By Ian Tulloch



Trying to evaluate the 2017-2018 Toronto Maple Leafs is a challenging task. To say that they’ve been a confusing team would be an understatement. They were an offensive juggernaut to start the year, followed by several months where they looked like a shell of themselves, only to soar up the standings after drastic lineup changes in late January.



I know the narrative in Leafs land this week is to dwell on their recent four-game losing streak, but I’m not a big fan of overreacting to small samples. When I break down a team, I prefer to look for overarching trends that stretch across a long period of time.



When it comes to the Leafs’ performance this year, I’ve identified three major changes to the team’s style that have significantly impacted their results throughout the course of the season. Rather than assessing Toronto’s season to date as a whole, I think it’s important to break it down into the three...