The Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the best rosters in the NHL.
But you wouldn’t know it if you went by the things said by the media and the majority of the Toronto Maple Leafs fans.
You’d think they were a bunch of losers with no chance to do anything.
The level of pessimism is confusing and unwarranted.
The Leafs Are Great….
After yesterday’s trade deadline, a panel of experts on my TV didn’t even consider the Leafs a top five contender.
I was reading through twitter, through the comments section on this site, and discussing the team with friends……….there was almost universal pessimism.
The Leafs aren’t tough enough.
The Leafs aren’t experienced enough.
There are too many good teams.
Sheesh….You’d think there was no reason to even get out of bed unless you had a stacked roster with no weaknesses and you won every game 9-1.
But even in the context of the awful history of the Maple Leafs, this lack of excitement and optimism makes no sense.
Sure, the team has some weaknesses, but so does everyone, because the salary cap prevents anyone from having a perfect team (even Tampa has two players worse than anyone on Toronto in Ryan Callahan and Dan Girardi).
But if we look at the Leafs we should be EXTREMELY optimistic.
Reasons for Optimism
The Leafs fourth best player is arguably Mitch Marner, and he’s clearly a player capable of putting up a 100 points and is still getting better.
Ahead of Marner, the Leafs have Auston Matthews, who only injuries and a lack ice time (relative to other superstars) have prevented from being the undisputed 2nd best player in the world. And they have John Tavares, and Morgan Rielly, a top five NHL defenseman who is on pace for over 80 points.
The Leafs are the deepest team in the NHL at centre, and on left defense where they boast Rielly (one of only three players last season to face the top percentile in competition while scoring 50 points and being a positive possession player, along with Drew Doughty and Victor Hedman), Jake Gardiner and Jake Muzzin.
Perhaps one reason the team is so underrated is because casual fans do not understand how good the two Jakes are. Muzzin is the NHL’s premier possession driving defenseman, and Gardiner’s team is always in the positive differential for goals, scoring chances and shot-attempts when he’s on the ice.
A team that can essentially play 60 minutes with one of three legit #1 defenseman on the ice at all times is one of the top teams there is, bar none.
And you can say the same thing about a team with three #1 centres. (Nazem Kadri doesn’t get the credit he deserves because his role suppresses his point totals).
Or about a team with William Nylander, himself more than likely a #1 centre if given the opportunity, playing wing and occasionally filling in at centre. No team is within ten miles of the Leafs depth down the middle. And ten miles might be underselling it.
How good must team be when you can write 500 words about how good they are without mention Andreas Johnsson (the 11th highest scoring winger, per 60 minutes of 5v5 ice time in the NHL) or Kasperi Kapanen (arguably the second fastest player in the league, and whose name sounds like a delicious cereal). Note that all stats are 5v5 and from naturalstattrick.com
I could also point out that the Toronto Maple Leafs are the NHL’s highest scoring 5v5 team, and that they have four of the top 20 5v5 p/60 scorers in the NHL.
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I would also mention that despite their 20 point difference in the standings, Tampa has a game in hand, has been healthier, didn’t have any players hold out, beat the Leafs in a game the Leafs dominated, and has padded their totals by winning many more games in OT / Shootout than the Leafs have. Also, they have a shooting percentage on the power-play over 20% which is double what the Leafs have and completely controlled by luck.
Conclusion
Some people are too caught up hating Jake Gardiner or wishing the Leafs were employing enforcers to see what is right in front of their nose: An awesome team.
It’s super easy to just look at the standings and ignore all the other factors that went into making those standings.
But if you do, if you actually look at this roster, if you look at the numbers, you’ll see a team who’s biggest weakness is a +30 on the season.
In the day to day, when we’re looking for topics to write about, or talk about on the radio or TV, it’s easy to blow up the negative and forget about the positive.
Especially since, if you are positive, people just say you’re a homer with no credibility. Negativity sells.
But actually take a minute and look at this team. They are insane. It’s easily the best team the Leafs have ever iced since the NHL expanded post-1967.
Last year, the Toronto Maple Leafs set a franchise record for points, and they finished sixth overall. They missed advancing in the playoffs when they blew a third period lead in game seven, in a league where third period leads are all but guarantees of victory.
This sixth overall team added John Tavares, probably a top ten player, and Jake Muzzin who, at least 5v5, is probably a top ten defenseman.
This team could win it all, and if not for a weird power-play outage for half the season, would likely be competing for first place overall.
Time for the fans and media to start acting like it.