Opinion | For the Maple Leafs, this is the most intense time of the regular season. And the most important

By definition, professional sports is a loud and intense business. Everything is magnified. But at three specific times of the year, it increases.

Roughly three weeks before the NHL trade deadline, which falls on the third Monday of the third month, is a perfect time to highlight the one the hometown Maple Leafs are entering. What happens before the deadline may very well determine who is best positioned to hoist the Stanley Cup three-plus months from now.

The first time that’s magnified is long past: the start of the season. It’s exciting for all 32 teams. Everyone is on a level playing field, long-term decisions made over the summer are in perfect order, new marketing plans are in place and optimism is in the air. Rosters are largely set, prized rookies are on full display and established veterans are buckling up for a long ride.

Most important, each team is undefeated, fresh and healthy. It’s every manager’s vision on full display. Early wins and losses are analyzed, dissected, agonized over or celebrated. Then the realization hits that 82 games is a long haul, and things settle in.

The third time is still a couple of months away: when the playoffs loom and games remaining are in the single digits. For most teams, positioning will be long settled. Injuries are feared most at this point, when options are limited and replacements must come from within. You essentially are what you are. The focus is on how you’re playing, how ready you are and what the hockey world feels you’re capable of.

The most intense time of the regular season, for clubs and fans, is right now: leading up to the March 21 trade deadline. It’s all about change, because change is still an option.

Every team still has that magical opportunity to alter their locker room, find that missing piece, address deficiencies both real and imagined, and position themselves for a Stanley Cup run. Injuries can still be addressed, the salary cap can still be managed (and manipulated!) and dream acquisitions still float in the head of every fantasy team manager. Anything and everything is still possible.

At least that’s the perception. Reality may dictate otherwise, as the Leafs learned recently when three storylines generated conversation among diehard fans, heightened by their proximity to the trade deadline.

The first: a mini-slump (3-4-1) including three losses at the hands of teams not expected to be playing this spring. For a team operating in the elite air the Leafs have been in all season, people took note.

The second: a 5-2 loss to the last-place and archrival Montreal Canadiens. It was the way it happened, and the joy of Canadiens fans, that disturbed the local faithful the most. The Canadiens stormed out to a 5-0 lead and played arguably their best game of a miserable campaign, rekindling memories of their stunning playoff upset of the Leafs last spring on the way to the Stanley Cup final.

The third: reliable defenceman Jake Muzzin suffering a concussion in that Montreal loss. This comes on the heels of a similar injury in January that saw him miss seven games. Muzzin brings an integral element of physicality to the team that elevates come playoff time. He’ll be sorely missed, and his absence at a position that might have already needed addressing via trade magnifies the importance of the next three weeks.

The calming news for Leafs fans is that in the magnified world of professional sports, three weeks is a long time. Anything can happen.

Dave Poulin is a former NHL player, executive and TSN hockey analyst based in Toronto. He is a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @djpoulin20