Toronto Maple Leafs Have Played 5 Straight Hot Goalies So Far

The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to prove all their doubters wrong.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have gotten off to an extremely good start to the season which has been a little bit under appreciated because the team has faced five hot goalies in a row, and subsequently isn’t getting the scoring they should be.

Still, their team stats put them near the top of the NHL in every important category, and things that happen in a short sample size tend to self-correct over the long term.  Especially if what is missing is your team’s biggest strength.

In fact, if you go back to the summer, the Leafs are an impressive 5-5 despite the fact that during the summer they shot under 2% at 5v5, and so far this season are ranked 20th with a shooting percentage under 7%.

This is partly bad luck, partly hot goalies, and 100% guaranteed to eventually self correct.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Hot Goalies

The Leafs scored two goals on 20 5v5 shots to open the season vs Montreal, and frankly this wasn’t their best game, but Carey Price was excellent despite allowing five goals.

The next game against the Senators was probably the worst the Leafs have played since last March, but for a period and a half, Matt Murray held his team in the game until three straight goals ended the Leafs quest for victory.

The Leafs had a 72% expected-goals rating in the first period of that game, and then dominated play until the Senators scored.  Matt Murray was great, but the next night he was even better. The Leafs won that game, but it could have been a double-digits goal-fest if not for Murray.

Of course we all remember how the Leafs manhandled the Jets on Monday night, only to barely squeak out a victory.  Reining Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck was in top form and almost (ridiculously) gave his team an upset victory.

Finally against the Oilers on Wednesday, the Leafs faced Mikko Koskinen, who is not a good NHL goalie.  Doesn’t matter, against the Leafs he was apparently Patrick Roy.  This wasn’t the Leafs best game either, but tell that to Auston Matthews who was robbed by Koskinen’s glove in the second, and then somehow didn’t score on a wide open slapshot from twenty feet away.

Overall what happens when you play five straight hot goalies is that you barely have a winning record despite playing in a fashion that could easily have the team either 4-1 or 5-0 to start the year.  The Leafs have their problems, sure, but scoring isn’t one of them.

They’ve been outscored 9-7 at 5v5 despite being third in Corsi, sixth in shots-for, and first in total scoring chances for.  The Leafs currently have a winning record despite ranking 25th in PDO, which is actually pretty crazy.  (all stats naturalstattrick.com).

Eventually, this team is going to shoot at a much higher percentage than they have over their last ten games, which have been almost hilarious unlucky.  You could complain, but the fact they are even over this stretch of games bodes very well for their longterm success.