The Toronto Maple Leafs absolutely destroyed the New York Rangers last night.
The Toronto Maple Leafs power play was fantastic, they crushed their opponent at even-strength, they did everything good teams do, and really, it was probably their best game of the season.
Oh yeah, they also lost.
What you gonna do?
Not One to Worry About
Potential Jake Gardiner whipping-boy replacement, Garrett Sparks, was in net for this one. He took a lot of ridiculous blame Twitter, but last time I checked, he doesn’t score goals, so the Leafs weren’t winning this one, no matter who the goalie was.
If there was ever a game you don’t care about losing, it’s this one.
The Toronto Maple Leafs controlled 56% of the game 5v5, and nearly 70% in total, as their power-play was absolutely dominant. The expected goals for the Leafs this game were something like ten. (Corsica says 9.22).
That means, that if the Leafs played this game over and over, they would be expected to score about ten goals each time. The fact they scored one, against a back-up goalie whose name you can’t pronounce and who you’ve never heard of, is a testament to the randomness of hockey.
Nazem Kadri had 12 shots. Literally. He could have scored a hat-trick and declared himself unlucky. He had one of the best games of his life.
The Leafs had 30 shots by the end of the first period.
One reason the Leafs probably couldn’t score, besides just bad luck, is that Andreas Johnsson continues to be the most poorly used player in the NHL. He is the Leafs best left winger, by a very wide margin, and yet, Leafs coach Mike Babcock played him on right-wing, on the fourth line.
How dumb is that?
As is obvious to nearly all other humans, Andreas Johnsson should skate on the left side of Auston Matthews, with William Nylander on the right.
Matthews and Nylander are a great pairing because Nylander is the Leafs best transition player (and one of the best in the NHL) and he is a puck pursuit monster. Nylander gets Matthews the puck, and both players compliment each other’s skill-sets beautifully.
Johnsson- Matthews-Nylander would make up one of the best lines in the NHL. It would be nice if the coach of the Leafs also thought so. You can check out the stats here and see how significantly better Matthews does with Nylander than without him.
Anyways, spectacular game by the Leafs, just a dumb random result is all. If they play like that every night, they’ll win two Stanley Cups this year.
allstats naturalstattrick.com except where indicated.