Leafs are done. There’s always next year…right?