The Maple Leafs start exhibition season with much of the same approach

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The Maple Leafs begin their annual seven-month grind toward the Stanley Cup playoffs on Sunday when they open the exhibition season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.

The last time Toronto was on the ice in an official capacity was May 4, a Game 7 overtime loss in Boston to the Bruins that brought an end to the postseason after one round for the eighth time in nine years.

To crow about the quality of one’s losses – “Look how close they came!” – is not a measuring stick to which any NHL organization is likely to ascribe.

So what to expect this year, at least as preseason commences? Will the Leafs make the playoffs again? Barring a catastrophe, yes. Do they have a chance to win their first Stanley Cup since 1967? Yes. Will they? I’m not sure why anyone would look at the past decade and come to that conclusion.

Every training camp starts the same way. A few new horses have been added to the carousel and maybe it has had a touch-up with a bit of paint. There are newcomers who add promise, rookies, who generally aren’t quite ready, that fans get excited about, re-treads and hangers-on, and then 18 or so other guys who actually figure into the equation.

Many expected management to make substantial changes after another April of misery. Beyond some roster tinkering that should help, there was not a lot done to indicate that the powers that be are convinced that a different approach is needed.

Maybe this 10th year with Brendan Shanahan at the wheel will prove to be the charm. That could happen – a lightning bolt has to land somewhere – but usually the teams in the mix at the end are those that have won recently and others that have lost by the most narrow margins. Which means, in such a situation, the Panthers and Oilers are first to come to mind.

Craig Berube, who won a Stanley Cup a half-dozen years ago while at the helm of the St. Louis Blues, is now behind Toronto’s bench. He is a bit gruff and as a player was extremely tough. He played left wing and over 17 NHL seasons collected more than 3,000 penalty minutes.

The guy should walk around with a patch over one eye and a parrot on his shoulder.

“I want our team to have an identity about competing, playing hard, working hard and winning one-on-one battles,” Berube said after Day 2 of training camp.

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The need for the Maple Leafs to be tougher is an annual conversation here. They are not as soft as they once were and brought in gritty defender Chris Tanev as a free agent over the summer. Dallas looked like it had a chance to beat Edmonton until Tanev got hurt in the third round.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who won the Stanley Cup with Florida, will likewise improve Toronto’s rear guard. He was signed as a free agent by general manager Brad Treliving as well. Two nagging facts – Tanev is 34 and Ekman-Larsson is 33. Not ancient mind you, but not young, either. That can be good – adding another Stanley Cup winner to the dressing room – but there is no guarantee.

Auston Matthews has taken over the team’s captaincy from John Tavares. What will that mean in terms of the product on the ice? Most likely very little. This is a hard fact: Can Matthews play much better than he has already? That’s doubtful. And the same is true of William Nylander, Mitch Marner and the aging Tavares. Perhaps incrementally here and there but that is not likely to make the Maple Leafs champions.

Goaltending? Well, right now Toronto has a couple of flimsy unproved guys possibly made out of papier-mâché. And Matt Murray.

Max Pacioretty, who is in camp on a professional tryout offer, is 35 and hoping to resurrect a nice career that has been submarined for the past two years by injuries.

The regular season commences on Oct. 9 in Montreal. Perhaps by then there will be many answers provided. But don’t expect too much. After all, these are the Maple Leafs.