The NHL’s Two Best Teams
Tampa has been to at least the Conference Final in three out of five years, winning the Cup last season and being the runner up one other time. In the other two years, they missed the playoffs and suffered a ridiculously unlucky loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
They could teach Leafs fans a thing or two about persistence in the face of poor results that were unearned. They are a walking embodiment of how probabilities work in real life: It was improbable for the best regular season team in recent NHL history to lose in the first round to a team as dubious as Columbus, but it happened.
The Leafs, you might recall, almost beat the Bruins twice in a game seven despite one of their better players being suspended both time. They lost to Columbus when Columbus set the NHL record for highest save percentage in NHL Playoff History, something the best defense of all time playing the worst offense of all time couldn’t hope to accomplish in a 100 tries.
It’s one of the flukiest things to ever happen in the NHL, but because it happened to the Leafs it’s just easier to laugh and say they suck.
I know full well that I have no credibility to say this, as an obviously pro-Leaf writer working at a site that explicitly and exclusively writes about the Toronto Maple Leafs, and as someone who isn’t shy about pushing the boundaries of accepted hockey “takes” (which are restrictive, unimaginative and oppressive), but I’m going to say it anyways: The Toronto Maple Leafs are the best team in the NHL.
You can accuse me of saying this for clicks. You can question my integrity, but you’d be foolish to do so. I relished in ripping the sad sack Leafs under Brian Burke and Dave Nonis. I never liked hiring Lou Lamoriello and I was against the Patrick Marleau signing from day one. I ripped the team for deploying Ron Hainsey and I constantly questioned them when I thought it was necessary.
I just honestly believe the Leafs are the best the NHL has to offer.
Like I previously mentioned, having John Tavares on your team without him being your best player is pure insanity. The Leafs are deep down the middle, they’ve got at least four elite forwards, and their bottom two lines look like they have more than enough NHL options to have an above-average bottom-six. (All stats for this article naturalstattrick.com).
They play a unique style that lets their best players be as creative as they want to be, and they have the best goal scorer in the NHL. Their blue-line has long been the object of scorn, but they now have three by-reputation defensemen who are no-doubt top-pairing players. If Morgan Rielly can get back to the level he was at two and three seasons ago, when he was a top five NHL defenseman, then they are going to have one of the better groups in the league.
Rounding out the top four is a player that played some of the toughest minutes in the NHL last year and put up a stats profile superior to star Cup winning defensemen Colton Parayko.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have four players for their bottom pairing (Dermott, Bogosian, Lehtonen and Sandin) two of whom (at least) project as top pairing players. They are the most talented team and they have the most potential.
Last year their team stats put them with Tampa and Vegas, ahead of Boston. They finished 8th under Keefe despite half of their games without Rielly and a quarter without both Rielly and Muzzin. They were denied a playoff run by one of the most unlikely things to ever happen in the NHL. If their back-up goalie contributed anything last year, and if their star goalie had even an average season, they’d have been a top team, possibly even winning the President’s Trophy.
I realize that teams have to win before they get widespread recognition and that’s fine. If I was interested in being popular, I’d just predict that the top six teams from last year would be the top six teams from this year. But I’m interested in the truth, as I see it.
And I see that the Toronto Maple Leafs are the NHL’s #1 Stanley Cup Contender. Time will prove me right.