The Maple Leafs have played poorly so far, but so has the rest of the Atlantic Division

Fortunately, history shows that the Leafs like to start the season with their skates in the mud before finding their feet in November and reaffirming their status as one of the top teams in the Atlantic Division. That’s not an excuse for the way they’ve played thus far, and I’m sure they would have preferred to pick up some points in the very home schedule in October, but it should at least provide some reassurance that, no, the Leafs aren’t on the verge of dropping out. At least not yet. If you don’t care about this and your personal margin of error is zero due to the amount of time this team has had to make a significant playoff run and the number of subsequent failures, then that’s fair too! I’m not here to judge you for your emotions.

That said, it’s worth recognizing that as uninspiring as they’ve played thus far, the rest of the Atlantic Division, with the exception of the Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings, have played the same.

CURRENT ATLANTIC DIVISION STANDARDS

1. Detroit Red Wings (8-3-0, 16 points)
2. Montreal Canadiens (8-3-0, 16 points)
3. Ottawa Senators (6-5-1, 13 points)
4. Tampa Bay Lightning (5-4-2, 12 points)
5. Boston Bruins (6-7-0, 12 points)
6. Florida Panthers (5-5-1, 11 points)
7. Buffalo Sabers (4-4-3, 11 points)
8. Toronto Maple Leafs (5-5-1, 11 points)

After looking at how the Atlantic Division is laid out, it’s much easier to contextualize how early in the season it is. Defending their play while sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic Division is the equivalent of putting on clown makeup as I write this, but it’s less a defense than a reminder of how the season normally unfolds.

The Red Wings and Canadiens are two teams doing everything they can to finish their rebuilds and work their way back to the playoffs on a regular basis, and so far they have shown that they have made some progress. But it’s not realistic to expect either team to outscore the Leafs, Lightning and Panthers for an entire season. They’ll go through their slumps and experience the highs and lows of an 82-game NHL season just like everyone else, though their hot start has at least indicated that teams will have to keep an eye on them.

The Lightning, on the other hand, haven’t struggled as much offensively as the Panthers, but you can imagine they also want to get more production out of their star players. Nikita Kucherov has 10 points in nine games, Brayden Point has eight points in 11 games, and like Anthony Stolarz, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has come out of the gate. His save percentage of .899 (SV%) is well below what is regularly expected of him, but ask yourself this. Do you think Vasilevskiy will struggle like this all year? Probably not, right?

Then you look at the Bruins, who have gotten a lot of production from their star players even in the absence of Brad Marchand, but their goaltenders are going through the motions. Jeremy Swayman has an SV% of .886 and a goals-against average (GAA) of 3.45, while Joonas Korpisalo has an SV% of .882 and a GAA of 3.49. Their goaltending situation has essentially guaranteed a minimum of three goals against performance every time they take the ice. Do you expect this to remain the case?

That leaves the Senators, who can’t really be called a third-place team if they’re only two points behind last, and the Sabres, who don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt until they show everyone they’re serious. It sounds harsh, but the Sabers’ biggest offseason acquisition was Sam Lafferty, which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that this will be the year they take a step forward and compete for the playoffs.

PRESENTED BY VIVID CHAIRS