The Toronto Maple Leafs Continue to Spiral Downward

I feel like we’ve seen this before.

Four games and four losses. Tied for the league’s worst record with a staggering 11 points.

The ACC (Photo Courtesy of Suman Chakrabarti/Flickr)

Last night’s loss to the Ottawa Senators must have been a particularly difficult one for Leafs fans to digest. It seemed that no matter what the circumstances were in years past, Toronto always owned the Sens.

Now, mired in their worst start in franchise history, the Toronto Maple Leafs are 0-2 against their Ontario rivals.

If that wasn’t enough, they haven’t beaten the Montreal Canadiens–their other hated enemies–this season.

There has not been much for their fan-base to smile about as of yet. Three wins 19 games into the season, the team looks to be drowning.

Phil Kessel image courtesy of Wikipedia.org

The bright spot is, of course, still Phil Kessel. The 22-year-old has scored five goals (eight points in total) in his first seven games played. He doesn’t seem to be slowing down, but I ask you, is it enough?

Even if the Boy Wonder scores a goal in every game that he plays, if two goals are scored against his team, it’s all for naught.

Not to mention, rumblings in the stands and questions as to whom the Toronto Maple Leafs starting goalie is, if any.

Jonas Gustavsson is a rookie goaltender—this is something that the masses cannot forget. He is only 10-games deep in his NHL career. I do believe that he is legitimate, but it will take some time for him to develop into a proper Number One. There will certainly be some off-days that fans will have to prepare to deal with.

Things will probably not get easier as the season progresses. Don’t expect extended winning streaks as much as prolonged losing streaks. The team is not a good one, and so it will lose much more frequently than it will win.

I wish I could tell all you loyal supporters that things are starting to look up, but they are not. The team has already hit rock bottom this season after losing their first eight, but it’s not impossible that they match that dubious streak.

I’d say that things couldn’t get any worse, but they could. If Kessel goes cold, Maple Leafs fans are in for a long, long ride.

Posted by Jason Hitelman on Nov 18 2009. Filed under Eastern Conference, Montreal Canadiens, Northeast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.