MONTREAL \u2014 Team Tank is welcoming all new recruits.<\/p>\n
Losing is the new winning.<\/p>\n
Every day between now and April 15 is Opposite Day.<\/p>\n
Yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>\u2019 tumble down the leaderboard has been so aggressive and precipitous, all that flak general manager Brad Treliving is getting for not protecting his 2026 first-round draft choice through top 10 may be moot.<\/p>\n With a little lottery luck and more performances like Tuesday\u2019s 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, these once-mighty Leafs may indeed fall all the way to the NHL\u2019s bottom five and keep the pick they surrendered to Boston (in a pricy package for Brandon Carlo) after all.<\/p>\n Like a campy horror flick, the Maple Leafs are so bad, it\u2019s good.<\/p>\n In an Atlantic Division that appears flipped, turned upside down, the Maple Leafs have gone from first to worst.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still seeking their first win since the Olympic torch got extinguished, the Leafs are now losers of eight straight.\u00a0<\/p>\n Year over year, their goal differential has plummeted by 63 goals over 65 games, from plus-37 to minus-26. That\u2019s worst in the Eastern Conference. They have two regulation wins over their past 21 attempts.<\/p>\n Were it not for a solid performance by goaltender Joseph Woll (.938) at Bell Centre, the Maple Leafs \u2014 who were outshot 33-18 by the younger, faster and suddenly more relevant Canadiens \u2014 wouldn\u2019t have hung around long enough to keep this one close until Jake Evans\u2019 empty-netter in the final minute.<\/p>\n What\u2019s changed now, though, after trading away three legit forwards for picks and giving more shifts to Marlies, is that the Maple Leafs are embracing the suck.<\/p>\n