Toronto Maple Leafs: Bad Penalty Habits Becoming a Trend

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had a wild few games.

As many had hoped, the 2017-18 season has been impressive thus far. No one should be getting too excited as of yet, however. The Toronto Maple Leafs are only three games into the season, and as crazy as it may seem after watching them tally 19 goals, there is one weakness that needs addressing. Its time to bring the Leafs bad penalty habits to light.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Early Weakness comes from Bad Penalty Habits

Just a quick disclaimer before I get started: Toronto’s penalty kill isn’t awful, as a perfect 8-for-8 against the Winnipeg Jets on October 4th will show. I won’t be touching on that today. However, amidst such a successful start, there is one thing that players have been doing a lot of. Bad penalties happen, and are sometimes hard to prevent. Unfortunately, such plays have turned out to be a common denominator throughout the Maple Leafs preseason and during their last three games.

Leafs Penalties vs. the Winnipeg Jets

Lets take a look at Toronto’s first regular season game against the Winnipeg Jets. There were four penalties called against the Buds by the end of the first period, doubling to eight after 60 minutes.

This season has brought on a few new rules for NHL players to get used to. One such rule led to an equipment violation being handed to Leo Komarov, who tends to wear his visor at the the top of his forehead. Judging by the look of dismay on the faces of Komarov and Mike Babcock, we shouldn’t expect to see this call made against the Leafs too often.

The penalty box was filled by Morgan Rielly and Connor Brown who received high sticking penalties, both deemed avoidable upon second glance. Each were the cause of many of the shots that Frederik Andersen was tasked to face. Toronto’s penalty kill was outstanding in the season opener, but witnessed a dip in performance against the New York Rangers. Andersen, however, is yet to show any signs of underperformance.

Leafs Penalties vs. the New York Rangers

The Toronto Maple Leafs show off versus the New York Rangers saw the net filled yet again, this time by a score of 8-5. Despite another first period flare, fans witnessed a Leaf-like collapse that saw Toronto’s four goal lead dissipate.

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Coach Mike Babcock was spot on in his post game press conference, admitting that during “the second period, I don’t know what we were doing”. That same period, bad penalties gave up the Maple Leafs comfortable lead. William Nylander was busted for slashing that led to a New York goal, followed by a too many men penalty served by Mitch Marner. A delayed penalty call on Marner allowed the Rangers to get an extra man out, eventually ending in a goal.

Leafs Penalties vs. the Chicago Blackhawks

Now here’s a team you really don’t want to be giving any extra opportunities. Throughout the span of three periods, the Toronto Maple Leafs gave the Chicago Blackhawks numerous chances to score, splitting a total of 13 penalties almost evenly with their opponent.

K Leafs, time to realize they're calling all the little slashes. Enough is enough with these penalties.
— Ben Dowsett (@Ben_Dowsett) October 10, 2017

Eight out of the thirteen penalties called in the game were for slashing, a trend that the NHL’s crackdown on slashing has wagered across the league. Richard Panik scored on the Hawks fifth man advantage of the game after Andreas Borgman took an interference penalty.

Learn, Adapt, and Stay out of the Box

Next: What is the Value of William Nylander

A common theme for many of the penalties that the Toronto Maple Leafs have been subjected to are products of the NHL’s new, and sometimes fickle, 2017-18 rulebook. Unfortunately, players are left with only a sequence of steps that must be followed to stay out of the box.

Learn the rules, adapt to the rules, and keep unnecessary penalties to a comfortable minimum.