What seems like weeks of no hockey for the Maple Leafs and their fans is finally coming to an end. Tonight the Leafs will battle against the Nashville Predators and both teams will likely have a rusty start to the game after a much needed break.

I say much needed because the Leafs were really struggling as we approached All-star weekend. They have only won one of their last five games and have been looking like crap out there. It wasn’t long ago the Leafs had a nice 9-0-1 record in their last ten games played, and now it’s 4-3-3.

The race is very tight and were running out of games to catch up. The Leafs record is decent, but it’s far from spectacular and spectacular is what I expected heading into the season; 25-17-7 is nothing to rave about. The Buds are four points out of a playoff spot (Wildcard and top three in Atlantic). The Florida Panthers have now creeped their way into third spot in the Atlantic Division. If we fail to make the playoff this year it will be an epic failure and huge disappointment to any Maple Leafs fans.

The return of Jake Muzzin to the Leafs lineup will surely help as they were missing both he and Rielly for a few games now. It’s not easy to win games when you are missing two of your top three defensemen, the Leafs will have to really dig deep and focus on one game at a time. This is the time of year when every point counts, and this year it’s not the difference of home ice advantage; it’s the difference of golfing early or playing for the Stanley Cup.

I’ll be shocked if the Leafs don’t get their act together and make push into a playoff spot. Perhaps this is the best case scenario as it will teach the boys how to play with desperation and put it all on the line. Let’s go boys, RISK IT ALL!! We need full commitment from every player, every shift as we wind down the regular season.

I can’t tell you how pissed I will be if we blow this season. I’m going to leave it at that and I wont even bother touching on the subject because it’s not going to happen the the Leafers are going to come back from the break on a mission. Pure domination and nothing in between.

There are many paths to the Stanley Cup.

The Blues had a nice story last year after firing their coach and being outside of a playoff spot only go to on a victory spree and eventually hoisting the ultimate prize; the Stanley Cup.

Well let me tell you that the Leafs will have one hell of a story behind them if they can bounce back and go on a 2020 Cup run!

Nashville will likely be starting Pekka Rinne and the Leafs most certainly will be playing Frederik Andersen. The Danish dandy will have a heavy work load as we inch closer to the 82 game finally where the Leafs will find out where they lie and who their opponent will be for round one of the playoffs.

Toronto has three games this week and none are exactly easy as both the Predators and Stars have similar records to the Maple Leafs. The Senators would love to take two points away from the Leafs as they have had a history of stealing games from each other over years in the battle of Ontario.

It’s crunch time.

The Leafs need to come out primed and ready for victory. I don’t care if they sleep with the sniffing salts we need to have some pep in the step this week and get back into a playoff position stat!

Thanks for reading, enjoy tonight’s game; it starts at 8pm EST.

What a beautiful specimen Matthews is; how bout that get up for All-star weekend? Classic!

Go Leafs Go!

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