When Elliotte Friedman talks, I consider what he says. He doesn’t do hot takes; he looks for patterns. And lately, he’s been seeing something most Toronto Maple Leafs fans have probably felt — this team doesn’t know who it is yet.
November’s Here: Will the Maple Leafs Begin to Win?
We’re almost into November, and Toronto still looks like it’s trying to figure out what kind of hockey it wants to play. That’s the strange part. You can see Craig Berube’s fingerprints. There’s a little more pushback and a little more structure. But it’s not all connecting.
One bad bounce or turnover, and suddenly everyone’s sliding around, reacting rather than playing with confidence. Friedman put it nicely: they look out of sorts.
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That’s not a systems issue so much as a team still trying to find its heartbeat. When you watch the Florida Panthers, you know exactly who they are — hard on the puck, relentless on the forecheck, proud of being miserable to play against. The Maple Leafs? Not so clear. They’ve got the stars, but you don’t get the sense that everyone knows what their job is in the middle of a storm.
One More Forward Isn’t the Fix for the Maple Leafs
Part of the current chatter is that Toronto needs to trade for a top-six winger. Maybe they do, but (as you can see and hear in the video below), in Friedman’s conversation with the panel, they collectively pour a little cold water on the idea that one more great winger would fix the Maple Leafs’ issue.
Every contender wants the same thing, and those players aren’t easy to get. But more importantly, one extra scorer doesn’t magically fix what’s missing here. So says the panel, and who would disagree because they see something different?
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You can add another skill guy and still have the same problem — a team that looks great when things are rolling and suddenly very ordinary when the top line goes quiet. What the Maple Leafs are really missing isn’t a player; it’s balance. They need that second wave — the kind of line that doesn’t score every night but still makes the other team’s life miserable. Until that kind of play shows up, the Maple Leafs are too easy to settle in against.
Friedman’s Sharpest Point: The Maple Leafs Are Too Easy to Play Against
That’s Friedman’s sharpest observation, and it stings because it’s true. Right now, teams aren’t scared of Toronto. They rush the puck, pinch aggressively, and play loose because they don’t think the Maple Leafs will make them pay for their mistakes. Against Florida, you hesitate because one wrong step means someone is coming right back at you. Against Toronto, teams seem far too relaxed.
That’s not about toughness or fighting. It’s about sustained pressure. When you spend real time in the offensive zone, you wear the other team down. You make them think twice. Finally, they make a mistake, and you can pounce.
The Maple Leafs have the talent to do that. Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and the rest of the team can be lethal. But they don’t keep the pressure on long enough. They play in bursts instead of waves. Friedman points out that until they can make teams respect their danger, they’ll keep looking easy to play against.
What This Maple Leafs Team Needs the Most
If you strip away all the talk about trades and cap space, the real problem is consistency, not just in scoring, but in identity. The Maple Leafs need to play the same brand of hockey every night, regardless of who’s on the ice. That’s what the elite teams do. They don’t drift, and they don’t wait for something good to happen.
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Berube’s challenge is to pull that out of this group. There’s no question about talent; it’s the mindset that’s lagging. The Maple Leafs still look like a team hoping for a spark rather than capable of creating one.
And maybe that’s the best way to sum up Friedman’s message. Stop waiting for the next addition, the next hot streak, the next bounce. If he were giving the Maple Leafs advice, it would be this: Figure out who you are — and make the rest of the league adjust to you.
So far, in his mind, it ain’t happening.
