Toronto Maple Leafs Flex New Found Muscle In Win Over Jets

Don’t look now but the Toronto Maple Leafs might actually be…tough?

A trending topic the last few days, the Toronto Maple Leafs seem to be relishing the ‘dirty’ label brandished upon them.

After a close first period against the Winnipeg Jets Saturday night (that saw the Leafs take a 2-1 lead courtesy of a hugely fortuitous bounce after a Jake Muzzin dump-in that froze Connor Hellebuyck outside of the crease, landing neatly on Marner’s stick for the gimme), Toronto found another gear in the second and, aided by some strong physical play, really started to give Winnipeg fits.

Wayne  “sick of guys jumping on our goalie” Simmonds was a physical presence all night and was particularly adept at agitating the Jets, who seemed frustrated that they had to endure actual body-checking from their opponent. He engaged Pierre-Luc Dubois verbally late in the game until they both were given misconducts and booted off the ice, a trade-off that heavily favoured Toronto.

Toronto Maple Leafs Now a Tough Team?

Joe Thornton was also doing his share of agitating. Thornton only played 9 minutes but he made them count, tying the game at one on a nice wrap-around goal in the first and then taking Nikolaj Ehlers out of the game for key moments late in the third with a cross-check that elicited a nasty slash from the latter, leading to off-setting minors. Jumbo Joe finished with a 69.2 CF%, a 17.1 CRel%  and about 2 minutes worth of derision and condemnation directed at Ehlers from the penalty box.

Rasmus Sandin also flexed some muscle in his nearly 14 minutes of ice time. He made a healthy check on a charging Blake Wheeler early in the game that appeared to momentarily stun Wheeler, causing an upset Kyle Connor to take a needless roughing penalty.

Sandin finished with a 56.5 CF% and a 3 CRel% (stats from hockey-reference.com) and not only has he looked very solid in his few games with Toronto this season, he has been showing off an impressive and somewhat surprising physical component to his game that is making him look like a mainstay on the Leafs’ blue-line.

William Nylander (67.6 CF%, 20.4 CRel%) was another Leaf standout. In the second period he made a beautiful back-check to thwart a dangerous scoring attempt and then took off following a slick Sandin pass before threading a nice assist over to Tavares on a two-on-one to make it a 3-1 game. Jack Campbell also played well and made some key saves to secure the win for Toronto, stopping 25 of 26 and some point blank chances in the dying minutes of the game.

But perhaps what stood out the most was Toronto’s complete effort, sporting a constant physical element that hasn’t been seen this effectively in a long while. Nick Foligno, Muzzin, Simmonds, Thornton and Sandin led the way in this department and it seemed to rattle the Jets, as they stopped focusing on using their impressive skill and instead focused on retaliating to the perceived physical injustices they were enduring.

Shot attempts favoured the Leafs 59-51; they had a CF% of 54.1 and an oZS% of 54.3 (hockey-reference.com). Impressive numbers buoyed by the team’s tenaciousness and if they ever start to figure out their scuffling power-play (scoreless in four chances last night) opposing teams are really going to have their hands full.

Overall, we are loving the new found edge the Leafs are bringing to games lately.