The Toronto Maple Leafs approach the all-star break on Wednesday, likely in 3rd place overall.
Despite that incredible achievement, the Toronto Maple Leafs are 11 points out of first place, which seems like a lot.
The Bruins, however, are on a major heater and are a bit of a paper tiger. They are good. They aren’t this good.
In fact, there is likely no difference between the Leafs, Hurricanes and Bruins, or the Rangers, Lightning or Oilers, for that matter.
It’s a professional league with a salary cap, gaps between contenders tend to be illusory.
Don’t believe, me, check out the injury data.
Toronto Maple Leafs Have Had Worst Injury Luck in the NHL
3rd place is quite impressive, given the context.
NHL injury visualization. Man games lost to injuries and health protocols versus team wins. Bubble size represents cumulative quality of players lost for games (Lost-ps metric) https://t.co/9OUgKDJDeM pic.twitter.com/Twh9ihRot0
— Man-Games Lost NHL (@ManGamesLostNHL) January 27, 2023
The Leafs have lost over 350 man-games to injury. They also have the fattest circle, meaning they have the most significant injuries.
Jake Muzzin, missed the entire season.
T.J Brodie has missed 22 games.
Morgan Rielly missed 15 games.
Sandin missed 5 games, Liljegren 11.
The Leafs are the only team with five stars on the blue-line, but one of them missed the whole season. The other four combined to miss more games than the team has played.
Only eight Toronto Maple Leafs have played every game: Nylander, Holl, Giordano, Tavares, Bunting, Marner, Kerfoot and Kampf.
Pierre Engvall missed 2 games.
Auston Matthews is out for three weeks, he’s missed 4 games so far.
Calle Jarnkrok was out for a while, he missed six games.
Nick Robertson, who was expected to contribute on an entry-level salary (and did while he was in the lineup) has missed 36 games and counting.
Finally, both goalies were injured, which meant that Erik Kallgren had to play ten games. Good thing he was awesome or things could have gotten out of hand. (stats cbssports.com (for some reason?)).
Sure, other teams have injuries. Just not this many. If the Leafs were languishing in the middle of the pack, fighting for the playoffs, this would be a legitimate excuse (note the proper usage and context of the word “legitimate”).
The fact that the Leafs could beat Boston and head into the All-Star game just nine points back is incredible impressive.
Here are the positions of the five teams who have been injured close to as much as the Leafs:
— Editor in Leaf (@EditorinLeaf) January 30, 2023
14th, 22nd, 26th, and last.
Outside of the Leafs, the other 9 teams who make up the top 10 in the NHL overall standings are among the healthiest teams in the league this year.
If you look at the top five teams in the NHL standings (Boston, Carolina, Toronto, New Jersey Dallas) you get four of the healthiest teams in the NHL and the (by far) most injured one.
Who’s next? Tampa, Seattle, Winnipeg, Rangers. Also, guess what, super healthy.
Here are the positions of the five closest teams to the Leafs, in terms of injuries: 14th, 22nd, 26th, and last.
This clearly shows that the Toronto Maple Leafs are better than the standings suggest. I would go so far as to say that, if not for injuries, the Leafs would be challenging league records right alongside the Bruins.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are, accounting for injuries, the best team in the NHL.