Toronto Maple Leafs Week In Review: Babcock, Gardiner, Goal Scoring

The Toronto Maple Leafs had a tough week, going 0-2-2 over four games.

Here is this week’s Ten Point Week In Review for the Toronto Maple Leafs:

1) Extra time woes continue. It was another gut-punch week for the Leafs as they lost two games after regulation. Toronto is now 1-8 in shootouts and have six losses in overtime to go with that poor record. 23.8% of the Leafs games have gone to extra time, and they’ve only won one game of the 15 that went beyond the third. That is putrid, so if you’re looking for a quick reason why they aren’t above the Senators, there’s your answer.

2) The deadline was awful. I’ve already gone over this in the Fehr post and in the Roundtable post, so check those out for more extended thoughts.

More from Editor In Leaf

3) Lack of goal scoring. This week, the Leafs managed to score only seven goals in the four games. A goal drought couldn’t have come at a worse time as the Leafs are drifting out of the post-season.

4) No goals from top players outside of Matthews/Kadri. Held off the scoresheet this week were James van Riemsdyk, William Nylander and Mitch Marner. That can’t happen in a four game span without a lot of secondary scoring. Your top players have to find the net, and this week they didn’t.

5) A rumor came out yesterday in Friedman’s 30 Thoughts about the Leafs chasing Cody Franson or Jason Garrison. Franson would have immediately solved the Leafs defensive problems in a big way. He’s a very good defender. Lamoriello missed the boat on this one. I would love to know what the asking price was, because he was willing to give up a 2nd+ for Brian Boyle.

6) Mike Babcock needs to stop playing everyone equally. Auston Matthews should get 20 minutes every single night. He’s the best player and he’s the guy who will carry this team. Especially when they are losing, Matthews needs to be on the ice. They need to give themselves a chance to win and sending out Bozak and Boyle lines are a waste of time. Shift Marner up and let’s get back in the game.

7) Maybe the trade deadline was an illusion. Maybe, the Leafs really don’t want to make the playoffs and are fine with their continued freefall. Maybe that’s why they didn’t acquire someone to fill their biggest need and why they appeared to be pushing for a playoff spot with the Boyle trade. Right now they are only five or six points out of Liljegren and Foote territory for the draft. Maybe it’s by design.

8) Games starting at 1030 ET or 10 ET are stupid. I get that it’s the West Coast and the whole time zone thing, but it is dumb. Start the game at 5pm PDT and tell the locals to suck it up. The majority of people watching a Leafs game aren’t going to be in the Pacific Time Zone. The league is a business, after all, and having Toronto play at 1030 Eastern is just bad business.

9) Matthews had three goals in the four games this week, moving him up to 19th in scoring in the NHL. He’s also tied with Max Pacioretty and Patrik Laine for 2nd in goals with 31. Not bad for a rookie.

10) Using projection coefficients prior to the season, we predicted a 46 point season for Matthews and 50 point season for Marner. Matthews currently has 55 and Marner has 50. Neither player is done putting up points. It’s safe to say that they have exceeded expectations.

Bonus) This tweet caused anguish on Twitter because it puts Jake Gardiner as one of the top defenders around the league – and that’s great. Gardiner gets grief because prior to the Shanahan era, the media picked on him so it became “cool” to hate Jake. It’s not “cool” to hate Jake. I see lots of people complain about him, but no one ever backs it up with reasoning. He’s good, accept it and direct your hatred toward a player who deserves it.

Home / Editorials