The 2018/2019 Toronto Maple Leafs - by Moses

  The past 10 games have been a roller coaster ride for our Maple Leafs.  We beat top teams Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Montreal, yet lost to lesser opponents in Florida, Arizona, Detroit, and the New York Rangers.  What is going on here?  Are we to believe we'll compete for the prized Stanley Cup when our fan base sees our lackluster performance against lesser teams?

  It's the consistency that is needed to maintain Championship teams.  Take the Montreal Canadians of the seventies, the New York Islanders of the eighties, and the Edmonton Oilers of the eighties.  They all became dynasties by employing the working philosophy of winning the games you should be winning and competing strongly against other tough teams.  The only problem the Leafs have had this year are games against lesser opponents in the standings, as we're at .500 in those games.  The Leafs need to win 80% of those games, bottom line.  Could the Leafs win the Cup this year?  With a few minor changes in our approach I would say that we do.  What would help our team comes in the name of defence.  Frederik Andersen is a solid number one Goalie.  Our defence needs to shore up and with the addition of Jake Muzzin we now have six solid defencemen.  The key in this writer's' mind is Jake Gardiner.  Everyone knows Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin, and Ron Hainsey are key and clutch to our defence core.  Gardiner is a bit of an enigma, as he has enormous potential still in his corner.  The problem with Gardiner is that for some games it takes him a period to get his head in the game.  A regulation Hockey game is 60 minutes, the problem is that if you're down after one period 2-1 with consistency the game becomes an uphill battle.  Simplify the game.  Shift by shift, period by period, game by game.  Doing so breeds success.