Are the Maple Leafs Tough Enough for the Playoffs?
Leafs #Leafs
It’s a question that brings out a lot of discourse among Leafs fans, but the last couple of games have seen the team play with a new kind of edge.
When the regular season began, Auston Matthews admitted that he’s been trying to hit a little more.
“Towards the end of last season, obviously in the playoffs, you always ramp up the physicality,” Matthews said in October. “I’m trying to make it more consistent throughout the year, to be physical and lead the way in that department.”
And while the reigning NHL MVP has seen a dip in his offensive numbers, the player’s hits have also come down as the player dealt with an undisclosed ailment that kept him out for a couple of games before returning on Saturday against the Boston Bruins.
The game on Saturday resembled a playoff atmosphere. As teams traded chances, so too did they exchange blows.
From Maple Leafs forward Wayne Simmonds getting into a hit and then a fight with former teammate Nick Foligno. To Simmonds and Michael Bunting exchanged words with Boston’s A.J. Greer and Charlie Coyle, the Leafs appear to have more of an edge.
On Tuesday night, the intensity and toughness continued against the Florida Panthers. First, there was a hit from Florida’s Radko Gudas on Pierre Engvall where he checked the Leafs player into the net. Later in the game, Gudas hip-checked Engvall and that was followed up with Toronto’s Zach Aston-Reese attempting to fight Gudas in response.
Gudas refused to engage.
Then there was the altercation between Matthews and Florida’s Nick Cousins. After Matthews gets cross-checked by Cousins, Matthews trips Cousins. That doesn’t end the altercation as Bunting takes exception to Matthews’ getting hit and unleashes a series of punches that led to a big scrum along the end boards.
“He’s the ultimate teammate, honestly. He’s a guy that’s going to stick up for everybody,” Matthews said of Bunting. “It doesn’t matter who he’s going up against, he’s going to battle and compete. We’re extremely close. I know he’s always got my back out there.”
With the Maple Leafs set to host the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday, there’s no doubt that Toronto is in for another chippy affair. Both teams clearly do not like each other.
But are the Maple Leafs tough enough for the playoffs?
If they play as physical as they have the past couple of games, then the answer is yes.
Matthews admitted that the fight between Simmonds and Foligno woke the team up a little bit. In the other instances, Matthews found the back of the net.
Last season, the Maple Leafs didn’t have Bunting for the first game of their playoffs series with the Tampa Bay Lightning and he admitted back in September that had it not been the playoffs he likely would have been out for longer in that series.
A fully healthy Bunting who can be a pest in the playoff series can very well set the tone. Along with some of his new teammates.
The Leafs traded winger Denis Malgin in December for Dryden Hunt, a player who described himself as a “momentum-changer” that can deliver a hit or do something to get the bench going. But he has the skill necessary for the Leafs to put out a skilled fourth line to go along with some sandpaper.
Aston-Reese has been making more of a conscious effort to hit more, he told SI.com last month.
On Dec. 8 against the Los Angeles Kings, Aston-Reese leveled an open-ice hit on Arthur Kaliyev that was appreciated to the level by his teammates that goaltender Matt Murray gave him the player-of-the-game belt over Ilya Samsonov, who recorded a shutout that evening.
The more the Leafs respond to their agitators, the more they seem to be engaged in the game. None of that matters though if the team isn’t playing a tight defensive game or getting solid goaltending.
But while the Maple Leafs don’t have a lot to play for in terms of the standings (outside of home ice) since they seemed destined to play the Lightning again in the opening round for the second straight year, there’s no harm in starting to put the fear of god into their opponents.
The Maple Leafs host a red-hot Jets team that can challenge which Canadian team is better right now. There’s no doubt another playoff vibe is upon us as both teams renew hostilities.