This is going to be a very important stretch for the Leafs. Between now and the end of the month they play Boston, Pitt, Vegas, Arizona, Colorado, Detroit, then a home-and-home with Buffalo - 6 of which are on the road. They're barely ahead of Buffalo and Tampa in the standings - who have 3 and 5 games-in-hand respectively. The roster is a hot mess - D is a joke (only Detroit has given up more GA); backup goaltending is a train-wreck and they have 0 wins without Anderson in net; and their salary cap issues have them completely handcuffed to do anything about it. The way they are playing, they could very well go 2-6 (or worse) in this stretch - these are some tough teams that are all playing well (save Detroit).
Their offense is clicking at 5-on-5... they have the 2nd most GF in the league - talk about polarizing. If they could just keep the biscuit OUT of the basket, they'd be cake walking thru the division. Of their 7 regular time losses, 5 were by one goal. They've been horribly inconsistent - looking like a practice team at times, then dominating at others (23 shots in the 3rd period the other night against Chicago). Special teams are 23rd in combined PP/PK %s.
December 1 could very well be come-to-Jesus time for the team, and Babcock. This was exactly the start I predicted, and this is the stretch where they have to show that they can turn a corner and come out of it. Despite Matthews' stats, he's not shown himself (this year so far) to be the kind of player - like MacKinnon, or McDavid, or Sid - that can carry the team to victory. The East is gonna be a dogfight to the end... Boston, Mtl, TB, Buf, and Fla all have the capability of being playoff teams.