Maple Leafs continue to burn in the spotlight thanks to the magnifying glass of losing

The waiting is the worst part.

When you’re driving to the rink the morning after a loss, even in a car full of guys, there’s rarely much chatter. It’s going to be awkward and tense the second you walk into the dressing room, and the mood of the day will depend on the mood of the coach. Walking in is a little bit like showing up at the coffee shop to meet the person who ominously told you, “We need to talk.”

These mornings come with less stress and drama for teams that generally win, but once a team has established a pattern of losing, particularly by the second half of the season, you can be fairly certain you’re not walking into a pizza party.

Once inside, you know laughing won’t endear you to anyone - after all, don’t you care? - so fun is the first item crossed off the day’s docket. You know a few bobbled passes in practice are going to set coach off (and possibly lead to a bag skate), so sticks are gripped extra tight. And the biggest problem is being all too aware of the silent finger-pointing growing more incessant in the minds of teammates and staff all around you.

It’s possible the internal finger-pointing - at the coach, captain, linemates or media - can be shelved, assuming the team finds a way to take home two points a little more frequently. After all, blush and mascara are great, but there’s no better makeup than winning.

But when the wins don’t come, the issues - like those that fester in a bad relationship - will eventually boil over.

And now you’ve got a team that cannibalizes itself, makes problems for itself, and frankly, starts to look like the 2014-15 Toronto Maple Leafs, who are probably the league’s worst team that hasn’t been outwardly trying to be terrible. Few teams are farther from their pre-season expectations.

A team that wins fields questions from the press that feed the ego by reinforcing positives - “How did you manage to see him sneaking backdoor on the third goal? That was great vision.” A team that wins is set at ease by a panic-free coach talking about the game plan for the upcoming periods, even when its behind. A team that wins learns to pick itself up when it is down, instead of reaching for the shovel.

Winning breeds winning because confidence is fertilizer for success. It can’t make you a great player, but if you’re already good, it can help you find more peaks and less valleys. Of course, this works in reverse too, which is why bad organizations often watch players leave their compost piles and be a part of thriving gardens elsewhere.

If you haven’t picked up the underlying message yet: if the Maple Leafs were winning, their other issues - the media is unfair, Phil Kessel is keeping Tyler Bozak down, the coach needs to be fired, etc. - wouldn’t keep surfacing. 

Losing is to problems what a mushroom is to Mario, and because this team keeps losing, we’re forced to deal with them and their swollen problems being raked through the mud, by fans, by media, and presumably behind closed doors, by each other. It’s been a long winter, and it seems like it’ll be even longer before we see this team blossom again.