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Toronto Maple Leafs vs Blue Jackets 5v5 Analysis

By Philip Van Riesen

TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 21: Nick Foligno #71 of the Columbus Blue Jackets steals the puck from Cody Ceci #83 of the Toronto Maple Leafs during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on October 21, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jackets defeated the Maple Leafs 4-3 in overtime. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 21: Nick Foligno #71 of the Columbus Blue Jackets steals the puck from Cody Ceci #83 of the Toronto Maple Leafs during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on October 21, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jackets defeated the Maple Leafs 4-3 in overtime. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /
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TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 7: William Nylander #88 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates against Jay Bouwmeester #19 of the St. Louis Blues during the second period at the Scotiabank Arena on October 7, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON – OCTOBER 7: William Nylander #88 of the Toronto Maple Leafs.(Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Toronto Maple Leafs 5v5

With the likes of the Leafs offensive talented players, they were able to thrive on a formula that generates waves of high danger chances, places emphasis on offensive zone puck possession, and finishes on their chances more often than other teams.

At even-strength, the Leafs generated expected goals at the 4th best rate in the NHL with 2.61xGF/60, goals for 6th best in the NHL with 2.74GF/60, and shot attempts 4th best in the NHL with 60.40CF/60.

These numbers were even stronger if you take away the period before Keefe was put in charge of the bench.

What is clear is that the Leafs are at the top of the league in every offensive category we have to date, and it is no mistake because the Leafs are as good as anyone in the league at scoring goals.

With the offensive talent that the Leafs have there is no team better than them at scoring goals, it is their forte.

If you are really interested in learning more about the Leafs best player, I recommend this video here. It goes further in-depth as to why Matthews is the sole best 5v5 goal scorer in the league.

I like to point to this game here against the Hurricanes earlier in the season that shows what the Leafs have to offer (and this goes for the defense as well which we will cover)

Now that we have got that over with we have to move on to the Leafs widely known weakness, their defensive game.

Just in that wild game against Carolina, the team allowed 6 goals against.

To get a more clear perspective, let’s take a look at the defensive numbers the same way we did with the offensive numbers.

At 5v5 the Leafs defensive numbers are as follows. The Toronto Maple Leafs are 18th in expected goals against with 2.45xGA/60, 27th in goals against with 2.74GA/60, and 14th in shot attempts against with 55.14CA/60.

As you can tell unsurprisingly these numbers are not ideal in any manner for a team competing for the Stanley Cup.

The Toronto Maple Leafs as an entire group tend to struggle in their own end besides a few select players. As plenty of their players have gotten better over the years at defending (Matthews), there is still a lot of work to be done.

I tend to point to core players such a Tavares or Rielly who are excellent offensively but tend to falter on the defensive side of things. Both seem to represent the teams’ identity well.

If this were NHL the video game, most of the Leafs players would have really low defensive awareness but high offensive awareness.

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