Monday Mailbag: Grey Cup Hangover Edition

Please excuse the fact we said in one of the tweets asking for questions that we said “roundtable” when we meant “mailbag”. Please, also remember that the Toronto Argonauts are Grey Cup Champions, unlike every other city in Canada.

Ah, the all-star team! Assuming we’re talking about the mid-season event and not the end-of-season team, we’ve still got about two months until the All-Star game on January 28th. With the 3-on-3 format, 11 players: 6 forwards, 3 defencemen and 2 goalies made up each roster last year. The Atlantic Division team saw every team have at least one player, while Montreal and Boston had a goalie and a player. Tampa Bay was the lone Atlantic team to have two “out players”, being represented by both Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman. If the Leafs get one representative… I’d still bet it’s probably Auston Matthews, as he’s having a whale of a season. Unless they get injured, Victor Hedman and Erik Karlsson are likely locks for the other two defensive spots, leaving Morgan Rielly fighting with… every other defenceman in the division. A sure bet, no. Does he have a chance? Definitely, as he’s had a monster season so far.

We wouldn’t worry too much about him, especially when you considered he put up eight shots on net in the game against Florida last week and five against Washington. Sure, he hasn’t been able to light the lamp, but we all remember that 13-game stretch he didn’t score last year. With a player as tough as him, it’s likely just a matter of time before he starts dominating games again.

Luckily for you, Nick, we wrote a whole article about that today! @ThatsKappy gives a good breakdown of the Leafs goaltending battle here:

The Leafs slow starts are a concerning trend, and there’s no real explanation for it.

Bad matchups? Lack of motivation? Complacency? #Distractions?

Over the last month or so, they’ve really gotten off to some bad starts… but mostly played competent hockey over the game’s final 50 minutes. They’ve won enough games to remain competitive in the standings, and the team’s issues have more or less wrinkled themselves out so far. I don’t know if “let it be” is the best strategy, but maybe it is. The Leafs are far from broken, and like you said, they’re good on paper. As long as they don’t start dropping serious places in the standings in a not-great Atlantic Division, everything will *probably* be okay in the end.

I think it’s a bit of both, and it’s also a bigger issue than we’ve probably made it. I don’t see “Marleau at centre” as a long-term solution, but rather a quick fix for Bozak’s struggles so far this year. Check back in a month and we’ll see if this experiment continues.

Because they’re the Toronto Maple Leafs and they’ll tear your heart apart, no matter how good the makeup of the team is.

As always, if you have a mailbag question, email us at TLNMailbag@gmail.com or look for our weekly tweets/ Facebook posts about it.