Toronto Maple Leafs: Goals, Assists, and Penalties

Hockey has a lot of stats, many of them overlooked, some of them overused, so I thought I would find new ways to use them. I have accumulated a list of random thoughts on the Toronto Maple Leafs and tagged them with either a Goal, an Assist, or a Penalty. A Goal is something positive. An Assist is generally positive but may leave something to be desired. And a Penalty is something I deem negative.

Penalty:… or lack thereof. I was at game 6 of the Marlies vs. Devils game and the referees were terrible. Never have I heard such a loud rant from the crowd saying “Refs you suck! Refs you suck!”. It was unreal. Usually they are amazing, but they had more than an off night that day.

Hat Trick: Draft lottery results. Last year, with one ball left, the Maple Leafs had the best chance. Anyone saying that they should choose Patrik Laine over Matthews is out of their mind. You can’t trade for a number one center or a number one defenseman, you must draft them.

Goal: Toronto Marlies advancing to the Eastern Conference final. We knew it wouldn’t be a cake-walk to get to the finals, but game 7 was way too close for comfort. Anyone wondering where Garrett Sparks is?

Penalty: Speaking of where are people…where is William Nylander? Even Sheldon Keefe is starting to call him out saying “I need Willie to be a lot more competitive, with and without the puck.” Keefe continued, “He’s (playing with his) foot off the gas quite a bit when we don’t have the puck and as a result, we are not getting it nearly enough when he’s out there.”

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Nylander has been very quiet these playoffs and not the dominant guy that we expected to see. I have no inside knowledge but could he be nursing an injury? Unless that is the case, his play in the playoffs has been disappointing. But luckily he has time to change this.

Assist: Signing Nikita Zaitsev. Expect him to be on one of the power-play units and to play around 20 minutes a night as the season progresses. I hope he can come in here next season with limited expectations so he can go out and just play his game and fans be happy having someone competing for a top four position. His 1 year entry level deal at under $1M is definitely a good start at keeping expectations lower. Getting a guy like Zaitsev for free is an absolute dream and this deal has been in place for almost a year now as Shanahan was ahead of the rest of the GM’s in the league getting this done.

Assist: Wendal Clark listing his Muskoka cottage on Airbnb with all proceeds going to charity. If you want to check it out you can find it here.

Penalty: Those still pushing a trade of Auston Matthews and the Arizona Coyotes. It’s just not going to happen.

Goal: Mitch Marner and his dominance in the OHL playoffs. He won OHL’s season MVP, Wayne Gretzky 99 Award for playoff MVP, and finished with 2.44 PPG in the playoffs . That is third all time (Rob Schremp 2.47 PPG, and Connor McDavid 2.45 PPG) of players that reach the finals.

Assist: Toronto Maple Leafs extending their affiliation with the Orlando Solar Bears. Using the Solar Bears as a stepping stone for the Toronto Marlies has proven to be beneficial and a place of development not utilized well before Brendan Shanahan. Last season, the Solar Bears had over 100 roster moves as the Marlies took advantage of their affiliation and 16 players played for the Solar Bear and either the Maple Leafs and/or the Marlies.

Goal: The play of Connor Carrick. Carrick has been given loads of ice time in these playoffs and is clearly the superior defenseman for the Marlies. How we got him from Washington as essentially an add-on is beyond me. Kudos to Mark Hunter once again for finding this guy, he is going to be a solid third pairing defenseman for a long time.

Penalty: The elbow to Andreas Johnson. The elbow from Dan Kelly of the Albany Devils was absolutely disgusting. Kelly got a 10 game suspension for that hit, mostly because it is his third offense of a hit to the head. That’s right, THIRD! The video can be found here. Not sure of his condition a week later, but I hope he fully recovers, but don’t expect him back for the playoffs. The hit happened in only his second ever AHL game.

Next: Maple Leafs Individual Grades

Assist: Kyle Dubas staying in Toronto. Good for Dubas for turning down an opportunity to be the Coyotes next GM, stating that he still had a lot to learn.