The Maple Leafs’ Three Toughest Stretches of the Season

The Toronto Maple Leafs expect to have a highly productive season this coming year, but the NHL’s schedule-maker hasn’t done them many favors. Here are the three toughest stretches of the schedule this year for the Leafs.

1. Right Off the Hop.

The Leafs kick off the 2022-23 campaign in Montreal to play their arch-rival Canadiens, then head home to host the Washington Capitals the next night. They’re going to be expected to beat both teams, but the travel element makes it considerably more difficult to pull off a pair of ‘W’ in two nights.

After that, Toronto takes on the visiting Ottawa Senators, Arizona Coyotes and Dallas Stars in a three-games-in-five-nights span, then embark on a five-game road trip that takes them to Winnipeg, Las Vegas, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Anaheim. The Jets, Golden Knights, Kings and Ducks all will be tough challenges for the Buds, and by the time the Leafs head home and host the very beatable Philadelphia Flyers Nov. 2, they’ll have played more than one-tenth of their season.

This will be the point where Toronto’s new goaltending duo is getting its initial grade, and Leafs fans may be left worried that netminders Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov can’t get the job done the rest of the season. A strong start is important to ease that potential anxiety.

Around Full Press Hockey

NHL: Assessing The Philadephia Flyers’ Depth At Center And Defense

NHL Rumors: NHL Rumors: Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins, Dallas Stars

NHL: The Most Pressured Men in Maple Leafs Land This Season

NFL: Best Bets For 2022 NFL Defensive Rookie Of The Year

Full Press Bets: Early 2022 NFL MVP Odds: Bills’ Josh Allen Favored

PODCAST: Full Press Hockey Weekly: Ep 37: NHL Free Agency Recap

2. December is a Scary Month.

Toronto plays 12 times in the month of December – not as much as they do in other months, thanks to the four-day-break at Christmas – but the quality of teams the Buds play in December make the month especially difficult.

They begin it with a Dec. 3 road game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, then jet off to Dallas to play the Stars three nights later before coming home and hosting the Kings, Calgary Flames, and Ducks. Next come a pair of road games against the New York Rangers and Capitals, then the Leafs host the Lightning and Flyers before finishing out the month with road showdowns against the St. Louis Blues, Coyotes and defending Stanley Cup-champion Colorado Avalanche on New Year’s Eve.

As you can see, Toronto’s only “gimme” games in December are against the ‘Yotes and Flyers. Every other opponent has the ability to beat the Leafs if they’re not operating on all cylinders. Depending how October and November go for the Buds, the month of December could either give them confidence, or begin to bury them in the standings.

3. Tough Sledding in March.

The Leafs have a relatively easy February, with only nine games in total, and five of them against Chicago (twice), Montreal, Buffalo and Seattle. They’ll need to make the most of those games, because March is a far different situation for them: on March 1, Toronto is in Edmonton in the second game of a five-game road swing that also takes them to Calgary, Vancouver and New Jersey. They then come home to Scotiabank Arena and play a four-games-in-six-nights stretch against the Oilers, Sabres, Avalanche, and Carolina Hurricanes.

Following that span, it’s another five-game road trip, this time against Ottawa, the New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, Hurricanes and Nashville Predators, before finishing the month with a home tilt against Florida. That’s 14 games in 29 days, and there’s only Buffalo that’s an “easy” game for them in March. By the time Toronto gets to April, they’ll either be comfortably in a top playoff spot in the Atlantic Division, or they’ll be fighting it out with division rivals Ottawa, Detroit, Boston, Montreal, Florida and Tampa Bay in six of their final eight regular-season games.

If it comes down to April to decide whether or not Toronto is a playoff team, Leafs fans will be upset, to say the least. But if they build momentum in March, they can take on the challenge of April with confidence.