No one can blame Leafs Nation for being spooked this Halloween.

While plodding starts through the October pumpkin patch has become the norm under two good coaches (5-5-1 this year with Craig Berube, preceded by 6-4-1, then Sheldon Keefe’s records of 5-4-0, 4-4-2 and 4-4-1), this slow launch resonates more ominous tones.

The hockey team has avoided harsher local scrutiny, grateful for the ballpark hoopla at the other end of Bremner Boulevard . But they’ve staggered through the supposed easy part of the schedule, like Frankenstein’s monster taking its tentative steps off the slab.

Berube and general manager Brad Treliving have yet to get their creation sustained life and they all might still be hearing ‘boo’ in a long-haunted Bay Street mansion well past Oct. 31.

A closer look at a mon

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