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Photo: Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

I’m not sure how to populate this space with anything remotely hopeful. The Leafs are the worst team in the league at the moment, seem to have been totally figured out by the opposition, have lost confidence in their abilities and on top of that are doing themselves in with mind numbing mistakes most nights. They go into the Chicago Madhouse tonight, where the Blackhawks have posted a 21-7-4 record, in a back to back situation which has not favoured them this season.

All we can hope is that the Leafs don’t get the Blackhawks’ best (they won’t have Toews tonight) and do get a little luck and a stop every now and then. The luck won’t ever come though if this team doesn’t dig deep and show some pride. Joffrey Lupul has been throwing the body more, Phil Kessel has been digging deep in the way he knows how, and Mike Brown has been hitting everything that moves, but largely this team is hanging its head and looking around for answers.

But hey, with the playoff outlook looking bleak and a lottery pick nearing, maybe the Leafs are back where they’re comfortable and will surprise us all with a win tonight.

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Alec Brownscombe is the founder and editor of MapleLeafsHotStove.com, where he has written daily about the Leafs since September of 2008. He's published five magazines on the team entitled "The Maple Leafs Annual" with distribution in Chapters and newsstands across the country. He also co-hosted "The Battle of the Atlantic," a weekly show on TSN1200 that covered the Leafs and the NHL in-depth. Alec is a graduate of Trent University and Algonquin College with his diploma in Journalism. In 2014, he was awarded Canada's Best Hockey Blogger honours by Molson Canadian. You can contact him at alec.brownscombe@mapleleafshotstove.com.