The Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins are tied at two heading into tonight’s game five matchup in Boston.
The Toronto Maple Leafs surely deserved a better fate in game four, but they ended up losing. What can you do?
It’s one thing if the team doesn’t show up, as they really didn’t in game two. But if they play good and lose, it’s hard to complain.
Still sucks, but it’s better than not being in the playoffs at all, which, if you’re a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, is something I probably don’t have to remind you about.
With that in mind, let’s did into a few of the stats in the series so far, just to entertain ourselves while we wait for the game to start.
Series Stats
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a 51.54 CF% to the Bruins 48.46.
The shots are dead-even at 117 a piece.
The Leafs have 20 more scoring chances, but the teams are even in goals.
All those stats are 5v5. All Stats from naturalstattrick.com
The Leafs are doing better when it comes to expected goals, so while that won’t help in the sense of results, it does bode well for the upcoming best of three.
As far as player stats go, William Nylander leads all forwards in possession numbers, with the Leafs getting 58% of the shot-attempts when he is on the ice.
Nylander also leads the Leafs in 5v5 scoring on a per-minute basis.
*We now cut to Nick Kypreos inexplicably complaining about about him*
Nylander is tied for the Leafs lead in goals and points – with one and two, respectively – at 5v5, and plays a lot less minutes than the top two lines.
This isn’t just to point out that Nylander is doing great, but that Tavares, Marner and Matthews are not doing so hot at 5v5. At least as far as results go.
Marner and Tavares have cut heavily into the totals that the Bergeron line usually puts up, so they’re doing great. Still, Leafs need them to score when not on the PP.
Same with Matthews. He has three goals in his last two games, but he’s got to start getting some 5v5 goals.
In saying that, however, it’s important to remember that Matthews has been playing great, and that he’s just sort of been unlucky.
Hard to get assists when Kapanen and Johnson don’t score, which they will once they get some shooting percentage luck.
That seems to the main take-away from these stats – if the Leafs start getting some luck, their offense will explode and they’ll win the series.
They’ve played great so far, but if they start getting what they deserve, they’ll win for sure.