Last night in Boston, Mike Babcock had Leo Komarov playing on the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ power-play unit.
I don’t understand what prompted this decision. Komarov isn’t a threat on offense. In 327 career games, he has 21 points. If you just want to look at this season’s statistics, you’d see that Komarov has registered 7 goals, 12 assists, and 3 power-play points.
For what ever reason, Babcock thought that Komarov lack of power-play skills would be useful when facing one of the best penalty kill units in the NHL. This season, the Boston Bruins had a 83 PK%. Their penalty kill was the third best in the NHL, so clearly it makes sense to assign a forward who isn’t a play-maker or goal scorer to combat their penalty kill unit. Last night, he logged 2:43 PP TOI. The decision to put him on the ice for almost three minutes of ice-time on the power-play didn’t translate into success.
It’s time for Babcock to take Komarov off of his power-play unit before disaster strikes again on Saturday evening.
Who Joins The Power-Play Unit Instead?
Yes, I know that Nazem Kadri will likely be suspended and the Toronto Maple Leafs will have to replace him as well on the power-play. Even with Kadri out of the lineup, it makes absolutely no sense for Komarov to remain on the unit.
To replace Kadri and Komarov, I’d recommend utilizing Andreas Johnsson and Tomas Plekanec join the unit for game two.
Andreas Johnsson
While Johnsson hasn’t been in the lineup for a ton of games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he did flourish on the Toronto Marlies’ power-play this season. In 54 games with the Marlies, he led the team with 8 PPG. Additionally, he had 10 PPA.
Johnsson hasn’t had a ton of exposure on the Maple Leafs’ power-play unit, but it’s time for Babcock to experiment to see if it’ll work. Worst case if Johnsson doesn’t pan out on the power-play, Babcock can turn to Kasperi Kapanen.
Tomas Plekanec
It has been a while since Plekanec has been featured on a power-play unit. The last time that Plekanec registered a point on the power-play was back in 2016-2017 with the Montreal Canadiens. Prior to his 2016-2017 campaign in Montreal, he had shown promise on the power-play. In fact in his career, he has 178 PPP.
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My readers might suggest that I’m off my rocker for pitching that Plekanec should join the unit. The truth is beyond Plekanec there aren’t many other solid options. On the bright side if Kadri is back for game three or four, the amount of time Plekanec would log on the power-play would be rather minimal.
Recap
All-in-all, Komarov shouldn’t be featured on the Maple Leafs power-play. The Maple Leafs are up against one of the league’s best penalty kill units. If Babcock hopes to have success on the power-play in game two, Komarov shouldn’t log one second of time on the ice when the Maple Leafs have a man advantage.
Next: Best Season In Leafs History?
Let’s hope that Babcock makes an adjustment prior to tomorrow night.
stats from NHL.com & marlies.ca