Toronto Maples Leafs Poised for a Comeback January

So the Leafs find themselves in 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings. A poor December and an absolutely ugly penalty kill are ruining the Leafs' season.

The Leafs seemed poised to make their first postseason since the NHL lockout this season, but the early headway they made early in the season has disappeared, and the only thing that can save the Leafs' season now is another Leafs post-January 1 hot streak to end the 2011-2012 NHL season.

Among all the bad news about the Leafs' PK and the offense slowing down a bit, there is some good news as well—a silver lining in the cloud, if you want to call it that.

The walking wounded for the Leafs are starting to get healthy again. Mike Komisarek and Mike Brown might be in the lineup as early this Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings.

These two players, in my opinion, are very important to the Leafs' success.

They both bring a much-needed physical element to the Leafs lineup, which is sorely lacking since they have been out. You can also include Colby Armstrong to that list, but it seems as though we will never see him in the Leafs lineup for an extended period of time, which is really a shame.

Komisarek and Brown are two key pieces to the Leafs' PK, since it will take Gardiner off which in my opinion is an instant upgrade to the PK. Also, since Philippe Dupuis has been waived, Brown is the perfect replacement.

Don’t get me wrong; I like Gardiner. He has real upside and I’m not blaming the PK on him, but he has no business being on the PK as an offensive defenseman.

The loss of JM Liles also really shows on the power play and puck movement 5-on-5. He should also be back sooner rather than later, probably next week sometime.

I believe all this equates to a healthy Leafs team that at the beginning of the season played some very solid hockey and, more importantly, was one of the better teams in the NHL.

Dion Phaneuf spent some time today in practise talking to the defense core along with the coaches. The topic of discussion seems to have revolved around talking responsibility for the team’s shortcomings on the PK and the defense as a whole not blocking shots properly and screening the goaltenders.

If this team makes the playoffs, and I think that they will with a healthy team, the Dion Phaneuf trade will look all that much worse as he will have led the Leafs out of rough times and into the playoffs as a great young and upcoming leader.