This season has not gone the way the Toronto Maple Leafs had planned. Outside of blowing up the team or firing Mike Babcock, what can they do to turn it around?
The Toronto Maple Leafs are not the powerhouse hockey team we believed them to be before the start of the 2019-20 NHL season. That’s not to say the Maple Leafs can’t bounce back after a dismal first month and a half, but the road is long and the season is getting shorter by the day.
After about seven weeks of play this season, the Maple Leafs are fifth in the Atlantic Division with a 9-10-4 record on the season and are two points out of a wild card position. A host of injuries — including to stars John Tavares and Mitch Marner — have kept the team from playing at full strength for much of the season, but the team’s issues go much deeper than their injured stars.
There have been calls to fire head coach Mike Babcock, who is in the midst of an eight-year contract with Toronto signed back in 2015. General manager Kyle Dubas has gotten blame for his inability to correctly fill the known holes in the Maple Leafs’ roster that are on display each night. The players as well haven’t been exempt from criticism, as many of their stars have gone cold at the worst time.
It’s an all-around mess in Toronto, but it seems like no major moves are coming for the Maple Leafs any time soon. With that in mind, here are smaller fixes that Toronto can implement if they want to start to turn things around.
5. Keep Jason Spezza in the lineup full-time
Out of the 23 games the Maple Leafs have played this season, 36-year-old veteran Jason Spezza has played in just 13 of them. It’s rare to see a hockey player past his age-35 season make an impact in the way Spezza has for Toronto, but in his limited playing time this season he’s been a steady source of offense.
In 13 games this season, Spezza has three goals and four assists and is averaging just over 11 minutes of ice time each game. Those numbers aren’t going to move the needle as one of the Maple Leafs’ stars in Auston Matthews or William Nylander will, but Spezza is a better bottom-six option than Nick Shore, who has two points in 20 games this year.
In Toronto’s last game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday, Spezza had two points — a goal and an assist — in the Maple Leafs’ 4-2 loss, the team’s sixth in a row. Not the most electric performance in hockey history, sure, but it definitely says something when your team’s best performer in a game was a bottom-six forward.
At this point, Spezza should have a full-time spot in the Maple Leafs’ lineup in the team’s bottom-six. It’s clear that Spezza has something going this season, and Toronto is in desperate need of offense one way or another and subbing out Shore for the veteran is an easy move to make.