Do the Toronto Maple Leafs Need more grit?
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a fast, highly skilled team – but are they lacking in grit? In toughness? In the ability to scare teams?
In the NHL, people talk about ‘playoff hockey’ as if it’s a totally different game. What I think, is that this is an old wives’ tale that has been passed down generation to generation, that has little bearing on reality.
The Playoffs require teams to play the same team over and over again for up to seven games, and as a result, sometimes things get a little heated. People think because the games matter more, players will try harder. I don’t believe this because very few NHL players are guaranteed jobs is they don’t perform. You can’t just take it easy in the regular season in a professional sports league where there are 100 guys waiting for a change to take your place.
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Its natural that the playoffs would be a little more intense, just because they matter more, but the idea that they are a totally different brand of hockey where the game completely changes is ridiculous. It’s just that you expect to see that, so you look for it and it’s one of those things that we all assume but don’t really investigate.
I can already tell you that every comment on this blog will say that ‘everyone knows’ the game gets tougher and that……..well you get the point!!
I don’t think the games get tougher. It might look that way because teams build up a little hate over seven games, but the only ‘proof’ we have one way or the other is the fact that fighting drops significantly in the playoffs.
My point is this: if a team is good enough to win in the regular season, it is completely preposterous to think that they just aren’t tough enough to also do it in the playoffs.
Toronto Maple Leafs
If you can win in the regular season, you can win in the playoffs.
You don’t need to be a tougher team to advance. That’s just a myth.
So back to the Leafs. Are they tough enough?
Obviously.
In the NHL, toughness only slows you down. If you can find a player who is skilled and happens to be tough then use him. But if you have a choice, take skill over toughness 100% of the time.
Just look at the Leafs this past spring: Matt Martin on the bench, and a fourth line made of Plakanec, Kapanen and Johnsson. Three guys who are the opposite of your prototypical fourth line grinders.
And sure, the Leafs didn’t win, but they took arguably the NHL’s deepest team to game seven and only a rough game by several of their best players prevented them from advancing. Boston didn’t win because the Leafs weren’t tough enough.
The one tough player they used Roman Polak, was the team’s worst player. He allowed more shots/60 than almost any other defenseman in the NHL.
If the old-school Mike Babcock can be convinced to sit his grinders and go with a lineup of 90% skill, then I think the fans should be more open to it. The NHL needs to ban fighting, and eventually teams will know enough about statistics that they understand that skill trumps everything.
The Leafs don’t need to get tougher. They need to get less tough, actually. Their worst players, Matt Martin and Roman Polak, also double as their toughest players and neither is likely going to play for the Leafs again.