Leafs Must Beat Iginla's Flames and Sedin's Canucks To Make Playoffs

The Toronto Maple Leafs are facing crunch time to make or break the playoff picture.

Sure, it might be a little early to be looking at the standings. You can't win Lord Stanley's Cup in December, but you sure can eliminate your chances of ever playing a legitimate game towards winning the coveted prize.

The Leafs are currently eight points out of the final spot in the East and have played an equal amount of games as the team currently occupying that coveted last spot. 

The squad has shown resilience winning three out of five games against top teams in the Eastern Conference. 

They now face the bottom dwellers of the West, the Edmonton Oilers (who they beat 4-1 last night) and the Calgary Flames along with the Vancouver Canucks who currently sit third in the ever competitive Western Conference.

It's sad considering the worst teams in the West are equal or almost equal in points as the 10th, 11th, and 12th spot teams in the East. However the fact still remains that if the Leafs do not defeat both Calgary and Edmonton they will have possibly lost their best chance at redeeming themselves and re-entering the hunt for those bottom few playoff spots.

It can be most certainly argued the Leafs have already blown their chances at redeeming themselves in the eyes of fans of Leafs Nation. But if the Leafs successfully sweep their roadtrip accross Western Canada it will give GM Brian Burke added ammunition to show the Leafs (who looked so good at the start of the year) what this team is all about.

After facing Vancouver, Toronto has a stretch of about three weeks where they face a lot of teams who (if they are a legit team that can make the playoffs) they should be able to defeat. This includes games against the Carolina Hurricanes, Ottawa Senators, New Jersey Devils, and the Columbus Blue Jackets to name a few. 

If the Leafs are capable of defeating Vancouver in their building after having lost to them in their own barn it could be the key to the Leafs making a big push up the standings.

Outside of the top four or five teams in their conference, the remaining teams are all very fragile and are capable of a long losing streak just as much as they are of a winning streak.

Because of how young the Maple Leafs roster is, they are prone to go on long stretches of either winning or losing; very much the same as the Oilers. 

The hope is the Leafs have enough talent and proven leadership that they are able to keep themselves from having another losing streak of any significant length over two games.

To sum it up, the Leafs need these next two games even more than they will possibly need any other two games for the remainder of the season.