Leafs: When are Streaks the Norm?

I didn't watch much of the Leafs' tilt against Tampa Bay last night as I was out playing a game of my own (a goaltending duel that ended in a 8-8 final).

The Leafs were down 2-0 when I left the house and, by the looks of their rather flat play, I was doubtful they'd storm back.

My Leaf fandom has pretty much come to this: don't let the loss be a total blow-out.

And so the Leafs go into the All Star Break on another losing skid, which got me thinking - are losing streaks the new norm for this team?

Streaks

Last season, the Leafs had seven different losing streaks, totaling 34 games. Only one of those skids was a three gamer, the rest were four or more (including a six and an eight game skid). That's 40% of their season.

In just 45 games this year, the Leafs have already lost three or more in a row six times. That's 24 games out of 45 or 53% of their season to date. The, ahem, good news is (yeah) four of these skids have been stopped after three losses.

Comparatively, the Leafs have never won five straight during Burke's tenure and have only had two four-game winning streaks in their last 131 games.

I never thought losing streaks would be the new normal in Leaf land.