5 reasons the Toronto Maple Leafs have been a disaster this season

The Toronto Maple Leafs entered this season with their sights set on two goals — keeping the NHL's longest active playoff streak alive and (no snickering, fans of other teams) finally hoisting the city's first Stanley Cup since before the moon landing.

To say it hasn't worked out would be an understatement.

The Leafs now sit closer to the NHL's basement than its penthouse, plummeting from first in the Atlantic Division last season to being all but eliminated from the playoffs for weeks now.

Couple that with controversy over the team's lack of response to Auston Matthews' season-ending injury from an objectively dirty hit and GM Brad Treliving's unceremonious firing Monday just hours before a rematch with the guy who hurt their captain, and you get a glimpse of a team where dysfunction reigns supreme.

Here are five reasons why the Leafs have been one of the NHL's most disappointing teams this season.

Let's get this one out of the way — no, losing star winger Mitch Marner to the Vegas Golden Knights isn't the reason the Leafs have been a mess this season, but it's definitely a factor. 

Marner popped for 102 points in a contract year last season, and was a key part of both special teams. He was also a no-show in key playoff moments year after year, which had many fans clamouring for him to be traded to usher in some sort of change to the team's much-vaunted "core four." (Though really, the time to make that move was in 2021 after the Montreal Canadiens humiliated the Leafs in the playoffs.)

Sure, losing Marner in the offseason for what amounted to depth centre Nicolas Roy (who after this year's trade deadline netted the team a late first-round pick) stung, but the thought was that by replacing him with more overall depth,