Toronto Maple Leafs November in Review: Inconsistent

With a disappointing 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins Wednesday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs will finish November with a 7-6-1 record for the month, 14-9-2 to this date. 

With four more wins then last November, the Maple Leafs made a small improvement, but they still lack consistency. 

The month was plagued with inconsistency as the Maple Leafs had stretches of four loses in five games and vice-versa. 

One major reason for the inconsistencies have been the constant lineup changes. Besides the first line of Lupul, Bozak and Kessel, every line has been pieced together differently throughout November. That makes it hard for chemistry to develop.

Speaking of the first line, they continued their domination that started in October. Tyler Bozak upped his game by scoring a respectable six goals in November.

Joffrey Lupul leads the league with 19 points this month, which could put him in the running for NHL Player of the Month although I expect Tim Thomas will take that honour.

Phil Kessel scored six goals along with eight assists for 14 points. Although it wasn't a repeat of October's performance, Kessel showed the league that he is determined to avoid any major slumps that we've seen from him the past few years.

Goaltender Jonas Gustavsson started his month off bumpy and he was quickly replaced by rookie Ben Scrivens. In his last five games, however, Gustavsson has posted a 4-1-0 record.

The same can be said for Tim Connolly, Mikhail Grabovski, and most of the Leafs' defenders. They have all had good and bad stretches throughout the month. 

The only player who has been consistently bad has been Nikolai Kulemin. He has contributed almost nothing offensively over these two months and it doesn't look like he is snapping out of this streak anytime soon. He has to step up his game or he will be at risk of a demotion.

With many injured Maple Leafs set to return in December, I'm looking forward to a much better month. November wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination but there is a lot of room for improvement.