TORONTO — At the end of a night like this one it’s hard to completely push the thought from your mind: What if this time is different?
What if the Toronto Maple Leafs are an improved version of their former selves? What if their eventual downswing comes in the form of a modest losing streak (or two) rather than a complete and utter freefall?
What if the way the Leafs performed in Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Detroit is repeatable?
The indisputable truth about this team is you never quite know what you’re going to get. Even in the midst of a red-hot 8-1-1 run you can still sense a high level of caution around the halls of the Air Canada Centre while everyone tries to separate fact from fiction.
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What we saw here against the Red Wings was an extremely encouraging sign. Days after stealing two points at Joe Louis Arena, Toronto was dominant while dispatching Detroit in a much different manner.
“They were way better than us, way quicker, and executed,” said Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. “We were getting caught and didn’t execute. … The bottom line is they were quicker, better and had more energy than we did.”
Of course, this was but one game on a long schedule. Just as getting outshot 42-19 on Wednesday night wasn’t the end of the world, thoroughly outplaying a weary Red Wings team shouldn’t be cause for too much celebration.
Yet, as you comb through the details of a 17-9-3 start to this campaign, you begin to see some hints that positive steps have been taken.
The way they reacted this week is certainly one of them. Rather than explaining away some recent porous defensive efforts by pointing to the fact they’ve been winning, the Leafs went back to basics and held Detroit to 28 shots on Saturday.
“I think it’s a good sign when your team recognizes that there is things that you need to improve on and things that are imperative that you improve on if you’re going to have success,” said coach Randy Carlyle. “They’ve been saying the right things and now we have to live it. That’s the most important thing because we want to be honest with ourselves and we want to be committed to growing our team.
“You don’t grow unless you can accept that you do have faults — we all do — and they were willing to work on it to make them better.”
Asked where the biggest strides were made from one game to the other, sophomore defenceman Morgan Rielly immediately responded “neutral zone.”
“I think when we played on the road against them they were coming with a lot of speed,” said Rielly. “We spent a lot of time trying to work on that in practice and in meetings, and I thought that went well.
“We just played to the gameplan.”
In the return game, Toronto dictated the tempo for a good portion of the night. The start may have been a tad sluggish, but the Leafs took flight after quickly responding to Niklas Kronwall’s opening power-play goal with one of their own from James van Riemsdyk.
Toronto was all over the puck during a dominant second period that saw Richard Panik score the eventual winner on a breakaway. That was the sixth goal of the season for the fourth-line winger who was claimed on waivers from Tampa in October — a pleasant surprise among a deep forward group.
The Leafs are now tops in the NHL with an average of 3.38 goals per game and much of that is due to having a more complete lineup from top to bottom.
“It seemed like in years past that third and fourth line maybe wasn’t getting as many minutes as they are now,” said centre Nazem Kadri. “We’re a fast group. That’s our identity: We can skate and we can score. We’ve got to use that as much as possible.”
“When you look at the Leafs, what I see is a team that can really score,” added Babcock. “They don’t need as many chances as some teams.”
Still, Toronto boasts the highest shooting percentage in the league and currently sits third in PDO, which suggests that it is bound to slow down eventually.
The Leafs will also soon be facing a treacherous road schedule — something Carlyle himself pointed out — so at some point the focus will turn to limiting the damage. This is a team still trying to figure out how to play the right way, especially on the defensive side of the puck, but on Saturday the players at least got a glimpse of the possibilities.
“I thought tonight was one of our best games of the year,” said goalie Jonathan Bernier, who stopped 27 shots. “We competed hard, we were tough to play against.”
What if it’s more than just a passing fashion?