Another Lost Season For The Maple Leafs

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The 13 Stanley Cup Championships that have been won by the Toronto Maple Leafs are second most in National Hockey League history behind the Montreal Canadiens. But 1967 was when the Maple Leafs won their last title and unfortunately for the franchise it is now nothing but a distant memory. Over the last decade the Maple Leafs only have one playoff appearance to their credit and they have become something from the ranks of Wile E. Coyote as they have become a calamity of errors. In that one trip to the postseason, the Maple Leafs overcame a 3-1 series deficit against the Boston Bruins to force a Game 7 in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But in Game 7, the Maple Leafs had a 4-1 lead in the third period only to blow the game and the series as they’ve failed to recover since.

The Maple Leafs record of 27-40-6 has them in seventh place in the Atlantic Division and they’ve already been eliminated from playoff contention in the Eastern Conference. Midway through the season Randy Carlyle was fired as Maple Leafs head coach and he was replaced by Peter Horachek who has fared no better as Toronto is 6-24-3 under him. I don’t see the Maple Leafs retaining Horachek when this NHL season thankfully comes to an end for them as he has the interim tag attached to him.

Brendan Shanahan

It has been nearly a year since Brendan Shanahan took over as the president of the Maple Leafs and not much has changed for this team as far as improvement. Last May, Shanahan supported Maple Leafs general manager David Nonis when he gave Carlyle a two-year contract extension only to turn around and fire him this past January. And just prior to the NHL’s trade deadline this season, the Maple Leafs made a slew of moves to waive the white flag as they sent veterans such as forward Daniel Winnik and right winger David Clarkson out of town. Defenseman Dion Phaneuf is the Maple Leafs captain and after being tired of having him taking a verbal beating at the hands of the media in Toronto, right winger Phil Kessel came to the aide of his teammate to defend him as things there have become highly combustible there.

With this season currently a wash, all the Maple Leafs can do is rebuild and for the first time in a long time attempt to put a winning “system” into place. Recently the Maple Leafs have not drafted well and they will need to develop a core group of players that will once again make them a force in the NHL. The City of Toronto is the home to the Hockey Hall of Fame and the fans there are loyal and they want to erupt in order to support a winning team. It has to hurt the Maple Leafs fan base to know that they’ll be the only “Original Six” team that will not make the postseason this spring. And just like winning is contagious, the same can be said about losing. For the Maple Leafs they must find a way to dig themselves out of the rut that they are currently in as they’re searching for respectability.

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By | 2015-03-23T12:36:18+00:00 March 23rd, 2015|Categories: National Hockey League|Tags: , , |0 Comments

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