Bruce Boudreau, who calls himself a “big Leafs fan,” isn’t worried about his favourite team.
As far as the former Maple Leafs forward and long-time NHL coach is concerned, the team doesn’t need to fire the coach, it doesn’t need to worry about goaltending, and it will get through its current struggles as it continues a western road swing that started with a loss in Edmonton. That extended the Leafs’ losing streak to four games.
“I just believe all they need to do is win a couple of games and they’ll be fine,” said Boudreau, now an analyst on the NHL Network. “It’s really tough with the Toronto media, because any mistake is amplified.
“They’ve made the playoffs really easily the last few years, and they’ve only won one round. This year, they’re playing through adversity. When they make it this year, they’ll be playoff-tough, ready as they’re going in. Sometimes that makes teams an awful lot tougher to oust in the playoffs.”
For inspiration, the Leafs need to look no further than the Florida Panthers, the team that beat them in the second round last year and went all the way to the Stanley Cup final. There wasn’t a great deal of confidence in their No. 1 goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky, And it was third-stringer Alex Lyon who helped the team make a final playoff push to earn the second wild-card berth in the East.
The Panthers were 21st in the NHL at this time last year, winning a few, losing a few and looking like a team that was out of sorts after significant roster changes — Matthew Tkachuk had come in, MacKenzie Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau had gone out.
There are other examples of teams looking lost and turning it around later. The St. Louis Blues were out of a playoff spot at this time in 2019 and turned to a fifth-string goaltender in Jordan Binnington to with the Cup that year.
Part of the Blues’ turnaround was attributed to a change in coaching; the team took off after Craig Berube took over. Now the heat is on Sheldon Keefe in Toronto, something Boudreau thinks is unfair but not unexpected.