While the Maple Leafs sit near the bottom of the standings, there's still hope they can turn it around as they've been surprisingly better despite a losing streak.
Right now the Toronto Maple Leafs are not looking like a competitive team. They're lost four in a row at home, have been given up an atrocious amount of goals, and their injuries - while an issue for sure - can't be looked at anymore as an excuse.
Jim Hiller refuses to play Gavin McKenna, Sergei Bobrovsky can't make a save, and the defensive group is basically as bad as it was last year, and they're seeing some serious regression.
The hidden reason why the Maple Leafs season isn't lost
However, as much as there seems to be no hope this season already, it turns out the team is playing much better as of late, and it has been bad goaltending and injuries currently keeping them away from the win column:
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Per The Athletic's Dom Luszczyszyn, the Maple Leafs' advanced stats show the team is actually playing much better than the results show, with a 53% xG over their last nine games (they're expected to score 53% of the time).
They also have much better underlying defensive numbers (not expanded, unfortunately) and have won the 5v5 battle recently - a stunning bit of info that seems like a joke at first glance.
They've had an even GF vs. GA rate (2.92 each) over the last 10 games, but it's their goaltending overall that's let them down. Once they get healthy too and have a more consistent lineup, things will start clicking again.
Toronto's season just needs a bit of good luck sprinkled in
Yes the defensive side has been bad but that's also a product of injuries. Toronto is depending on Dakota Mermis and Cole McWard to steady the ship while Morgan Rielly and Nick Blankenburg remain injured.
While the latter aren't elite, Rielly has been much stronger defensively this year and has 12 assists so far so the offensive side is still producing, meanwhile Blankenburg is a strong puck-mover who has one of Toronto's few defensive goals this year.
If they can get them back in the lineup, switch out Sergei Bobrovsky for Anthony Stolarz - because he deserves a shot at this point to start - and start getting more consistency and reps together then it might turn things around.
It's not as simple as just getting healthy and playing well, and the Maple Leafs have a ways to go to be competitive again. But the numbers are saying they're playing better so let's hope the results start reflecting that.
Do you think the Toronto Maple Leafs can turn their 2026-27 season around?
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