from Damien Cox at the Toronto Star,

The Maple Leafs can’t build a comfortable lead, and they can’t comfortably hold a lead. Which puts them comfortably in an Eastern Conference wild-card berth, which won’t make anybody comfortable.

This, of course, is why it is so very hard for first-year general manager Brad Treliving to sit back and enjoy his maiden voyage. The narrative with the Leafs is surging wildly between highs and lows, sometimes within single periods.

Eleven of Toronto’s 22 games this season, including Saturday night’s 4-3 loss to Boston, have gone to overtime. Sure it’s been entertaining, but it also puts a little added stress on the Leafs’ best players each time it happens. The hope is that a player like William Nylander can always be the hero, but in three-on-three hockey, he can also be the goat. That’s what happened against the Bruins with his untimely wipeout.

Other than back-to-back 4-1 wins over Washington and Minnesota in late October, the Leafs generally haven’t been able to cruise to many straightforward victories this season. Other than an ugly 4-1 loss to Los Angeles on home ice and a 6-3 loss to the Senators, they also haven’t been decisively thumped too often.

Most of the time, Treliving’s team is in a third-period tug of war, either hanging on desperately or desperately trying to equalize. They can surely fight back when they fall behind, as they did against the Bruins on Saturday. The Leafs erased 2-0 and 3-2 deficits, the latter with just seconds remaining, to force yet another extra session.

So it’s a rather complex question as to what element, or elements, might make the Leafs a bit more successful and allow Treliving and head coach Sheldon Keefe to relax once in a while.

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