ok so end of november. past 3 quarter mark. American thanksgiving over. Now's the time we can finally start looking at the numbers and taking them kinda seriously. Even then though it's still very early.
Overall quite good for the leafs, with the one glaring weak spot being 5v5 offense, which of course has been their greatest strength in the Mattews Era. Let's see if they can get that offense back as they get a bit healthier.
While Matthews has been injured and not as productive as usual, he's still looking really good impact wise. The numbers will come.
The bigger problem is obviously the bottom 6. Domi's not hacking at C. Robby/Holmberg have been dire. Coach is addicted to the most unskilled 4th line in the league. All those might change. If they don't, maybe Minten/Grebs can step in and take advantage. If not, maybe we make a trade.
On defense the biggest development is now having an elite matchup shutdown pair in McCabe-Tanev. Mobile, physical, very smart defensively and just skilled enough to keep play going forward. Mo-OEL hasn't been quite as good as hoped in softer usage but still quite good. Benoit got off to a bad start but him and Timmins have formed a prety solid and balanced bottom pair so far.
And then there's the best development of the season - Leafs are getting elite goaltending from 2 goalies and it doesn't feel like a fluke. They're finally finally finally able to do the cheapo goalie rotation that i've been hoping for the last decade. This should keep both goalies well rested, unpressured, sharp, and healthy.
Elite goaltending and Elite shutdown dpair are pretty huge developments for this team. Now we just got to get the offense clicking again.
