Toronto Maple Leafs New Additions + Upcoming Week

The Toronto Maple Leafs have made several roster moves corresponding to the most recent Petr Mrazek injury.

The Toronto Maple Leafs recalled Joey Anderson and Kirill Semyonov from the Toronto Marlies on Sunday, after previously recalling Joseph Woll to backup Jack Campbell during Saturday night’s win against the Bruins. 

Woll has only played three games this year, only played 15 last year, and only played 32 the year before.  How does a guy who is always injured, and who (going by the statistics, at least) has never played well in three years, make the NHL?  I don’t know, but I’d expect Michael Hutchinson to be recalled, or for the Leafs to trade for a goalie any time now.

Anderson has three goals and four points in nine games for the Marlies this year. He was acquired by the Leafs in a trade for Andreas Johnson.

Semyonov has one goal and nine points in nine games for the Marlies.  (all stats hockeydb.com). The Leafs signed him out of the KHL this past May as a UFA.

Toronto Maple Leafs Upcoming Schedule

After wins against Chicago, Detroit, Vegas, Tampa and Boston, the Toronto Maple Leafs are red hot and have won five in a row.

Toronto will look to complete a perfect five-game homestand tonight against the LA KIngs. As expected, the Kings are one of the NHL’s worst teams again this year with 11 points in 11 games, placing them 24th overall despite being .500, because a league that rewards points to teams that lose sometimes is unkind to .500 teams.

The Leafs will follow the Kings game by playing the Flyers on the road Wednesday, then it’s a Friday-Saturday back-to-back against Calgary and Buffalo.

There are no guarantees – especially in a parity-ridden cap-league – but the Leafs have a very good chance to build on their winning streak with games against four fairly week  teams.

Buffalo and LA are brutal, the Flames should be but aren’t, and the Flyers, like the Flames, are over-achieving.

The Leafs, however, are currently ranked 26th in 5v5 shooting percentage and 17th in 5v5 save percentage, meaning they are vastly under-achieving, despite the five game win streak.

For the previous three seasons – or 208 games – the Leafs are the 3rd highest shooting percentage team, and ranked 13th in save percentage, so I would expect both numbers to go up quite significantly as time passes. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

In addition to having too-low percentages compared to a) their own recent history b) just in general, the Toronto Maple Leafs also rank 3rd in Corsi and 4th in expected-goals, both of which are far more predictive of the future than a team’s record 12 games into the season.

If a team ever wins five-games in a row and still has numbers saying they are unlucky there is, of course, only one thing to do – Plan the Parade.