The Toronto Maple Leafs succumbed to the group-think of their critics, bought into the Classic NHL Magical Thinking as it relates to grit over players who aren’t gritty but post consistently good results.
Since then, the Toronto Maple Leafs – most especially their coach – have had a very hard time icing a decent lineup.
Sure, the results have mostly been fine – because their star players are still stars – but the team lost a lot of skilled depth when they bailed on Rasmus Sandin and Pierre Engvall (two players who consistently produce from the bottom of the lineup) and their replacements, outside of Noel Acciari, have been underwhelming at best.