Maple Leafs players noticing decreased home attendance so far this season

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the middle of one of their most challenging stretches of the Auston Matthews era. Something has been off with the team, which is usually near the top of the Atlantic Division standings, and the struggles are starting to take a toll on the Maple Leafs’ fans and attendance, according to Toronto’s trio of beat reporters, James Mirtle, Jonas Siegel, and Joshua Kloke, via The Athletic.

“Sometimes it’s more calm. We acknowledge that,” defenceman Simon Benoit told reporters. “A bit more quieter. But we haven’t been great so far. I’m sure once we start pumping the wins, it’s going to come back for sure.”

The problem is: are the Maple Leafs actually going to start pumping out wins? Whenever they look like they’ve turned a corner, they put forth another poor performance, like Thursday night when they suffered a 4-0 shutout loss to the Washington Capitals.

Toronto fans aren’t happy with the product that they are seeing on the ice. Sheldon Keefe’s tenure as head coach brought forth a more exciting brand of hockey, while Craig Berube preaches more defensive responsibility. It’d be one thing if the Leafs were winning consistently, but the hockey is more boring, and the team is performing worse.

The Toronto hockey market doesn’t like underperformance. If the Maple Leafs slip back into their struggles before the Matthews era, the attendance issue could get even worse. It’s time for the team to turn things around, and if not, things could get very ugly in the hockey capital of the world.

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