Toronto Maple Leafs Have the Best Power-Play in the NHL

The Toronto Maple Leafs are due.

After a frustrating night in New York where the Toronto Maple Leafs put nearly 60 shots on net and scored only once, they will be looking to get back in the groove tonight against the Colorado Avalanche.

The Avalanche have lost seven in a row.

Also, they are terrible defensively, so it seems like a good night to get back on track.

Best Power Play

The power play of the Toronto Maple Leafs is very frustrating. A unit that features two of the best players in the NHL, one of the best defenseman in the NHL, as well as Mitch Marner and Nazem Kadri, should be better than it currently seems to be.

“Seems” being the operative word here.  The Leafs power play is actually the best in the NHL.

Since before Christmas is seems the Leafs have had trouble scoring with the man advantage.

This is really just a fluky result.

If you look into the numbers, the Leafs power play is as good as it seems on paper.  They lead the NHL in possession on the power play, as well as shot percentage.  They are second in the NHL in shots-per-minute (microscopically behind San Jose).

Most importantly, they lead the NHL in scoring chances per minute by a mile. The Toronto Maple Leafs get 75 scoring chances per 60 minutes, while the next closest team produces 57.

There is also the fact that the Leafs have the seventh lowest shooting percentage in the NHL on the PP at 11% while the Lightning, for example, lead the NHL with 20% shooting.

People look for reasons, and so you often hear about how predictable the Leafs power play is.  If this were in fact true, which it is not, then they wouldn’t get so many shots and scoring chances.

We know, for a fact, that players have virtually no control over their shooting percentage and that it is a function, almost exclusively, of luck.

The Leafs have the best power play in the NHL, they just are not scoring like they should.  It is only a matter of time before things balance out.

They were ridiculous on the power-play against New York. It was a thing of beauty.  They were 0-4, sure, but they also had 23 shots.

Sometimes results are random.  Process is important, and if you want to predict the future, you look at process and not results.  The Leafs numbers are too crazy-good to go very much longer without getting better results.

It’s just a matter of time.

The Leafs are the best 5v5 team in the NHL.  They also have the best power play.  That makes them the beset team in the NHL.

Eventually, the goals will go in and this will be obvious to people who are not at home on a snow day looking up hockey stats.

stats from naturalstattrick.com