SIMMONS SAYS: Leafs still in playoff picture, but so is the entire Eastern Conference

For all that has gone wrong — the instability of their goaltenders, the health of their right-side defencemen, disinterested play, the rather average production of their superstar captain, the firing of the power play coach — somehow, the Maple Leafs are in a position to contend for a playoff spot in the second half of this National Hockey League season.

Which by itself is rather unbelievable.

But here’s the thing about this NHL season: Just about everybody in the East is seemingly in contention over the second half. About 12 teams realistically are playing for maybe four playoff spots.

Somehow, this rather terrible half-season has the Leafs with 44 points after 40 games heading into Saturday night in Long Island. All they have to be is a touch better in the second half to get to 90 points and above.

“We’re starting to build our game,” said an almost encouraged Brad Treliving, the under-the-gun Leafs general manager. “That’s encouraging. We’ve made some adjustments to our game, we have the puck more, we’re spending more time in the offensive zone, we’re getting more high-danger chances and our special teams have been pretty good.

“We can’t be looking at what everybody else is doing or watching the standings. We just focus on ourselves in a league that has more parity than I ever remember seeing.”

There are teams in the East on the rise with young talent and teams trying to remain competitive with long-term players on their roster. It makes for more competition as the second half unfolds and possibly a trade deadline with fewer sellers than ever before.

“There are no bad teams in the East,” said Treliving in a rare interview. “There’s nobody playing to lose. Nobody is out of it. And what we don’t know is how does everybody will look after the Olympics? How does everybody get through it health-wise?”

The Leafs won’t have their only semi-elite defenceman, Chris Tanev, for most of the rest of the season. The club is 6-3-1 in games Tanev has finished this season. Now they have to compete most of the second half without him.

“Our goal right now is to make the playoffs,” said Treliving. “We’ve got to focus on today. That’s all you can focus on. You can’t worry about the standings. The games come at us so fast in the second half. You’ve got to get through your day and then get ready for the next one.”

The Leafs finish the season in Ottawa — and that game could mean something for both teams — and Toronto has a final month with games against Anaheim, Washington, Los Angeles, Florida and Dallas.

The odds remain against them. But then, the odds have been against them since this mess of a season began.

Matthews well back in multi-point games

Auston Matthews can still change this Leafs’ season. He has the talent to do so. But does he have what’s inside? Matthews looked fabulous in the win over Winnipeg on Thursday. But his season has not been that way, even though Leafs management defends him with vigor. The four points against the Jets was Matthews’ seventh multi-point game of the season. That’s not good enough for a $13-million captain. Nathan MacKinnon has 23 multi-point games this season, followed by Connor McDavid with 21. The kid, Macklin Celebrini has 18, Mark Scheifele has 15, even old Brad Marchand has 12. The fact Matthews has just seven games this season with more than one point should embarrass the highest-paid Leaf in club history … The Leafs can defend Matthews all they want: He isn’t paid to be Philip Danault. He isn’t paid to be the 25th highest scoring centre or the 61st highest paid forward in the game. He’s paid to be special … Celebrini didn’t just push the Team Canada doors open — he kicked them down. There was no decision to make on Celebrini. When the only players in the NHL outscoring you are named McDavid and MacKinnon — and combined they’re 20 years older — the decision to have the young San Jose centre on Team Canada was rather simple … Chicago coach Jeff Blashill thought the same way about his young star, Connor Bedard, who was left off the Canadian team and will serve as an injury replacement. The Hawks’ record since Bedard went down to injury: 1-6-1 … I used up a lot of scrap paper making Team Canada Olympic rosters over the past year. And, on every single list, Sam Bennett was included. It’s been three days since Team Canada was revealed and I still can’t understand why the Conn Smythe Trophy winner was left off the team.

Quick comparison of Olympic hockey rosters

Team Canada will be led offensively by McDavid, MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, Cale Makar and Celebrini, giving them the most potent offence at the Olympics. Team USA has the deepest goaltending — three potential starters — and defence in the Games. Team Sweden has the best upper-echelon defence, led by Rasmus Dahlin, Gustav Forsling and Victor Hedman. And while there is no Russian entry in the Games, that country has four goaltenders — Andrei Vasilevskiy, Sergei Bobrovsky, Igor Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin — who could start for Canada, Sweden, Finland and just about every team that isn’t the U.S. If only you could make Olympic trades … I read somewhere that Matthew Knies was snubbed by not making Team USA. Not so. Whose place was he going to take? … Dallas winger Jason Robertson, like Bennett in Canada, was snubbed by the American brass, but at least his absence was structurally understandable. If Team USA is going to use the Tkachuk brothers on one line on the wings, Tage Thompson and Jack Hughes on another line with places still to find for Kyle Connor, Jake Guentzel, Matt Boldy and Clayton Keller, where were they going to put Robertson, who has more points the past four seasons than any American player? Team USA GM Bill Guerin went with veteran centres J.T. Miller, Vinnie Trocheck and Brock Nelson on the roster. It also meant no room for Cole Caufield and Alex DeBrincat — and I figured one of those scatbacks would make the Olympic team … What a shame that Sasha Barkov isn’t able to play for a Finland team that already has Sebastian Aho, Roope Hintz and Anton Lundell at centre. Barkov will be 34 the next time the Olympics come around and there is no assurance there will be NHL players involved in 2030 … A fall-off from the 4 Nations Face-off tournament meant Mattias Ekholm was left off the Swedish roster leaving a place for the Maple Leaf, Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Ekholm usually plays first pair in Edmonton: When everyone is healthy, OEL is a third-pair defenceman with the Leafs … Team USA has won two gold medals in hockey, both when the Games were played in the United States. They’ve won two silver medals in the past 50 years, both of them in North America. In the five NHL Olympic tournaments, the U.S. has won nothing outside of North America … Team Canada has played in three gold-medal games at the Olympics involving NHL players and won all three of them. During the tournaments in Japan and Italy, they came home without medals, although they should have won bronze in Nagano and didn’t care enough to take the medal seriously.

