3 Toronto Maple Leafs That Need to Bounce Back in Second Half

The Toronto Maple Leafs have officially hit the halfway mark in their season after Thursday night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are now halfway through their 2020-21 season after they finished up game 28 out of 56 on Thursday night against the Winnipeg Jets. Hitting the halfway mark in the season is really important. You basically know what you’re team is by this point and how you guys can play against the other teams in your division.

Also, this season is only 56 games long instead of the standard 82 games, so hitting the halfway mark already in game 28 makes it even more crucial to see how your team is stacking up against the opponents.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs, as of March 12, 2021, after playing game 28 against Winnipeg, they currently sit first place in the North Division with a record of 19-7-2 (40 points), but despite their record being amongst the best in the entire league, there are a couple of players who didn’t have the strongest first half of the season and should look to bounce back in the second half.

All stats current prior to last night’s game. 

3. Ilya Mikheyev – 26 years old – LW/RW

2020-21 stats (As of game 28 against WPG) – 28 GP – 4 G – 5 A – 9 PTS – 45.4 CF%

It was hard to choose three players for this list and although I didn’t really want to include Ilya Mikheyev, I feel like at least talking about him and how his season has gone so far is at least necessary.

Mikheyev came out of the gates hot last season as he was making his NHL debut on the Toronto Maple Leafs, however, a wrist injury cut his season short and I just don’t think he’s been the same player ever since. I’m not calling him a bad player by any means, but simply looking at his stats from year one to this season, it’s just not the same.

He had an amazing start through 39 games last season as he put up 23 points as a rookie, although, fast forward a season later and he has nine points in 28 games this year. It may be due to the fact he’s now seeing all of his minutes on the third-line compared to the chunk of minutes he saw last year alongside John Tavares and Zach Hyman, but I still think that wrist injury has some part in his play.

This season his role is basically a third-line checking forward who brings speed, skill, strength, and size to that line. He makes it hard on the opponents to score whenever he and his linemates are on the ice together, and for the most part, it has worked pretty well as of late.

But going back to how he has performed so far this season, his offence is slowly getting there when you compare it to last season, but his defensive game has taken a step back this year and I honestly don’t know why other than thinking it’s his wrist. Although, when that third-line of Mikheyev, Engvall, and Hyman was united they were playing great hockey in all three zones and was the Toronto Maple Leafs’ best line for at least a week straight.

Through the first 14 games of the season, he had a very concerning four points while having a shooting percentage that was really low as he was getting chances but just couldn’t find the back of the net. In the next 14 games, he put up five points which aren’t all that great as it’s only one more point than what he had in the first 14 games, but he’s been all over the ice creating chances with his new-look line. (All Stats from Hockey-Reference.com)