The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New Jersey Devils last night.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that the Toronto Maple Leafs had to score a boatload of goals to do that.
No NHL team could withstand the loss of their two best defenseman, and the Leafs are no different.
They dressed an AHL blue-line last night, and it showed.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blue-Line
The Leafs called up Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren, but only Sandin played last night, and not well (at even strength, anyways).
Sure, a couple of the pucks he fired into the net were tipped in for goals, but his overall game was not very impressive.
Other than Marincin and Barrie, no Leafs defenseman was too impressive last night. That isn’t even really a criticism – without the two unquestioned leaders of their defense, the Leafs are just hoping to tread water, at least until Muzzin is back.
Justin Holl – who I like, but who should never be a team’s #1 – led the Toronto Maple Leafs in 5v5 ice-time last night he posted an extremely bad 35% possession rating.
His partner was Travis Dermott and he faired no better.
Ceci was third and he was a joke. 29% Corsi is something I didn’t even know was possible. The Leafs were plastered whenever he was on the ice.
Sandin played 12:42 of 35% hockey. Yikes. (All stats Naturalstattrick.com).
Marincin and Barrie were the least used at 5v5 and they had the best stats (both over 60%). I’m not sure I like this coaching decision from Sheldon Keefe, even though it was partially driven by the fact that Barrie played five minutes on the PP, while Marincin led the team in PK minutes.
Still, Tyson Barrie is your only experienced defender in the lineup, and I think you have to lean on him a bit more.
Now, the Leafs took an early lead and as such probably saw a chance to give their inexperienced guys some more ice-time in a no-lose situation.
There is also the problem of score effects – essentially once a team has a big lead they stop playing, and the other team puts up a bunch of goals and shots they otherwise probably wouldn’t have.
Even accounting for those things, there’s no excuse for possession ratings in the 20s and 30s. The second period was a particularly atrocious performance.
Bottom line is that this game was weird – the Leafs essentially won the game in the first ten minutes, and so everything that happened afterwards isn’t something you can judge particularly hard.
That said, it was our first look at the Toronto Maple Leafs defense minus their two best players, so I think a review was in order.
I think this group can do a lot better, and that hopefully last night’s game wasn’t indicative of what they can do. Then again, you should expect a team who loses its two best defensemen to be bad.