Toronto Maple Leafs escape public flogging – for now

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Ahead of Toronto’s win over Pittsburgh on Thursday, John Tavares was trying to convince himself that coming home was a good idea.

“We’re very fortunate to play here because people want to see us win so bad,” the captain said.

This is nicer way of saying “… because their hate and disappointment is so pure.”

Tavares played on some terrible Islanders teams, but he is just now learning how bad it can be when Toronto starts to turn on you. No one’s heating the tar or plucking the chickens yet, but that time is close. The next week or so will decide it.

The Leafs did do something remarkable on Thursday night – they played as though they cared. The result was a 4-0 victory over a half-engaged Penguins team.

It felt as though these two teams had done a Freaky Friday between Tuesday’s goon show in Pennsylvania and last night.

Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe had dialled his expectations all the way back to “signs of life.” It’s that bad.

But small, achievable goals are the secret to surviving in this town. Never overpromise. Never promise at all. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of hysterical opinion.

Keefe was still talking about how this recent dip will toughen his crew for the playoffs to come. That wasn’t smart. Keefe needs to eliminate two words from his vocabulary – “process” and “playoffs,” unless he wants to spend the entire summer watching a supercut of all the times he got it wrong. You can actually see the poor guy turning into Mike Babcock.

But while it took Babcock years to go fully feral in Toronto, Keefe is getting there in a matter of weeks.

When things start going sideways for the Leafs – which had in recent years been April instead of February – you can feel the shift inside the arena.

Toronto doesn’t shout. Instead, Toronto gives you the silent treatment. Toronto just sits there giving you the bug eyes.

The Scotiabank Arena is the NHL’s Amtrak Quiet Car at all times, but on Thursday, it was a crypt. There were moments during the first period wherein you could hear the players talking on the ice all the way up in the rafters. Some places do occasional moments of silence. Toronto does three hours, remembering all the teams who’ve died here before.

Plainly, the fans no longer have any faith in this team. They’re going to need to see their hockey papers before they recommit to believing.

These are the things the Toronto crowd still likes right now.

It likes free T-shirts. After paying a grand for tickets and parking, all the suburban Richie Riches who make up the Leafs’ live audience will absolutely lose their mind over a $10 T-shirt.

It likes fights. When Kasperi Kapanen goaded Pittsburgh’s Jared McCann into a healthy discussion via hand signals (delivered to the head), the crowd perked up and stayed that way for the remainder of the game. It’s probably good that someone is finally injecting some ill temper into this Leafs lineup, and it’s probably not good that Kapanen has to be that person.

What would the Leafs give for a Tkachuk brother to wander around the ice like a heat-seeking missile? A lot.

Later, Tavares considered kicking it off with Teddy Blueger before returning to his usual postwhistle state of somnambulance. The crowd badly wanted him to go for it. The Leafs were up big by then and on a roll, but Tavares wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.

Despite being from here, this is the thing Tavares has yet to figure out. Toronto doesn’t need you to win in order to love you. Were that compulsory, the city wouldn’t be so wild for the Wendel Clarks and Tie Domis of the world.

Toronto just needs to see that you care. The easiest way to do that is to beat someone senseless. A hundred goals would not do Tavares’s local brand as much good as a couple of well-timed fights or a single interview in which he doesn’t sound as if he’s recording a hostage video. When Toronto is losing, this act doesn’t look composed. It looks disengaged.

Tavares’s problem is a microcosm of the team’s as a whole – this Leafs group is simultaneously too professional and not professional enough.

When things are going well – as they were on Thursday – there’s rarely a sense of joy in the moment. Because the Leafs know that if they lose to Carolina on Saturday (possible) or Tampa Bay on Tuesday (pretty close to a mortal lock), the story will flip back again. That’s the professional part. The Leafs take masochistic pleasure in suffering this city’s emotional swings, but it’s not hard to see that it annoys them. There is no looseness to this group. They’re permanently clenched.

The unprofessional part is the one that ping-pongs from Tuesday’s effort against Pittsburgh and Thursday’s.

These weren’t two different performances, but two entirely different teams. The first one looked bored. The second one looked scared. Scared is a good look for the Leafs. They should be scared.

Because the young core of this team may think it’s known disappointment here, but it’s nothing like what’s going to happen if they pooch this season.

All that servile hero worship goes out the window. Toronto fans will turn on you like a rabid dog if they think you’ve given up.

The Leafs can’t save their season in the next week – Carolina at home, followed by Tampa and Florida in Florida – but they can sure as heck lose it.

Thursday’s performance stopped the public flogging, but the doubts created about and by this team in recent days aren’t going away now. Even wins like Thursday’s don’t really help.

What they do is build frustration at a team that can occasionally be one of the best groups in the league, but too often seems as if it can’t be bothered.