The 2020-21 NHL season has come to an end and the Toronto Maple Leafs are North Division Champions! This result was somewhat of a foregone conclusion and by the end of the season the Leafs won the division by 5 points over the Edmonton Oilers. The playoffs start next week and the Leafs first round opponent will be the Montreal Canadiens.
Auston Matthews led the league in goals with 41 and no one was really that close to threatening his reign as the best NHL goal scorer this year. McDavid should walk away with the Hart Trophy with his ridiculous 104 points, but Matthews game matured leaps and bounds this year and that should not be taken lightly.
Asides from putting himself at the top of the mountain in terms of the elite scorers in the league, he also took some major strides defensively in his game and used his large body to possess the puck in very effective ways in both the offensive and defensive zones.
His success this season also has a lot to do with his running mate Mitch Marner who also had a very solid season. He led the team in points with 67, 1 more than Matthews and provided Auston with an excellent disher of the puck game in and game out. Marner was pretty much the same player he has been since he entered the league during the 16-17 season with his stats getting better as his game evolved in its natural progression. For me Matthews and Marner are the perfect compliment to each other since Marner is so unselfish and always looks to set his team mates up and he is successful with this since he has the speed and the vision to get into open areas and find his line mates. I actually thought this year he started to shoot more than in the past and that is why he hit the 20 goal mark in the shortened season, which was second on the team.
The likes of Nylander and Tavares also had very solid seasons and as a second line they provided plenty of offence. Tavares also played the role of shut down centre on more than one occasion and performed this job admirably. "Willy Styles" was still prone to free lancing and doing a lot of nothing on some nights, but he is still capable of so much offensively that one tends to look the other way whenever he has that big turnover that leads to a goal or good scoring chance. I thought there were enough instances of Willy competing defensively this year to erase whatever errors he had and that this was not a big a problem as it has been in the past.
My one slight problem is who will play on the wing with Willy and Tavares on the second line. Galchenyuk has been ok with them, but he simply has not produced that much. If Hyman or Foligno are healthy I think either one of them would be ideal and whoever is not playing on the #2 line can play with Matthews and Marner.
Hyman has quietly been amazing for the Buds this year moving up and down the lineup and still putting up really good numbers. 15 goals for anyone this season is a really good year, but for someone that is not counted on to score goals and gets all of his chances from grit and effort it really shows how valuable Hyman is to this team and it is an absolute MUST that management finds a way to re sign him in the off season. He will most likely demand a cap hit in the 5-7 million dollar range and he is worth every damn penny!
Another player that had a solid season was Justin "Hammer-time" Holl. He provided a solid shut down pairing with Muzzin and his development took leaps and bounds this year and he has become a solid top 4 d man. This pairing will be counted on heavily during the playoffs and I have all the faith that they will step up with the rest of the team as well.
The bottom of the line up is filled with veteran leaders and "Soupy" who despite having stone hands is a very solid penalty killer and has a lot of speed that he uses to check players all over the ice and handle the puck in both zones. Not always that well, but at least he can retrieve the puck which is half the battle.
The regular season was fine and dandy, but without an extended playoff run this season will be an epic failure. This team has the confidence to do well during the playoffs with the only question mark being in goal, but with 3 NHL goalies I believe Keefe will find a way to make that work. My expectations for Toronto sports team is usually tempered at the best of times, but there is something different about this Leafs team that tells me that will do well during the playoffs and compete to their capabilities. Everything is etched in stone for this team to do well and it would be a big disappointment to me personally if this team did not at least win two rounds and face a team outside for the North Division. GO LEAFS GO!!!
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