Toronto Maple Leafs: Any Other Team Would be the Talk of the NHL

The Toronto Maple Leafs are the team everyone loves to hate.

The Toronto Maple Leafs get too much national TV coverage, and in addition, they have the most fans, are the richest team, and are basically the New York Yankee’s of the NHL, if the Yankees never won the World Series.

So when the Leafs are bad, or even juicier, when they embarrass themselves, the NHL  and it’s fans have a wonderful schadenfreude experience and everyone is happy.  Those who cover the game tend to be extra harsh on them and overcompensate for their perceived bias.

But when the Leafs are good, no one wants to say so, for the same reasons they overcompensate when they are bad.

Toronto Maple Leafs Are the NHL’s Best Team

Even in the era of advanced stats and gambling savvy fans who understand that process > results, there were precious few who publicly came out and said “This team has been lights-out in the regular season for two years, and their two losses were extremely fluky, so don’t write them off.”

Probably a lot of people knew that, but it wasn’t a popular thing to say and (trust me here) the abuse you’d take for saying so would hardly seem worth it.

So predictably, the Toronto Maple Leafs are the best team in the NHL this year.  Anyone could have seen it coming, and for any other team, the hype would be out of control.  (stats naturalstattrick.com).

But even the Leafs own fans hate themselves.  They are like a very smart rat that knows that the cheese might be delicious, but that eating it will hurt. Badly.

But enough is enough.  This team is clearly the best.  The “they aren’t built for the playoffs people” now look as ridiculous as the “Trade Nylander” people from a few years back, and about 10000 x as silly as the anti-Kyle Dubas people.  If you ever made a lame pun on the GM’s name, you’ll have to let me know how that crow tastes.  Personally, I wouldn’t know.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are 4th in 5v5 expected-goals percentage, and they are (by far) the NHL’s best special teams team.  They are 10th in PDO (Minnesota, Florida and Colorado are 1,2,3…Carolina is 5th, Tampa 7th) meaning their record owes less to luck than their nearest competitors.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are microscopic percentage points away from being the NHL’s best team, according to the standings, and they are in this position despite the 19th best 5v5 goaltending in the NHL.

Auston Matthews has 24 goals in his last 23 games, and is on a 140 point pace during this time.  He is the NHL’s best player, ranking first in WAR, matching McDavid’s offense and Bergeron’s defense.

Mitch Marner, somehow not the best player on his team, is nearly as good. He has scored in each of his last eight games.  He scores as much as Draisaitl and MacKinnon, but he brings elite defense.  He is the NHL’s 3rd best player.

This team plays John Tavares and William Nylander on the second line. It’s hardly fair.

They have won six in a row, and are on a 12-2-1 run.  They are 28-6-2 since October 27th, picking up 81% of the points available to them during this time. This record would be even better except that when Marner was injured they went 4-3-2.

They are 24-3 with Mitch Marner in the lineup during this time.

So put aside the biases, ignore the failure of a franchise that had nothing to do with anyone currently on the roster,  and give the Toronto Maple Leafs their due.  They have the NHL’s best roster, itsdeepest roster, the best player, the best coach and the best GM.

They are the NHL’s best team. They are the favorite to win the Stanley Cup.  This is the best roster version of the Toronto Maple Leafs since 1967.  Enjoy it.