Toronto Maple Leafs: 2021–2022 Regular Season

October 12, 2021

We all remember the tragedies from last season… from a Leafs-fan POV. You remember, right? Game 5, up 3-games-to-1, going to game 7, losing in game 7 (again), and then watching our forever rivals skate into the Stanley Cup Finals. Seems like yesterday, unfortunately. But to turning a new leaf, a new season, with the same main characters, same core, and same die-hard All Or Nothing Leaf fans (see what I did there?).

So, let’s talk forwards going into this season, starting with the core four. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and William Nylander, the same four from last year, looking to FINALLY get over the hump that has been the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

With Auston Matthews, you’re getting a generational talent, an expert sniper, a pretty decent two-way forward, and a moustache. You’re also getting wrist problems, which will sideline him for the first two, maybe three games of the regular season, after having much needed surgery in August of 2021. The sniper put up absolutely stunning numbers last season, tallying 41-goals, and 66-points, in the COVID-shortened year, and went home with the Maurice “Rocket” Richard trophies for his efforts. However, with all those goals in the regular season, “Matts”, as his teammates call him, put up just 1-goal, and 4-assists in the post-season, underperforming again. The superstar center now has just 3 goals in his previous 12 playoff games, and for someone who has scored at over a 34-goal pace throughout his young career, that is just simply not good enough.

Speaking of underperforming, next we’re going to talk about Auston’s line-mate, Mitch Marner. “Marns” was again above a point-per-game pace in the regular season, for the third consecutive year, this one seeing the young star put up 20-goals, and 67-points in just 55 games. Truly, a sensational player as he was again top-5 in league scoring. After an awkward collision with teammate Wayne Simmonds on Tuesday, October 12th, Marner is a game-time decision for the Leafs home opener on Wednesday. He rarely misses games, and always puts up a very high point total when it’s all said and done, but when the postseason comes along, Marner goes quiet. If a player has 25 points, in 32 playoff games, you’d say “Wow, that is pretty good”, because it is. In Leafland, it isn’t good enough, apparently. Marner has not scored a playoff goal since the 2018–2019 post season, pre-pandemic, and put up 4-assists in his teams loss to the Canadiens last spring. Not bad, but evidently not what you’re hoping for from a $10,893,000 star-studded forward. He is not the main cause of the Leafs inevitable demise in the playoffs, however.

Next, we have John Tavares. The captain, of your Toronto Maple Leafs, and skater in over 870 games in the NHL, “JT” is an incredible first-line center, yet plays on the second line. Guess that’s what happens when your team employs Auston Matthews… right. Tavares is a gamer, and has won everywhere he has gone, except in the NHL. So with his talent, one would assume it would only be a matter of time until he breaks through and wins the Cup. Last year could have been different for he, and his Maple Leafs, had he not been seriously injured early in game one of that series, in a bang-bang, accidental play involving Canadiens forward Corey Perry, leaving Tavares concussed, bloody, and having to be stretchered off the ice. Fully recovered, he looks to continue his mighty career, and build on the 19-goals, and 50-points he had last season, playing with one of the most underrated players in the league, in my opinion.

William Nylander. Many things can be said about Nylander, his off-ice shenanigans, his style, his interviews. But when the puck drops, “Willy Styles” is a great player. Never a point-per-game player, Nylander scored 17-goals, and 42-points in the COVID-season last year in 51-games, and followed it up in the playoffs by being the most dominant forward on either side throughout the series. He was the highest scoring forward overall in the first round, scoring 5-goals, and 3-assists in the 7-game series, as well as 23-points in his 32 postseason appearances. Not bad for a guy people were calling a bust, and overrated, right?

With additions such as Nick Ritchie, Ondřej Kaše, Michael Bunting, Mike Amadio, and David Kämpf, this is not the same Leafs team as last year, not completely. We still employ Pierre Engvall, Ilya Mikheyev, Jason Spezza, Wayne Simmonds, and Alex Kerfoot, but this team, full of experience, youth, grit, goal-scoring, leadership, and hope, is looking to break the curse, and at the bare minimum, break the 18-year first round drought the Toronto Maple Leafs have been stuck in.

Defense, and goaltending. Two keys to a Stanley Cup winning franchise. Look at Tampa Bay, McDonagh, Sergachev, Cernak, and oh yeah, Victor Hedman. They have a pretty decent starting goalie too, do the Lightning, Andrei Vasilevskiy, I think is his name. That team just won back-to-back Cups, and wants a third. If Toronto wants any chance at a Stanley Cup Finals appearance, they have to bolster their blue-line, which I believe they did. Not even this year, they did that last year. Late bloomer Justin Holl was getting early consideration for the Norris Trophy last year for crying out loud! TJ Brodie, who the Leafs signed just over a year ago, was terrific for the blue and white last year as well. Not to mention Stanley Cup Winner Jake Muzzin as well, who is now a veteran with this club, has also been a standout performer in his 3 seasons here. And then we have Rasmus Sandin, Travis Dermott, and Timothy Liljegren, who have combined played 258 NHL games, 208 of them being from Dermott, but Sandin has shown why he was a first round pick back in 2018, and Liljegren is getting his shot as a 22-year old this season. Finally, we have Morgan Rielly. Much can be said about Mo, his 572 NHL games, all with Toronto, his Norris-caliber season back in 2018, and the fact that he is the longest serving member on this Leafs team. He is a part of this core, and he has not yet seen a second-round in the postseason, and not to his fault, either, 19-points in 32-games in the playoffs, as a defender, not too shabby whatsoever. Behind him, the Leafs have Jack Campbell, and Petr Mrazek. A “1A, 1B” goalie situation this season, the first since 2016, when Fred Andersen was signed, and was instantly a number one starter. Is it perfect, no. Not at all actually, there are flaws in the forward core, there are flaws defensively. Goaltending, on any team, is a gamble, so there’s that too. But since 1967, this fanbase has been starved for a Stanley Cup. Even a Stanley Cup appearance, which the Leafs have not had since that Cup win in 1967. No round victories since 2004, isn’t something us Leaf fans are too happy about either. But hope and optimism has risen anew, as a brand new 82-game season is finally back. The worldwide pandemic, slowly, very slowly, being handled, and things slowly getting back to normal. Hockey is back, and that means hope is too. Is this the year the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup? I can’t say. I won’t say. But with the way the world has been the past 19-months, you can guarantee that hope is one thing Leafs Nation has always had.

Article written by Tyler Pennington. /