Toronto Maple Leafs: Media Hysteria Hides ‘Best Team’ Status
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs entered the NHL’s new season in what surely is the most unique situation ever.
Losers of six straight opening-round playoff series, and occupying the centre of the hockey universe (with the baggage and media nonsense that entails)the Toronto Maple Leafs happen to have one of the best rosters ever assembled in the NHL’s Salary Cap Era, and yet they get the respect of a busted lip-syncing pop star.
That’s OK.
Whenever I read something stupid about my favorite hockey team, I just remember that Ed Sheeran has sold more records than Morrissey.
I recall that Avatar ( My Review: zero stars) sold more tickets in it’s opening weekend that David Lynch has sold in his entire career.
I recall my second-favorite quote.
And when I am centered, I get down to the business of telling all of y’all how it is.
Toronto Maple Leafs Sit in the Cat Seat
Though I’m hearing a ton of nonsense, if you ignore the noise, the Leafs are exactly what I’ve been saying all summer long: The best team in hockey.
They have a 4-3 record, and all three of their losses were games they could have won. Not saying they deserved to, but this team has won nearly 70% of the points available to them over three years, and the reason they win so often is that Matthews and Marner allow them to win a lot of games they don’t necessarily deserve to win.
Despite playing as well as ever, neither player is contributing as much as they normally would, which is understandable, because these things happen.
For whatever reason Pierre Engvall appears to be the one player everyone is hyper-focused on complaining about.
— Editor in Leaf (@EditorinLeaf) October 25, 2022
Even though the Leafs have outshot their opponents 34-20 with him on the ice, they also have an
.850 save percentage, 2.5 on-ice shooting percentage.
It’s a long season, and not every single game can see a max-effort performance. The game against Vegas was garbage, but one total dud out of seven games is actually not a bad ratio, and that was also a winnable game, thanks to Illya Samsonov.