Not long ago, led by Brian Burke (and then his puppet, Dave Nonis), the Toronto Maple Leafs framework was primarily to be a rugged, tough team to play against. There were prototypical goons, middle-weight fighters and other scrappy players.
Those days are gone, completely.
Fighting is down in general around the league, but in Toronto – right now, anyway – it’s non-existent. Oddly enough, there’s no one shouting at the top of the CN Tower looking for fights. Strange, considering the still-lingering mantra around the internet that you need to have fighters in the lineup.
I think everyone is in agreement that this Toronto Maple Leafs team has been playing better hockey, in general, than the fan-base is used to seeing – even if the results aren’t there in the standings.