The Sharks have been surprisingly good this year.

OR!

The Leafs have been... I guess surprisingly isn’t the right word, but they’ve been pretty meh. They have had stretches looking good, but equal stretches looking both awful and mediocre.

Call it some early season rust, but when I’m seeing the same sort of issue that plagued them last season and especially in the playoffs, I’m calling it a hangover they still haven’t gotten out of.

I’m actually pretty apathetic about it. I’ve said since the end of the playoffs and reiterated at the start of this season, the regular season doesn’t matter as long as they make the playoffs. I don’t care if they go 82-0. I don’t care if they look inconsistent or consistently great. Just make the playoffs and play good hockey.

I won’t allow myself to care about one loss in game five.

What I do care about is when I see Keefe say things like this:

Now, I like a coach who can identify problems that the team has. I don’t like a coach who can’t seem to figure out what to do about it, and as Katya documented in her review of the All Or Nothing series, Keefe seemed to know all season that there were big problems. And while he yelled and begged and pleaded with them through the season, it never seemed to fix anything.

So hey, don’t those quotes above sound real fuckin familiar.

In Women’s Hockey news, Team Canada faced Team USA that ended in a win for Canada. Here are some highlights:

Disorganized Leafs get desperate for offense in 5-3 loss to Sharks | by Hardev

Analyzing eight noteworthy stats from the Maple Leafs start to the season | by Jonas Siegel

Early impressions of Canada’s NHL teams in return to normal divisions | by Justin Bourne

Pens have no timetable for Crosby return | by TSN.ca

Speaking of Crosby, did you know that he’s a psychopathic robot?

Older news as far as the allegations, but an update for how it will be investigated.

Let’s end on a good note:

From The Branches