If there is one thing the Toronto Maple Leafs proved last night, it’s that they are in fact the NHL’s deepest team.
They iced a lineup that was absent Joe Thornton, Zach Hyman, Wayne Simmonds, Jake Muzzin and their starting goalie, Freddie Andersen. The Toronto Maple Leafs responded with one of their best games of the season, getting especially strong games from Alex Barabanov and Mikko Lehtonen.
It was a testament to the teams depth, but it also helps when your star players stay healthy.
Either way, the injuries continue to mount and do not appear to be subsiding any time soon, as seen with the recent news out of today’s practice.
Toronto Maple Leafs Injuries Mounting but Not Concerning
The Leafs only real concern on the injury front is Freddie Andersen. The starting goalie had the Leafs ranked 4th in 5v5 save percentage heading into last night’s game. Michael Hutchinson maintained the status quo, however.
The Leafs fans are understandably hesitant about Hutchinson, as he was the single worst player in the NHL last year (literally, and I’m actually using that word in it’s proper context here). But goaltending is a lot about luck, and there is truly no difference between Hutch and anyone else you could reasonably use for your 3rd string goalie.
Last night he was good when he needed to be, and allowed a single goal at 5v5. If Campbell isn’t back tomorrow then he’ll start again, and I have no problem with it. The Leafs have built themselves up a nice little lead in the standings and what else are big leads for if not helping you to weather the storm of injuries?
Zach Hyman, Joe Thornton, Jake Muzzin, and Frederik Andersen all absent from Leafs practice today.
— Jonas Siegel (@jonassiegel) February 23, 2021
Looking like the Leafs could be without them all again on Wednesday night.
The team’s depth is such that despite all the injuries, we still haven’t seen Nick Robertson or Alex Galchenyuk. That’s a crazy deep team and Kyle Dubas deserves a ton of credit for assembling such a deep roster.
In fact, it will be interesting to see what kind of outdated failure gets the NHL’s GM of the Year Award this season instead of Dubas. The depth he has assembled is paying off like crazy, and the Leafs might actually have some really tough decisions to make when their team is fully healthy.
So there is no need to be worried about the next few games. The Leafs proved last night that even with a bunch of injuries and their star players having an off night, that they can still be a dominant team.
And just wait until Tavares and Nylander stop being so unlucky. Enjoy it, because this team is awesome.