Toronto Maple Leafs

Divisional Divides

Ok, can someone explain to me how the Leafs actually have an 8-6-4 record against the North East division, but a 14-19-5 record against the rest of the league? In a more detailed analysis we would see that the Leafs are 2-2-1 against Ottawa, 2-0-1 against Buffalo, 3-1-3 against Montreal, but only 1-3-0 against Boston. Is it me or does this all seem kinda twilight zone-ish?

We can all remember how the Leafs sucked against Ottawa and Buffalo, but we could count on beating Montreal and Boston fairly regularly. Now that seems reversed.

When they play the South East they still seem to hold things together… almost… with an 8-5-3 record. That’s a combined 16-11-7 record, which is approaching respectability. They struggle against Philly and New Jersey, coming out with a 5-7-2 record against the Atlantic.

Here’s the point where I make scary predictions though people… The rest of their schedule in the month of February is as follows:

1 vs. Detroit, 2 vs. Buffalo, 1 vs. Ottawa, 1 vs. Boston, 1 vs. Columbus, 1 vs. NY Islanders, 1 vs. Florida, 1 vs. Tampa Bay, 1 vs. Atlanta.

They won’t beat Detroit. They’ll struggle to beat Ottawa now that Heatley is back (especially if Alfie returns). Boston might beat them on the back of Tim Thomas again. Aside from that? They should be able to win at least 5 or 6 of the other 7 games. Lets say they do their usual overtime loss b.s. and give them a 6-2-2 record for the remainder of the month. That would oddly put them at 8-3-2 for the month of February. A month nobody would ever expect them to piece together and frankly not what the team needs if it hopes to land a top draft pick. Even a more realistic 7-4-2 would put their record at 27-28-11 which would somehow delude the team into thinking they are “mediocre” again.

I expect that should this come to pass, we can all expect to hear from the Leafs about how they’re trying to “win some games” and “get on a roll”, or perhaps “finish the year strongly”… possibly even suggest they’re “playing for roster spots next year”. What I’m trying to say is, that will for the most part be outright CRAP. They will be continuing to do what they’ve done all season, which amounts to being far from good enough to compete day in and day out in the NHL.

Cliff Fletcher won’t be able to pop a pin in this noxious fart balloon of a season if the players continue to insist they’re playoff worthy… so I’m going to actually hope they blow up a few more times like they did the other night in Florida. Unfortunately, I don’t think it all that likely based on the teams past performance.