The Toronto Maple Leafs faced a hard hitting team filled with vetern leadership and they were no match for it.
The Islanders exposed the Toronto Maple Leafs biggest weakness.
At least, that’s what some people would have you think.
I’m here to call BS on that lazy narrative.
It’s ridiculous, and I’ll tell you why.
Toronto Maple Leafs Lose to Islanders
The Islanders are the sixth worst puck possession team in the NHL. Other than goal differential which has about one-tenth the sample size and is far more random, puck possession is the single biggest indicator of team success over the long term. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
The Islanders are a team whose goalies improbably lead the league in 5v5 save percentage, and have played so much better than the rest of the NHL that a) they can’t possibly sustain it, and b) it has caused people to overrate their team.
The Islanders are leading their division, but give them league average goaltending (which is what you should expect in the future from Robin Lehner and Tomas Greiss) and they’re a bottom-five team.
"It could be a blueprint for how to beat the Leafs." ~ @TSNBobMcKenzie
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) March 1, 2019
Very true. 18 games to get it figured out here.
So did this bad team propped up by a goalie find the secret to beating the Toronto Maple Leafs?
Once I stopped laughing at how incredibly wrong and short-sighted this idea was, I decided to write this article. Clearly they did not.
Unless that recipe is:
Play the Leafs in their third game in four nights, after they played the night before at home and had to travel, during what is the single most important game of the year for the opposing team and their fans, without four of their best players.
Cause if that’s the recipe, then yes, it will most likely be successful.
Without looking it up, I can tell you that no NHL team has a long term winning record playing in a back-to-back game when the first game is at home and the second on the road, while it also being their third in four nights.
And that’s with a healthy lineup.
The Leafs, last night, played their back-up goalie, and were without their #3 centre (which doesn’t really do justice to what Nazem Kadri actually is and does) as well as two of their top four defenseman.
Drawing any conclusions about the Leafs, or how to play them, based off of last night’s game is ridiculous.
What is happening is that certain people have an idea of how a team is supposed to be built, and the Leafs ignored it, and now, whenever they lose, people are going to say “I told you so.”
Now, if the Leafs get out-checked, out-hustled, out-worked and out-played during a seven game series, and they actually lose to a massively inferior team because of checking and grinding, then we can talk.
Except that will never happen because that is…….to put it politely……not within the realm of the possible.
Oh and by the way, even without four of their best players, I’m betting the Leafs win if not for a goal called back because of the stupidest rule in the history of sports.