They beat the good ones.
They lose to the bad ones.
We'll call it The Circle … The Circle of Leafs.
It's a song that's become so commonplace it's a talking point on talk radio and among the fan base every time a struggling team rolls into town.
Will the Toronto Maple Leafs show up?
Or will they roll over and let key points slip away against an inferior opponent?
On Thursday, it was the latter. The New Jersey Devils, mired in the Eastern Conference basement with teams such as Buffalo and Philadelphia and missing much of their offensive talent, came in and played an ugly, effective road game – the kind that often works in Toronto – and left with a 5-3 win.
The loss ended a nice little 4-0-1 run for the Leafs, a two-week stretch that had completely turned the narrative of their season from despair to delight.
In there, they beat some good teams – including two in their division in Tampa and Detroit – and held their own against the powerhouse Penguins.
No, they didn't dominate, but the Leafs showed their depth, getting a pile of goals from all over the roster in a departure from years past.
Against New Jersey, however, they were flat as a pancake, and it bit them.
"They played like a desperate team," Leafs winger James van Riemsdyk said. "They just played a smarter game and capitalized on their chances."
Keep in mind that the Devils are a team in an awful mess. They came into Thursday having gone 3-9-2 in their last 14 games, a span in which they've been scoring well under two goals a game.
(Thursday was the first time they'd scored five since their second game back on Oct. 11.)
The oldest team in the NHL, New Jersey is also one of its most beat up – missing Jaromir Jagr, Patrik Elias, Travis Zajac, Bryce Salvador, Ryane Clowe and more – and have a weird assortment of bad contracts and unheralded kids all trying to coexist and eke out a playoff spot.
The situation has gotten so dire recently that they unearthed Scott Gomez out of near-retirement to play a key role – he had more than 15 minutes of ice time – where he started his career.
Netminder Cory Schneider, meanwhile, remains their lone bright spot, but despite a stellar November (.922 save percentage) he won only four of 13 games. He is also being played into the ground given there's no suitable backup.
In other words, a mess.
"We're probably right now where [the Leafs] were after the Nashville game," Devils coach Pete DeBoer said before the puck dropped, recalling Toronto's memorable 9-2 loss to the Preds two weeks ago. "And you know how quickly this league can turn around if you can get things going on the right direction.
"So, hopefully, we can end their [hot streak] and get one started of our own here tonight."
Hot would be kind given the pace of this game. We'll give the Devils tepid. But tepid was enough to beat the Leafs on a night where their top line in particular was a no-show, leading to plenty of speculation in the press box that Phil Kessel is playing hurt.
(Coach Randy Carlyle denied that in his postgame press conference.)
After going up 1-0 early in the first on a power play, New Jersey found the go-ahead goal on the man advantage, too, getting a fortuitous bounce off the end boards that Mike Cammalleri hammered home.
At that point, there were three minutes left in the second period and the Devils had a 3-2 lead, which they have had a hard time holding this year.
Rather than fending off a Leafs onslaught, however, the rest of the way was rather even. Steve Bernier beat Jonathan Bernier (no relation) for the insurance goal early in the third, and Toronto's pushback never really came when down by two.
The Leafs first line, in particular, wasn't good, and Carlyle made sure they saw more of the bench than usual in playing them under 14 minutes at even strength apiece.
"Plain and simple I thought we got outworked tonight," he said.
The good news in all this?
The Leafs have a very good team – the Vancouver Canucks – coming to town on Saturday.
Perhaps they will get up for that one. Perhaps they will find a way to win.
"We just need to breathe," Leafs centre Peter Holland said. "We're not freaking out by any means. It's one loss and we're on a good stretch here."
"We've already had our wake-up call," teammate Nazem Kadri added, a likely reference to the Nashville game. "This is just a little step backwards that we can fix."