Toronto Maple Leafs are surprisingly underperforming

[ViD]

The team projected by many to be the clear favorite in Atlantic seems to be suffering a major performance crisis.

Their offense is underwhelming, Matthews has one goal this season, Marner is not playing his best, many defensive mistakes, Murray is injured, Kallgren is pretty mediocre.

Samsonov and Nylander look good though.

Will the Leafs rebound in style and go on a winning streak?

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[snipes]

They’re quietly underperforming right now as one could say.

Lots of hockey ahead though.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

I'm not surprised.

Although its f***ing my fantasy team.

 

[Ace]

The only surprise is that it’s not the goaltending doing them in. But once they get their game back…it will be.

 

[A1LeafNation]

This happened last year and finished with 115 points.

 

[jcs0218]

The Maple Leafs will recover, easily make the playoffs, and be a threat to win the Atlantic.

However....We are seeing what they are like when their top 5 players aren't winning games single-handedly for them.

I didn't like their depth last year and I don't like their depth this year.

Nobody other than the big 4 + Rielly did anything in the playoffs last year in games 4 through 7.

Often, you would always see many Maple Leafs fans talk glowingly about their depth, but I just didn't see it. They have many, many bargain-bin type players whose main job is to simply not screw up.

Matthews scoring at a 67 goal pace last year covered-up many of the depth issues that were on the team.

Maybe their depth proves me wrong as the season goes on?

 

[BallardEra]

This happened last year and finished with 115 points.

Team seems off this season. Makes you wonder if they are tuning out Keefe.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

They’ll still finish top 10. A lot of us predicted they’d take a step back with the loss of depth, defense getting older and questionable goaltending.
Still a solid team that should improve once Matthews and Marner heat up.

 

[Maplebeasts]

Team seems off this season. Makes you wonder if they are tuning out Keefe.

Maybe. Keefe is a shit tier coach though who did stupid things like play Lyubushkin on the top pair and force the re-animated corpse of Joe Thornton on a line with Matthews and MArner 2 seasons ago despite very clearly being finished.

 

[MessierII]

Is it a surprise when their team isn’t as good as it was last year? That being said they will start scoring at some point. What’s happening now is unsustainable.

 

[jcs0218]

Maybe. Keefe is a shit tier coach though who did stupid things like play Lyubushkin on the top pair and force the re-animated corpse of Joe Thornton on a line with Matthews and MArner 2 seasons ago despite very clearly being finished.

Blame Dubas. He is buddies with Keefe.

 

[heysmilinstrange]

They're pacing themselves for a long playoff run.

 

[VivaLasVegas]

The team projected by many

But how many of those were not Leafs' fans?

 

[YearsintheWilderness]

Zero surprise.

Overpaid prima-donnas and punks.

The sentiment management sold to gullible Leafs fans before the season was this: "Matt Murray has a lot to prove."

The gutless, herd-mentality Toronto hockey hacks ran with it. On the heels of "we got more respect in the handshake line," it generally seemed to make sense to the hacks and fans.

 

[jcs0218]

This happened last year and finished with 115 points.

You forgot to mention the amount of respect they got in the handshake line at the end of the season.

More respect than in any other year.

 

[Dr Robot]

I usually wait til atleast 10 games into the season before I start trying to assess teams. Luck one way or the other plays too much into how these early games go.

 

[North Cole]

They are like any other team, live and die by the star players. Only a matter of time until the star players start heating up and then the wins will follow. Its a long season.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

They lack depth, like they always have.

 

[12ozPapa]

They will never win a Cup with that core.

 

[JJ68]

soft ass shit is what they are

 

[Bounces R Way]

It would be easy to write it off as early season struggles but I just don't think they're that good this year. Might be in tough to grab a divisional spot.

 

[Soundwave]

They'll be fine. They likely partied too hard in Vegas and/or had some "entertainment" brought up to their rooms. I do think losing a pretty good player every year season after season because they (to their credit) they have had too many good players does catch up to a team a bit though.

They've lost over the years Kadri, Hyman, Mikyhev, Brown, Kapanen, etc. I think that does take a bit of a toll, but their shooting percentage is wonky right now, they'll likely snap out of it eventually.

 

[La Bamba]

 

[serp]

I don't think its that much of a suprise. They've been going through stretches where they look like they barely care every year. Usually they'll get it together later and then fall apart in the playoffs. Pretty sure Leafs had a bad start last year too

 

[holy]

Idk if I’m tripping but the loss of Spezza as a player makes me fear them way less. Might be because he was always hot against the Habs though.

He was also a good vibe compared to the brats left on the team.