The Toronto Maple Leafs Give Up Their Lunch Money Too Easily

The Toronto Maple Leafs are currently 4th in the entire league with a .716 Pts%.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are also the #1 ranked PP in the NHL and the 7th best PK.  They are 5th in goal differential, 3rd in scoring chance differential, and 3rd in high danger chance differential (all stats from hockey-reference.com).

Simply put, this is an elite team.

The team has struggled defensively in January due to a combination of factors, partly attributed to the struggles of Jack Campbell and the injury to Jake Muzzin, but they still sit near the top of the league despite the defensive slump.

Toronto Maple Leafs Do Have Just One Problem

If you omit the losses at the beginning of the season, when the team was just awful, the Leafs are actually an astonishing 28-7-2 since Oct. 10, 2021.  That’s not a lot of losses folks.

Why then, do some fans still worry about this team after a 5-2 loss to the Flames during a seemingly meaningless game in February?  It wasn’t the score, and it wasn’t the “win-o-meter”.  It’s because the Flames asked the Leafs for their lunch money, and they basically just handed it over to them.

In my opinion, the book is out on the Leafs.  Play them very physical, don’t make many mistakes, don’t take too many penalties, and make a few saves.  Put the game in the hands of the referees, who won’t save the Leafs, and collect your 2 points.

The Toronto Maple Leafs Loss to the Flames

In the Calgary game, where the Leafs were credited for a whopping 7 hits, Calgary was credited with 18 hits in the game and several of them were of the bone-crunching variety.  Kase literally left the game after getting rocked by Zadorov and did not return.

Let me be clear, it’s not just the number of hits in the game, it’s the fact that players were getting bullied in corners and in scrums.  Tavares, Matthews, Nylander, Muzzin, all of which, like Kase, were relentlessly harassed and challenged physically.

I fully understand that Toronto had the puck a lot in this game, which means they don’t have to hit, but it still begs the question:  If a team is getting bullied, is 7 hits enough of a response to stick up for yourself?  No.  No it’s not.

Would it have been different if Simmonds and Ritchie were dressed for the game?  I have no doubt the Flames would have received a cordial greeting or two in response to their physicality, but it honestly doesn’t change the narrative.

Seriously, outside of Simmonds, none of our regular forwards really hit anybody (Ritchie is not a regular forward).  A 21-year-old Rasmus Sandin is our most physical defenseman (he’s 5’11 and 180 lbs), and yes, he leads our defensemen in hits with 5.78/60 (tied with Muzzin).

I’m not asking this team to become the Barry Trotz Islanders, I’m just looking for some kind of physicality in a game that is very physical.

Let’s go back to the moments in recent history that set people off when they watch a Leaf game like the one Thursday night in Calgary.