The Toronto Maple Leafs started the season with high hopes of bypassing the Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning to become the dominant team in the Atlantic Division of the NHL's Easter Conference. So far this season, they have not met their own expectations.

While they may have the best goal scorer in the league in Auston Matthews, they regularly fall short of showing they have a complete team. It seems that if Matthews does not play the lead role, the Leafs regularly fall short.

This is not hyperbole, and Thursday night's game against the Calgary Flames is a great example. The Leafs went into Calgary with a 4-game losing streak and the heat under head coach Sheldon Keefe was rising by the hour. It was expected that the team would come up with one of their best efforts of the year to break their losing streak

As the game started, the Flames were flying and the Leafs were skating in mud. Toronto quickly fell behind by a 2-0 score and the deficit nearly grew to 3-0 when Calgary captain Mikael Backlund hit the post on a breakaway.

That's when Matthews took over. He got the Leafs on the board late in the first period with a vicious wrister from the slot, and added two more goals in the second period for his fourth hat trick of the season. The 2-0 deficit became a 4-2 lead — running mate Mitch Marner scored the other goal for the Leafs — and they hung on throughout the third period for a 4-3 victory.

Calgary's Andrew Mangiapane had cut the deficit late in the second period, and a Keefe challenge in the third period kept the Flames from tying the game in the third period.

Maple Leafs top-end performers: A-minus

Matthews is an inspired player in 2023-24, as he has already scored a league-leading 37 goals and he is on pace to eclipse the 70-goal mark. Much of his inspiration goes back to last season as Matthews scored 40 goals, ranking 15th. Five players had 50 or more goals, but Matthews could not come close in 74 games, and he has put last season's slump behind him.

It has not all been on Matthews this season, as William Nylander has been nearly as important as Matthews. Nylander has a team-leading 59 points — Matthews has 54 — with 21 goals and 38 assists. Nylander has shown tremendous growth and will shoot the puck when he senses an opportunity, and that has not always been the case. He was a pass-first player, but he has become a more well-rounded offensive threat.

Marner continues to be one of the team's top engines. While Matthews has the best shot on the team and must be the top priority for opponents, Marner is a slick skater who finds the weak spots and can cause consistent damage. He has scored 19 goals and 29 assists and remains the perfect line mate for Matthews.

Defense is an issue for the Leafs, but Morgan Rielly has the offensive skills and all-around game that should allow this team to be more consistent in the second half of the season. He has 7 goals and 28 assists, and will join the offensive rush when his team needs a big play.

Maple Leafs secondary scoring and defense: C-minus

The Leafs have not played with any kind of consistency this season and they do not belong with the elite teams in the league. As they have edged past the midway point of the season, they are barely in third place in the Atlantic Division and could easily find themselves out of the playoffs.

John Tavares is the team's No. 2 center behind Matthews, and his numbers fail to reach expectations. The former Islanders star has 12 goals and 22 assists in 43 games and a minus-4 rating. While he can get the job done in the faceoff circle — he is winning more than 60 percent of his draws — he rarely exerts the kind of leadership or strength that is needed when the game is on the line.

Players like Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, Calle Jarnkrok and Jake McCabe all need to step up and have played a key role in the Leafs playing mediocre hockey to this point in the season.

Maple Leafs Goaltending: C-minus

The Leafs have three goaltenders, and that's a pretty sad commentary. Martin Jones (2.40 GAA, .920 save percentage), Joseph Woll (2.80, .916) and Ilya Samsonov (3.88, .863) have all failed to assert themselves to this point in the season.

It doesn't seem likely that this will turn into an area of strength in the second half of the season or the playoffs.

The story remains the same in Toronto: If the Leafs don't outscore their opponents, they are not going to win their most important games.

The post-1967 dry spell continues.