EMBARRASSING: Maple Leafs now live in Eastern Conference basement

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The Maple Leafs are in last place in the Eastern Conference.

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That nightmare became a harsh reality on Sunday afternoon when the Buffalo Sabres rose out of the conference basement with a 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes to move one point past Toronto.

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Players don’t like to look at the standings until the latter stage of the regular season, when serious jockeying for playoff positions drives into high gear.

But the Leafs might want to start glancing at the standings now. A jolt of cold water to the face with the last-place ranking could serve as a wakeup call. At this point, nothing should be left off the table.

How embarrassing is this for the Leafs, a team that, at the start of the regular season, considered itself a contender for the Stanley Cup?

The Sabres are an outfit that has not participated in the post-season in 14 years, the longest playoff drought in the National Hockey League.

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Before NHL games were played on Sunday night, the Leafs were ahead of just four teams — the St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators — in the overall standings. The Canucks and Flames were slated to meet in Vancouver, and a Canucks victory would move them ahead of the Leafs.

Potential returns

The Leafs had a day off on Sunday to ponder their situation. It’s possible they get a boost this week with the potential return of captain Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies, though the performance will have to be consistent collectively if the Leafs have any hope of turning in the right direction. Two players — even two players who are part of the club’s top line — are not going to single-handedly lead the Leafs out of the fire.

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Fact is, the Leafs’ immediate figure appears dire. With one win in seven road games, they will play their next five away from Scotiabank Arena, following practices in Etobicoke on Monday and Tuesday.

In their past eight games, no matter where the Leafs have played, they have won once.

What are the chances the players will bond, as they like to say when they head out for long trips, when they haven’t come anywhere near doing that on the ice during games?

After the Leafs lost 5-2 in Montreal against the Canadiens on Saturday night, John Tavares was asked about the level of frustration in the dressing room.

“We’re not happy with not being able to get things rolling,” Tavares said to reporters at the Bell Centre. “I don’t want to use the word ‘frustrating,’ but we’re continuing to work through things and find our way and stay with it.

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“It’s not an excuse to say it’s a long season, but it can be heavy when you want to analyze everything up until this point.”

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Well, we imagine it would be just as heavy for the Leafs as they have forgotten, more or less, how to play sound hockey in the defensive zone. The Leafs were fifth in the NHL in goals scored through games on Saturday, yet have a goal differential of minus-8.

And here we are, approaching U.S. Thanksgiving, often considered the predictor of how the standings will look once the regular season comes to an end. It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but usually what we see once the American holiday hits is what’s true by the time the playoffs start.

At U.S. Thanksgiving in 2024, six of the eight teams in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference indeed earned post-season berths. Two that were in a playoff position — the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers — fell out of contention. Two that were below the playoff line — the Ottawa Senators and Canadiens — fought back and made it.

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The Leafs, 9-10-3 with 21 points, have one game remaining before that holiday, on Wednesday in Columbus against the Blue Jackets. Columbus always plays Toronto hard and has won both previous meetings this season, so there’s little to suggest that the Leafs will get it together and arrive at U.S. Thanksgiving with another point or two.

A year ago, the Leafs were 13-7-2 with 28 points as Americans tucked into turkey dinner and sat in first place in the Atlantic Division, one point ahead of the Florida Panthers.

Perhaps the Leafs can use the Canadiens as inspiration. Montreal was in last in the conference at the holiday, five points out of a playoff spot, and rallied to earn the second wild-card.

Glass half-full?

What the Leafs have going for them now — and you can’t get anymore glass-half-full than this — is that just six points were separating them from first place in the Atlantic Division through games on Saturday. The Detroit Red Wings, who refuse to stop surprising people, were atop the division with 27 points. And the Leafs were four points short of the second wildcard spot in the East.

Further losses on the Leafs’ coming trip would have to result in change of some sort, no matter whether change would help, and no one has to remind Craig Berube that the coach almost always is the first scapegoat.

For the Leafs, the first thought has to be ensuring that their residence in the East basement is brief.

Doing something they haven’t done much this season — play good hockey with effort from the opening faceoff until the final horn — has to happen on Wednesday in Columbus.

They don’t have a choice.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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