As Leaf fans, we’ve all heard the jokes, we’ve all been ridiculed and we’ve all sat in our chairs wondering what the heck went wrong.

Only four weeks ago, Leaf Nation had completed the pre-season that was suppose to start the year the Leafs made it back to the playoffs. Victor Stalberg was a beast, our goalies still understood their jobs as puck stoppers and our defense still knew those childhood lessons such as, “stay in your lane", “don’t chase on the penalty kill” and most importantly, “don’t pinch unless you have support from your forwards.”

Now, since the majority of my heart is dedicated to the Toronto Maple Leafs, I still have a place in my heart for the amazing game that I have played and loved my whole life—hockey.

Through my life I have learned that under no circumstance does anything that happens in October, and most of November, carry great substance in March and April. The good teams prove they are good, the “supposed to be good teams” struggle only to regain form about now and finish in the Top Five and the lesser teams battle inconsistency from start to finish. That is why they rarely win the cup.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are obviously somewhere in the third group of teams that finish somewhere in the 6-15 range in the Eastern conference.

This is where my article goes from an extremely bad outlook on the Leafs continuing season, to a very positive outlook on their season.

For starters, we have yet to ice our complete 23-man roster. Our best hockey player has yet to take the ice for a game and our goalies have yet to iron their creases out.

So why do I still have a positive outlook for this season?

To make things simple, our best hockey player is one of the most dynamic in the NHL. He can score with the best of them, skate past the rest of them and just so happens to be 22 years old.

Our goaltending has been terrible. Joey Macdonald had a farm and should never have left it. Vesa Toskala has a save percentage that, if he was a student, would make him worried about falling off the honor roll.

So now it comes down to Jonas Gustavsson and the start of his NHL career. People may say that he has pressure on him coming back and, hopefully, taking over the starting job. I say what possibly pressure can he have? All he has to do is be better than Toskala and anything more is a plus.

So, Phil Kessel comes back and we get more goals. Gustavsson comes back and based on the scouting report, we keep some goals out. Check and check.

Now it comes down to the rest of the players.

So far, our forwards average just under two goals a game. Our defense somehow made it possible to allow right around 4.5 goals a game. Safe to say, two players aren’t going to change this team.

Here is where this article makes all of you believers that this season is going to go much better then it looks, and Boston will not be picking Taylor Hall first overall.

When Toronto started the season, things were good because our defense and penalty kill were supposed to be better—and they will. Mike Komisarek is one of the best stay-at-home defenseman in the game, Tomas Kaberle is one of the best puck moving defenseman in the game and Luke Schenn is going to improve. Thus, both issues listed above are going to get better.

Another reason, it’s quite simple, Brian Burkes’ ego is bigger than Toronto. He does not want to see Boston walk up on stage and take Taylor Hall. He will make this team better, or find someway, anyway really, to make this work.

Ian White has shown that he can be a solid NHL hockey player since he basically has been our best player in the first three-and-a-half-weeks. Perhaps he is the reason we move Tomas Kaberle and get something in return.

Leaf Nation, please do not start buying Scott Gomez jerseys, please burn that Daniel Alfredsson jersey and realize that despite the early season troubles, we are nine points out of the playoffs with two games in hand and 74 more games to play.

That paragraph made me smile.

The Leafs will win, soon. The Leafs will score more, soon. The Leafs will find a goalie, soon. Let’s just hope that "soon" comes before November.