The Toronto Maple Leafs are off to a decent start to this season. After five games, they own a 3-2-0 record. Although, that does not reflect the way they’re playing. In their season opener, they faced the Montreal Canadiens on the road. Toronto threw everything and the kitchen sink at goaltender Sam Montembeault as the Canadian puck-stopper made 48 stops. It was the first time they were shut out in nearly three years. In their last game, against the New York Rangers, they were “goalied” again. Although they were able to get one goal past the Rangers, goaltender Igor Shesterkin stole the show. Auston Matthews scored his second of the season in Toronto’s second loss of the year. Despite having a point percentage of .600 thus far, Toronto deserves more credit than what the record shows. However, the upcoming games in their schedule will keep them on their toes.
This week, the Maple Leafs will be playing a hefty four games in six nights. Furthermore, Toronto will have to play four games in a week nine times this season. Last year, they had just seven weeks where they were scheduled to play four games in one week. Part of the reason why all these games are squished into one week is because the NHL will be taking a break in the middle of the season. The new 4 Nations Face-off tournament will be taking place over two weeks in February.
Quantity and Quality of Opponents on the Schedule
The Maple Leafs have a high quantity of opponents on the schedule this week. However, they’ll also have to deal with the quality of opponents too. On Monday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning are in town. This is a vital game for both teams as they are even on points in the standings. However, the Bolts have a game in hand to the Maple Leafs, making this tilt all the more important to Toronto. Nikita Kucherov currently leads the league in goals and has been a force for the Lightning early in the season. He won his second Art Ross Trophy last season as the league’s best point-getter, and it looks like he’s on pace to challenge for that award again. Tampa Bay has four players who are on at least a point-per-game average. However, Toronto’s suppressive defence will look to silence the deadly stars of the Lightning.
Immediately after Monday’s game, Toronto hit the road to visit the Columbus Blue Jackets in a back-to-back. In addition to not being able to rest after a battle with the Bolts, the Leafs have another mighty divisional opponent to handle at the end of the week. On Saturday, Toronto will be in Beantown to face their playoff nemesis. This will be the first matchup of the season between Toronto and the Boston Bruins. The two Original Six clubs will meet a total of three times this season. This is another extremely important game for the Maple Leafs to win if they want a chance at winning the Atlantic Division this year.
As of Monday morning, only three points separate the top five teams in the Atlantic, making each of these divisional matchups significant.
Good Test for the Goaltenders
For many years now, the Maple Leafs have had very inconsistent goaltending. In past seasons, that has been a problem holding back the team. For example, in both the regular season and playoffs, Ilya Samsonov has posted a save percentage below .900. This is well below the league average from last season, and maybe the Leafs would be in a different situation if they had just average goaltending. However, this season it seems like much less of a concern.
Now with Anthony Stolarz holding the fort, Toronto has been competitive in every game thus far. Lately, Joseph Woll has been unavailable for the Leafs. However, he’s been progressing in practices and there is a chance that he can feature in Tuesday’s game against the Blue Jackets. Either way, this week will really test Toronto’s goalies. It’ll test Stolarz in the consistency compartment as the workload gets heavier. As for Woll, it’ll be a test in itself for his first game back and his first appearance of this season, whenever he returns that is.
Main Photo Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
