The Toronto Maple Leafs played a solid game last night, and the fact that they didn’t win is irrelevant.
Although some were making ridiculous comparisons to the time the Toronto Maple Leafs lost to David Ayers and the Carolina Hurricanes, the two games couldn’t be more different.
When the Leafs lost to the Hurricanes emergency goalie, they deserved to be humiliated because they played like garbage. Last night, when they lost to a Canucks team that had just been off for a month and shouldn’t probably even have had to play, they were just the victims of a hot goalie.
Braden Holtby stole the Canucks a game and good for him, since if ever a hockey team deserved some luck it is them. But some of the “analysis” after last night’s game was pretty annoying. If you aren’t new to watching hockey, you should probably understand that it is a poorly designed game where one player (the goalie) has an outsized effect on the outcome, making the results of games extremely random.
Though this is a) a fact and b) very obvious, hockey analysts – paid, full-time to follow the game – often don’t know, understand or acknowledge this to be true. And, while it’s annoying, a bad take doesn’t change the facts, and the facts are that the Leafs played great last night.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Vancouver Canucks
Last night the Leafs had over 60% puck possession, posting 64.13% of the total shot-attempts. That is a total beatdown, and one which will get you a victory a vast, vast majority of the time.
The Leafs had 66% of the total shots, 67% of the total scoring chances, 74% of the dangerous chances (which means that the Leafs got three dangerous chances for every one the Canucks had). (all stats naturalstattrick.com).
Overall, Toronto had over 69% of the expected goals, something they’ve only done twice this year (and won both times). This wasn’t just a game in which the Leafs should have won, or deserved to win, it was quite likely the best game the Leafs played all season.
And lets not forget, this game only went to overtime in the first place because the NHL does not allow their referees to use common sense to override a lack of video evidence. In a complete and utter embarrassment to the NHL, a puck that clearly went into the net didn’t count because the goalie intentionally covered the cameras.
The Leafs also his the post multiple times. Holtby made about ten ridiculous saves, including one where the puck hit his upside down flailing pad.
The Leafs didn’t get two points last night, but you can’t ask a team to play any better. Let’s just hope our friend Zach doesn’t miss any time.