Toronto Maple Leafs Can Win With Current Level of Toughness and Grit

The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the San Jose Sharks last night in San Jose.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have now won five out of their last six games, with a loss to Boston last Saturday that Frederik Andersen sat out, as their only recent blemish.

With the win, the Leafs keep pace with the Wild and Lightning, but a Predators  loss to the Coyotes means the they are now only one point out of first in the entire league. Not bad for a team that will soon be adding two elite players to its roster. Two players that, if healthy and signed for a full 82 games are a good bet to both be in the top ten in league scoring.

The Leafs are also now 2-0 on their west coast trip, having beat the Kings on Tuesday. A win tonight vs Anaheim and they will be first in the NHL.

Sharks Hate Kadri

Last year, in a move that was certainly accidental, Kadri pulled out some really gross pieces of Joe Thornton’s hideous freakbeard, and chaos ensued.  Sick with the thought of revenge, the Sharks entered last night with the strategy of attacking Kadri at every opportunity.

This lead to an early power-play and a 1-0 lead.

Even though the Sharks are one of the NHL’s best teams, it’s clear that the Leafs are faster and mores skilled and therefore better.  People keep criticizing the Leafs for having no toughness or grit, but the Leafs are ahead of the curve here and the reason people say that is because we have all be taught and trained to think that winning hockey games takes more than just skill.

The statistical revolution has proven that untrue.

Hockey is lucky because the impact of computers and advanced statistics has only served to emphasize the skill part of its game.  To the horror of the majority of its audience, the NHL’s statistical revolution has emphasized skill over brawn.  Basketball became a three point snoozfest, and baseball somehow got even more boring when it became a zero-sum strike-out/home run game.

Only hockey has actually improved their product because of the statistical revolution.  With less fighting, hitting and more scoring, the NHL has replaced a generation of big, slow grinders with four liners who previously would have just been career AHL allstars.

This is great for the game and teams like the Leafs understand that it gives you a huge advantage over teams that haven’t caught on or refuse to believe it.  Having Tyler Ennis, Josh Leivo, Andreas Johnsson, Connor Brown and Par Lindholm at the bottom of your line up is a lot different than having  Joey Crabb, Mathew Lombardi, David Steckle, Carter Ashton and Jay Rosehill.

The Leafs have capitalized on the fact that the numbers say there really isn’t that much of a difference between non-star players and some skilled players who bounce in and out of the league.  Before, if Andreas Johnsson couldn’t play in the top six, he’d be in the AHL.  But the difference between the skill of a regular second line forward and an Andreas Johnsson is almost certainly smaller than the difference between the luck and opportunity each player has received in their careers.  Just look at the Golden Knights from last year for an example of what I mean.  Players like Marchassault, Tuch, Schmidt, Miller, Theodore and more all thrived when getting minutes and power play time they’d never gotten before.

So it’s see you later Martin, Komarov and Polak.  They have been replaced by an entire roster of top six style players.  Their defense has six puck movers and zero ‘defensive defensemen’ on most nights.  Yeah, the Leafs lack the ability to fight, grind and hit, and they are relatively small, but they will skate any other team in the NHL into the ground. Instead of a top six/bottom six, they have two first lines and two second lines.

The Leafs could use an upgrade over Hainsey and Zaitsev, and maybe they could add another scoring threat on the wing who’s better than Hyman, Marleau or Brown, but contrary to what I am assuming is popular belief, they do not need those players to be tough, gritty, or big.

stats from naturalstattrick.com