Even with 1,000 points, Marchand long-shot for Hall

The 600 goals scored is not just a number for Steven Stamkos. It is his entrance card to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Of the 21 players in NHL history who have reached 600 or more, 19 are already in the Hall and the other two happen to be Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby … It’s not the same for Marchand, who was honoured after scoring his 1,000th point. And there are 14 players ahead of Marchand in career scoring who are not in the Hall of Fame. Bernie Nicholls leads all scorers who haven’t made the Hall at 1,209 points. Among those with 1,000-plus deserving Hall of Fame consideration: Rod Brind’Amour, Theo Fleury, Keith Tkachuk, Eric Staal and Nick Backstrom. And below Marchand but worthy of Hall thoughts: Patrik Elias, Dale Hunter, Ryan Getzlaf, Steve Larmer, Rick Middleton and Henrik Zetterberg … Andre De Grasse won seven track and field medals at the Olympics for Canada. No one will ever do that again. His being named to the Order of Canada was a no-brainer, even if it took Donovan Bailey years to get the same call … It is a short list: Canadians who have been named Sports Illustrated sportsperson of the year. Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky have won before. Bob Bourne, the Islanders winger, was among those listed for his work with underprivileged children. And Dr. Laurent Duvernay Tardif, the offensive lineman turned physician, was previously honoured. Now this year, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who did everything last season in the NBA … A Winter Classic in Miami is fabulous theatre and it’ll be wonderful to see how the NHL puts all this together. It’s a great show for the city that cares about it. Then the game starts and, after a minute or so, it just looks like hockey in slow motion. And not necessarily good hockey … Could a Canadian B team challenge for a medal in Milan? It would include Bennett, Mark Scheifele, Wyatt Johnston and Rob Thomas at centre and Zach Hayman, Seth Jarvis and Morgan Geekie on the wing, along with Carter Verhaeghe, Nazem Kadri, Matt Barzal and Travis Konecny. On defence: you can start with Evan Bouchard, Jakob Chychrun, Matthew Schaefer and Noah Dobson along with Mackenzie Weegar and Aaron Ekblad. And Scott Wedgewood and Jet Greaves in goal?

Sports dominates T.V. viewing 2025

To the surprise of no one, sports dominated live television viewing in the U.S. in 2025. In fact, 96 of the top 100 televised events were sports-related, including Games 6 and 7 of the World Series. Baseball rarely makes the top 100. Most on the list were football games, both college and NFL. The four non-sports interlopers: The Academy Awards, the Thanksgiving Day Parade and two President Trump events, an address to the nation and his inauguration. The surprise on the list: The resurgent audience of the Kentucky Derby … That was fabulous of TNT to do a one-hour pre-game show and a 30 minute post-game show at the Winter Classic. What would have been even better: Had the sound worked for almost half the pre-game show … Jamal Murray is playing the best basketball of his life, averaging more than 25 points and seven assists per game with the Denver Nuggets. Team Canada sure would have benefited from this Murray at the Paris Olympics two years ago … The Tennessee Titans fired Mike Vrabel two seasons back. He should be coach of the year in New England this season. They let Derrick Henry walk. He has rushed for 3,390 yards in two seasons in Baltimore. Best way to build a franchise: Pick up what Tennessee doesn’t want … My first trip to Rich Stadium was in 1973, the year O.J. Simpson ran for 2,003 yards. I can’t count how many times I’ve been there since and how many times the stadium name has changed. The facility had a wonderful 52-year life … Coach of a winning hockey team: “Our players are buying in.” Coach of a losing hockey team: “Our players aren’t buying in.” The secret to life: Finding those who will buy in …. Ken Klee has been the coach of the championship team in both years of the PWHL. Kind of crazy that the former Leafs defenceman isn’t involved with an Olympic team … Years ago, this would have been a big story in Quebec: No French Canadians on Team Canada … Poor Adam Fox. He doesn’t make Team USA and the head coach is his coach, Mike Sullivan. Wonder how they will get along after this … Poor Wyatt Johnston. He’s having a terrific year with the Dallas Stars. He didn’t make Team Canada. His GM, Jim Nill, is high on the Canadian management list. His longtime coach Pete DeBoer is an assistant coach for Canada. Where does the trust go from here? … Mitch Marner is having his lowest scoring season in years and the Vegas Golden Knights are struggling without Alex Pietrangelo. The Knights won 42 of the 71 games Pietrangelo played last season. This season, without Pietrangelo and with Marner, they have 39 games and won just 17 of them … Happy birthday to Victor Wembanyama (22), Eli Manning (45), David Tyree (46), Derrick Henry (32), Kevin Pillar (37), Ted Lilly (50), Cory Cross (55), A.J. Burnett (49), Jim Ross (73), Bernard Quarles (65), Nico Hischier (27) and Luis Sojo (61) … And hey, whatever became of Leo Komarov?

ssimmons@postmedia.com
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