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Examining the First Week of the Toronto Maple Leafs Season

By Jordan Maresky

Jan 13, 2021; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) skates with the puck against the Montreal Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 13, 2021; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) skates with the puck against the Montreal Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports /
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Toronto Maple Leafs
TORONTO, ONTARIO – AUGUST 07: John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs . (Photo by Andre Ringuette/Freestyle Photo/Getty Images) /

Through the first seven days of the Toronto Maple Leafs season, the team has looked quite impressive coming off a disappointing 2019-20 season.

At five-on-five, the Toronto Maple Leafs offensive and defensive structure seems to have improved across the board following head coach Sheldon Keefe’s first official training camp in the NHL.

Although in a very small sample size (stats for this article as of Monday, before the game vs. Winnipeg), the Leafs are second in the league in Corsi-for percentage, fifth in Fenwick-for percentage, and fifth in scoring chances-for percentage (stats; naturalstattrick.com).

Special teams have also seen a slight improvement from last season with the team ranking fourth in powerplay percentage and 15th in penalty kill percentage – up from sixth and 21st, respectively, last season.

Overall, the first three games for the Toronto Maple Leafs offer a significant promise of what is to come in this one-of-a-kind NHL season. With that in mind, let’s get into some notable things from the Leafs’ early going.

The Thornton-Matthews-Marner Line is as Good as Advertised

Although you could say the Leafs first line really only broke through on that second night of their back-to-back against the Ottawa Senators – seven points on the night for the trio – truth be told the Thornton-Matthews-Marner line has dominated competition in every game so far.

Through their first three games, Jumbo Joe and Marner flanking the Leafs superstar center has produced a 75% expected goals-for percentage, 72.4% Corsi-for percentage, and a 68.4 Fenwick-for percentage (moneypuck.com).

Some questions were raised following the opening game of Toronto’s weekend series if Keefe was riding Thornton a little too much. For a 41-year-old, 18 minutes of ice time may be a tad too high, especially if that is fourth on the team among forwards, above John Tavares and William Nylander.

This will be something to watch over the course of the season, but so far, it is hard to argue with Keefe’s deployment if the Leafs  primary triumvirate continues to put up stellar results.

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