Columnist image

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

| Archive

TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs swapped a little R & R for practice sweaters on Monday afternoon, capping off their bye week break with a prolonged workout that signalled the team that has been playing .500 hockey since Christmas is fully back to business.

“You get some time to reflect on the season so far,” said defenceman Morgan Rielly. “I think [the five-day break] came at a good time; we got an opportunity to re-energize and we’re ready to go.

“It’s important we come out strong and win some hockey games.”

Toronto (25-17-3) didn’t do much winning in the lead-up to their break, leaving players with a nagging desire to prove they’re a superior team than their recent record suggests. The Leafs are 3-3-2 since Christmas, putting them firmly in what coach Mike Babcock calls the “mud puddle” of the NHL standings. Toronto is third in the Atlantic Division, three points behind the Boston Bruins with three more games played, and 10 points ahead of the fourth-place Detroit Red Wings, who have two games in hand.

The Leafs play six games in 10 days before the Jan. 27-28 All-Star Weekend, starting Tuesday with the St. Louis Blues at Air Canada Centre. By the end of January, the goal is to have banked a few more wins, and dropped a few lingering bad habits.

“We’d like to string a few wins together and get on a streak. I think now is the time for us to take it to the next level,” said centre Nazem Kadri. “Structurally, we just have to be a little more consistent game to game and not have those lapses where we’re giving up odd-man rushes and having too much time in our D-zone. I think just being more consistent (is key); our talent is going to win us games.”

As the Leafs navigate a busy second half of their season, management opted to take one of the franchise’s guiding principles and put it right on the dressing room wall. Replacing the previous “Play Fast. Play Right” slogan that had been in place since last February is the phrase, “It’s a privilege. Not a right,” bookended by Maple Leaf logos with the initials 'JB' – for the late Leafs goaltender Johnny Bower.

Rielly described the change in motto as “one of our things we have; it’s a team thing we do” but more specifically, it came about because of Bower himself. While he never spoke the words directly, it was the general sentiment projected about Bower before and after his death last month as a reason why he remained so entrenched with the organization right from his playing days.

“To me, obviously Johnny is a special guy, a special Leaf, special human being,” said Babcock. “For him to view (playing here) that way, and at his celebration of life for people to talk that way (about him), I thought it was really special and what jumped out to me and I was hoping the same thing (it) did for (the players). So I like to think we all take it seriously. I think it looks good (on the wall) and Johnny is here with us.”

Still, the Leafs need more than just the spiritual presence of a franchise great to reach their full potential. Toronto hasn’t won a game in regulation since Dec. 28 against the Arizona Coyotes, and dropped five of seven going into the bye. And all the while, they’ve looked a long way away from the dominant offensive team that emerged on a 6-1-0 run out of the gate in October.

The task of winning gets no easier for the Leafs this week either, with a trio of teams on deck (St. Louis on home ice, Philadelphia and Ottawa on the road) they’ve already lost to at least once. The Blues will be coming off their break as well, putting the clubs on equal footing in that respect, but Toronto has no laurels left to rest on – playoff spot or not.

“Everything is pretty tight from here on out. I think we’re pretty happy with the position we’re in, but a lot can change,” said Auston Matthews. “It’s nice to get a mental break from everything and come back re-energized. The 40-through-60-game mark of the season is kind of a grind, and just to have that break and get away from hockey for a little bit, especially at this point in the season, is nice.”