Toronto Maple Leafs: To Be the Best you have to Beat the Best

The 2018-2019 Toronto Maple Leafs carry with them a great deal of hope and enthusiasm and the “80’s-esque”  style which is not helping temper expectations.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have jump-started their journey to the Stanley Cup playoffs with a torrid 6-1 start, burying a record amount of goals but leaving a number of questions behind as well.

Auston Matthews…well, we know what he’s doing as every journalist out there is throwing their angle on his start, so let’s leave that to them.

Where’s Willy? Yeah….that’s for another article as well. Albeit reports have GM Kyle Dubas in Switzerland talking to William Nylander‘s agent (and Dad!) to try and hash things out.

I want to use my time here to talk about the six wins they have amassed thus far.

The prognosticators began their assessment of the Leafs season start with the fact that they had a favourable first few games on the schedule. They faced teams such as the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators that they were supposed to deal with relatively easily, get their points and move on, but that wasn’t the case.

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As a matter of fact, after the Ottawa loss, these same prognosticators were wondering when Dubas would go to Willy with a blank cheque and hat in hand begging for his return. However, anyone that knew anything about this team could see the writing on the wall.

They played badly in their opener against the Habs and yet still came out with the win. They played worse against the Senators and lost that game. They played even worse against the Chicago Blackhawks, and left Garret Sparks – their newly appointed back up goalie – out to dry, only to run out of town with two points.

And this is where it began.

Beaumer, a buddy and die hard Pittsburgh Penguins fan, brought this to my attention and I wanted to see how I would run with it.

The Leafs play the Pens on Thursday night at home. This is another monumental test early in the season for this young Leafs team. Their centre depth is being measured against the Pens where the Matthews-John  Tavares combo is being put up against the Sidney Crosby-Evgeni Malkin pair, simply for comparison reasons. Yeah…….right!

The Penguin powerhouse two-some is the measuring bar and it looks, although from a small sample size, that the Leaf entry is comparable. but hockey is a team game. So lets take a look from that angle.

This would be Beaumer’s point, and credit to him for the pride-swallowing perception.

Not to put the “cart before the Penguin” but if the Leafs were to beat the Pens at the Scotiabank Centre (still feels weird off the tongue!) on Thursday night, that means that in the last 10 days, the Leafs would have beaten the last seven Stanley Cup winners.

Now the Los Angeles Kings limped in to town with their back up goalie and a roster that is getting long in the tooth, but still a viable playoff contender in the Western Conference. The Leafs speed left them suspect.

Before that was the victory over the reigning Cup Champs in the Washington Capitals. The Caps scored in the first 18 seconds which put the team and each of us fans on our heels, but the team dug in, relied on their talent level and eventually outplayed the Champs.

Long and short, to be the best you have to be the best. The Leafs are taking it to the teams that have been the best for the last 7 years. Their speed and explosiveness from every facet of their game is mind boggling and seems to be causing the other team’s bench bosses fits trying to match the flow.

The season is young and a lot can happen between now and April but the old school term of “Donnybrook” may have to take on another connotation in the way of the absolute “speedfest” that the 2018-2019 Playoffs might hold.