Toronto Maple Leafs: Playing Your Best LW on 4th Line Is Nuts

The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Anaheim Mighty Ducks last night by a score of 6-1.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs, it wasn’t Auston Matthews, John Tavares or Mitch Marner leading the way. It was the newly acquired Jake Muzzin and Andreas Johnsson, who had four points.

This game featured so many cool things:  the sequence where Muzzin destroyed one of hockey’s dirtiest players with a hit, then drew a penalty, then scored two seconds into the power-play was pretty amazing.

So too was seeing Nazem Kadri hit yet another crossbar (because at this point it’s hilarious) and my man William Nylander showing why people might want to reevaluate how they feel about him.

But my favorite was just seeing the look on Randy Carlyle’s face as his former team destroyed the league’s worst coach.  If you like multi-millionaires getting their comeuppance, this was the game for you.

But the main thing we should talk about is Andreas Johnsson.

Mike Babock’s Wacky LInes vol. 30

Whether it’s demoting the undeserving Travis Dermott to the role of sixth defenseman, or giving way too much ice-time to Par Lindholm, or making Nikita Zaitsev the team’s leader in ice time one day after he posted one of the worst stat lines possible, the things Mike Babcock does are, at times, impossible to understand. 

Which brings me to Andreas Johnsson.

Andreas Johnsson is the team’s best left winger.  Of this there can be no doubt.

Zack Hyman, if he had my hands, would be a 40 goal scorer. But the guy couldn’t score if they replaced the nets with soccer nets.  Too bad because otherwise he’s excellent.

Patrick Marleau is, at best, a third line winger these days.

Andreas Johnsson is then best LW the Leafs have to offer, by ten miles.

And for some reason, the only players on the team who average less ice time are Gauthier, Ennis, and Lindholm.

Mike Babock employs Connor Brown more than Andreas Johnsson.  I know we all think we can be NHL coaches, but maybe it’s actually true.
It’s hard to imagine any random dude off the street making such a poor lineup choice.

In limited ice time Johnsson has a 53% possession rating, 12 goals and 26 points. 22 of those are at 5v5, which is more than Kadri (snake bitten) with almost 200 more minutes played.

Matthew, Tavares and Marner are all elite players with points/60 rates up over 3 points per 60 minutes.  But Johnsson is next on the Toronto Maple Leafs with 2.5 /60, which is an incredible number.

It’s 33rd in the NHL among players who’ve played at least 200 minutes, and it’s more than Mackinnon, Skinner, Hall or Ovechkin score.

Andreas Johnsson should be the Toronto Maple Leafs #1 left winger. He should not appear on ridiculous TSN charts after Patrick Marleau and Zach Hyman on the depth chart.  His coach should not be playing him on the fourth line.

Andreas Johnsson is a first line player.

He is the only Leafs left winger who is.

Everyone talks about how much better Tampa is (or ridiculously, the Islanders) but they can’t make an internal improvement like this.  The Leafs, if they’d only dress their proper lineup, could be so much better.

Auston Matthews spent last night mired on a line with border-line third liner Patrick Marleau and second liner Kasperi Kapanen.  Matthews deserves better.

Why he isn’t on a line with Andreas Johnsson and William Nylander is a mystery no one can solve. It’s a lineup decision so obvious that not making it is tantamount to a dereliction of duty.

I am a Mike Babcock fan, but he simply has to be better.

stats from hockeydb.com and naturalstattrick.com