Let’s hope the young blood Leafs have got all the turkey out of their system from Christmas and are ready to continue their successful road trip in Florida versus the Panthers. For the first time that I can remember the Leafs are above .500 after Christmas and even have a +2 rating overall in goals differential. The positive results are beginning to show as Babcock’s system is beginning to pay off as his players continue to get used to their roles and their teammates.
As we inch closer to 2017 the Leafs have improved leaps and bounds and are relishing the glory of winning more games than losing. With a road win tonight Toronto would be 6-6-5 on the road which is pretty decent for such a young team. The Maple Leafs will have to start capitalizing in some of these shootouts if they want to improve their chances of a playoff appearance. Not a huge ordeal this season as we as fans expect nothing but improved play, effort and the joyful ride of the rebuild moving forward.
The Leafs faithful are surely pleased with the impact the rookies have made for the blue and white this season. Personally, I have absolutely no worries of the Shanahan/Lamoriello combo moving any key pieces as the Leafs continue patience through the drafting and developing model. There will be trades and there will be players added through free agency, but I have full trust in this management group not to rush and ruin all the work they have done over the past couple of seasons. After all, the Leafs as a whole have gutted not only majority of the players from the past regime, but a revamped and improved the entire management team from top to bottom.
I for one am very interested to see how Maple Leafs Assistant General Manager Mark Hunter’s picks work out for the Maple Leafs. He’s made a number of high quality picks as well as traded a few decent picks for later ones that seem to be panning out in the early goings. Time will tell as to how brilliant or not it was to trade down picks as well as take a few names off the board. The Leafs management team obviously has full faith in Hunter as they have no issues backing up the former 7th overall pick back in the 1981 draft. Picking Marner over Hanifin will certainly be something that will be looked back at in years to come. With the way Mitch has played so far in the NHL, Hunter just may have seen the writing on the wall and a future magic maker in Marner.
The Maple Leafs have a couple games in hand on the Panthers, but currently sit one point up in the standings. Obviously a regulation win for the Leafs tonight would have them leapfrog the Panthers and put them just three points back of Boston with three games in hand! If Toronto can continue to trend upward and rack up a few more points with some wins they just may be in a playoff position come the half way point of the season.
Frederik Andersen breaks the curse for the Leafs as they have got themselves a high end goalie from the Western Conference. He looks poised for a monster season with Toronto after a slow start and still has four more seasons left with the Buds. The addition of Andersen really fixed the most glaring need the Maple Leafs had last season. Bernier and Reimer simply were not going to cut it, and weren’t cutting it.
Andersen will only get better as he continues to improve his game and the Leafs defense improves. A few off-season additions through free agency or promotion and the back end should be more stabilized, which of course leads to the Leafs being a more competitive team.
It’s unconfirmed at this point whether or not Reimer or Luongo will be starting for Florida, but one thing is certain, the Panthers are going to have their work cut out for them as the Leafs are coming in hot and hungry. Perhaps some holiday cat-nip will have the Panthers are riled up, but I feel they are going to be for a world of hurt tonight when the Leafs look to make it three in a row.
I hope all of my readers had an excellent holiday season with friends and family and are enjoying some World Junior hockey!
Go Leafs and Go Canada!
Have a great day and thanks for reading.