Much as they did last year, the Toronto Maple Leafs began the NHL regular season as winners of their first two games. And with winnable games at home against Calgary, Colorado and Winnipeg, the Buds have a chance to match or better their 4-0-0 start to the 2010-11 campaign.

But as all NHL fans should know, looking promising out of the blocks doesn’t guarantee  a spot in the post-season. The Leafs stumbled badly last November, winning just three of 13 games and in the process erased what good they had done the month before. December wasn’t much better – five wins in 13 tries – and the two combined months made their playoff hopes all but a pipe dream.

Not even Toronto’s relatively torrid finish to the season (eight wins out of 14 in February, nine out of 15 in March) could propel them back into the Eastern Conference’s top eight. It is absolutely possible for teams to bury themselves with one or two bad months. That’s why it’s true that, although energy and attention on games will rise as we hit the springtime stretch drive, the games right now are just as important as any time of the season.

And that’s why it’s also important not to pay too much mind to those demanding that Leafs GM Brian Burke trade away defensive depth, or package a number of worker bee forwards to land an impact NHLer to improve the top two forward lines.

It’s a long time between now and mid-April. Injuries should be expected over the course of any team’s season – and the only way you guard against them is to have a productive system stacked at all positions as deeply as possible.

So long as there’s no prolonged period of futility in the standings the Leafs need to be patient and panic-free. Other teams won’t surrender above-average players in a trade until they’ve had their season go terribly awry. Right now we’re still only in the potentially “awry” stage; it takes six more weeks minimum before the word “terribly” gets added to the mix. 

It’s increasingly difficult for a Cup-starved fan base like Toronto’s to deal with, but it’s still true: the NHL season is a marathon – and sprinting out of the gates, wildly grabbing at Gatorade cups and changing your running clothes won’t benefit anyone but the drama-addicted.