John Tavares apologized to Maple Leafs fans today after a brutal homestand, with Toronto now stuck on a six-game losing streak.
The latest loss came Saturday night, a 1-0 defeat to the Oilers in which the Leafs were held scoreless at home. Toronto sits at 8-12-2, 26th in the NHL, and the patience around the building is clearly running thin.
Tavares addressed it head on, saying the team feels for the fans and the difficulty it has had at home.
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The home record explains the tone. The Leafs are 4-9-1 at Scotiabank Arena, and they are 2-8-0 over their last 10 games overall.
Tavares has already been asked whether the team has played better than its results, and John Tavares's answer on the Maple Leafs' results only added to the debate about what is really going wrong in Toronto.
His own numbers fit the picture. Tavares has 7 points in 12 games and carries a -13 rating, and he logged 17:48 against Edmonton with two shots on goal.
Why the answer has to come from the bench and the crease
An apology is a decent gesture, but it doesn't put a puck in the net. Toronto has scored 69 goals and allowed 76, and a team that gets shut out at home by Devon Levi, who needed only 19 saves, has an attack problem before anything else.
That puts Jim Hiller squarely in the spotlight. The head coach has to find a way to get more out of this group, whether that means changing the lines, the power play or the way the Leafs enter the zone. Talking about the difficulty isn't going to change anything.
The goalies carry weight too. Anthony Stolarz stopped 22 of 23 shots Saturday and still took the loss, which tells you how thin the margin is for this team right now. Toronto can't count on a perfect night in the crease every time out.
The Leafs get a chance to stop the slide Tuesday, when they visit the Blackhawks in Chicago.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.
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