Toronto Maple Leafs Could Be Benefactors of a Perfect Storm

The Toronto Maple Leafs played the Anaheim Ducks last night, and I hope they won.

The Toronto Maple Leafs – if they won – picked up only half the points available to them on their recent road trip through the south western United States.

The three California teams are among the worst in the league this year, so you might be sitting here thinking (even if they won last night) that it was a pretty bad roadtrip.

I disagree.

Even if the Leafs lost last night – and I really hope they didn’t – they have demonstrated that they are going to be one of the best teams in the league when things start going their way.

Leafs and the Perfect Storm

Despite the league’s best offense, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost a 1-0 game to the LA Kings in a shoot-out the other night.  They nearly had their goalie steal them a game previously in San Jose earlier in the week, but their offense failed them.

And yet, for most of the year, it’s been the exact opposite.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have decent team stats, and when you account for their ridiculous injury situation and changing coaches in the middle of the season, those stats (in context) look phenomenal.

I’ve beat this horse within an inch of its life over the last several weeks.

Whether it’s their strong PP, high-octane offense, strong puck possession and expected goals numbers, their surprisingly high ability to limit dangerous chances, or their ability to just throw wave after wave of elite players at other teams, I’ve been arguing that under even modestly better circumstances the Leafs will be a very good team.

The crazy thing about the Leafs right now is that with just league average goaltending, they’d be close to the top of the league.

They’ve received somewhere between the 25th and 27th best goaltending in the NHL this year (depending on the day).  If they were just getting the 15th best goaltending, they’d be an elite team.

And that is to say nothing of the fact that they’ve played  nine games so far without their top two defenseman (Morgan Rielly and Jake Muzzin), and as many games with four to seven regulars out of the lineup.

The Leafs have been getting a low save percentage and a low shooting percentage lately.  The team has been injured to a laughable degree.

But these things are bound to turn around.

The Playoffs are about one month away, and the Toronto Maple Leafs are starting to get healthy.  They’ve solidified the back-up position, and Freddie Andersen has two shutouts in his last four starts.

If this continues and the Leafs start to get healthy and happen to go on a PDO run at the same time, it will the Perfect Storm.

Just in time for the Playoffs.

If this team scores and gets goaltending at the same time, while even being mostly healthy, then look out.