The Maple Leafs Don’t Need Everything to Be Working Yet

Gavin McKenna was supposed to be the new kid everybody was watching. That was always going to happen. He was the first overall pick, the kid with the enormous expectations, and now he is wearing a Maple Leafs sweater. Every shift gets noticed.

But through the first two games, Easton Cowan has been pretty interesting, too. In fact, Cowan has looked a little more comfortable than McKenna. And maybe that's not a bad thing for either of them.

Cowan isn’t the new kid on the block anymore.

Cowan isn't the new kid anymore. He’s been around the organization, gone through the ups and downs of trying to establish himself, and now another young player is suddenly beside him, getting a lot of the attention. Maybe that creates a little competition. Not the bad kind. The good kind.

Sometimes having somebody beside you who is chasing the same thing can make you push a little harder. McKenna doesn't have to be taking anything away from Cowan. He might actually be giving Cowan another reason to take his game up a notch.

And eventually McKenna is going to settle in. There is way too much talent there to think otherwise. That brings up something else that’s been interesting about these first two games.

The Maple Leafs haven't exactly been an offensive juggernaut.

So far, the Maple Leafs’ offence hasn’t loaded up. And that's OK. Actually, it might be more than OK.

This is a team with Auston Matthews, John Tavares, William Nylander, Kirill Marchenko, McKenna and Cowan. Plenty of offensive talent is sitting there, waiting to happen. Toronto needed to figure out what it would look like without the puck. So far, that part has been pretty encouraging.

Maybe that's what Chayka and Jim Hiller are trying to build. Maybe the offence doesn't have to arrive fully formed in October. Maybe the first step is learning how to defend, how to compete and how to make life difficult for the other team. The goals will come. At least, that's the hope when you have this much talent. The harder thing to build might be the habits that keep the puck out of your net.

There’s no reason to overanalyze the first couple of games.

The Maple Leafs are still figuring each other out. McKenna is figuring out the NHL. Cowan is figuring out where he fits. The new players are figuring out Hiller's system. Maybe the most interesting thing isn't who is scoring. Maybe it's that the Maple Leafs are starting to give each other something to chase.

And sometimes, that's how a team starts becoming a team.