The Toronto Maple Leafs came away with the victory last night.
After the an average start to the season, the Toronto Maple Leafs played what was probably their best game of the season and got the win against the San Jose Sharks.
The Leafs played a solid 60 minutes for perhaps the first time this year.
And they’re back in action tonight against the Montreal Canadiens.
Hutchinson Looks For First Win
One of the main storylines heading into tonight’s game is Michael Hutchinson looking for his first win of the season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a system going where they play enough back-to-back’s during the season that they make up the majority of the starts Hutchinson will get, and in the month of October alone, the Leafs are already in their fourth back-to-back of the month.
Mike Babcock is adamant on getting at least two points out of these back-to-backs, and in a schedule where the Leafs have generally played against the more challenging team on the second half, Hutchinson has gotten the short end of the stick given that he always starts on the second night.
Here’s a quick breakdown on who each netminder has suited up to play during these sets.
Frederik Andersen – Columbus, Minnesota, Columbus, San Jose
Michael Hutchinson – Montreal, Washington, Boston, Montreal
It’s clear here that Andersen has gotten the easier teams between the two, and combined with the fact that the Leafs aren’t well rested, Hutchinson’s job of securing the win doesn’t come easy.
In three games this season, he is 0-2-1 with a GAA of 4.03 and a save percentage of .890. These stats are obviously less than ideal for Hutchinson, and he will look to secure a win against the Canadiens tonight having seen them once already this season.
Barrie Looks to End Offensive Drought
Hutchinson isn’t the only one looking to break out of a slump right now.
On the back end, Tyson Barrie has been struggling apart from the first few games of the season and isn’t where he wants to be.
Through the first 12 games, Barrie has four assists and doesn’t have his first as a Leaf yet. He’s currently riding a nine-game scoreless streak, the longest he’s had since 2013.
Aside from the lack of points, Barrie has been pretty much everything we expected he would be. He has strong offensive possession stats but could be better defensively.
Barrie currently boasts a Corsi percentage of 57.6%, which is the highest on the team second only to Jake Muzzin, who happens to be his defensive partner.
His PDO at even strength (shooting percentage plus save percentage) is currently sitting at 94.9, which is the lowest of all Leafs defenseman. So he’s playing well, he’s just getting unlucky. The points will come.
Muzzin, on the other hand is sitting at 104.3 which is good for second-highest of all defenseman, only trailing Cody Ceci.
League average PDO is around 100, so what this tells me is that Tyson Barrie has been getting severely unlucky while Muzzin has been sitting above league average, and it shows when you look at the point totals. Barrie sits at four, while Muzzin has eight points through 12 games.
Overall, there isn’t much to worry about with Barrie here.
The points haven’t been showing up, but it’s only a matter of time before he busts out of his slump.
It also doesn’t help that while Barrie is getting more overall ice time in Toronto, his time on the powerplay is only about half of what it was in Colorado. This was expected, obviously, seeing that the Leafs have Morgan Rielly on the top powerplay unit whereas Barrie was the number-one guy in Colorado.
Barrie is also aware that adjusting to the new system has played a part in his slow start offensively, but he isn’t worried about it. He said “You play with certain guys for so long, you get to kind of know their tendencies and you know their habits and where they’re going to be,” he says. “But it’s our job to make it work, make it fit.” (Sportsnet.ca).
The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t gotten more than three out of four possible points in any of their back-to-back opportunities this year, so they’ll look to steal the win on the road against the Canadiens tonight.