Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 3.9

www.afootinthecrease.com

Fifteen games into the regular season and still the Maple Leafs are a team struggling to find an identity. They sit with a record of 6-6-3, a 500 team in 5th place in the Eastern Conference Standings. Not really that bad a result for a team that has undergone such trenchant criticism from fans and media alike during the first five weeks of the season. But when looking closely at their season to date, is this team really worthy of the 5th place position that it currently holds?

Frankly no. The Maple Leafs position right now is a function of their high number of games played. No team in the East other than the Leafs has played 15 games. Instead most have played between 12 and 14 games. Had the Maple Leafs played, let’s say the average, 13 games and sat with a 500 record, they would instead be in the fringe group of teams fighting for the final playoff spot, you know where they spent most of last season. When their opponents make up their games in hand, the Leafs are sure to fall unless they can drastically improve their play over the course of the next fifteen games.

Also consider the team’s atrocious defensive reputation and terrible play on home ice, two factors that plagued the Maple Leafs for much of last season and have still yet to be corrected. With fifty six goals against, the Maple Leafs sit second last in the league in that department, ahead of only the woeful, albeit rebounding Atlanta Thrashers. Starting the season off with nine home games in October, the Maple Leafs managed only a 3-4-2 record. Going forward, defensive efficiency and play on home ice will need to be improved upon greatly if they hope to remain in the middle portion of the Eastern Conference.

Six of their next seven games are within their division meaning the next fortnight will become a major telling point of the Leafs season when we look back in April. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.