Toronto Maple Leafs: If That Was a “Measuring Stick” Game, Good.
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs had an excellent game.
The Toronto Maple Leafs goalie, Ilya Samsonov, unfortunately, only had the one good period.
I don’t know where or why the term “measuring stick” game into vouge, but it’s a horrible term and applied almost universally in a stupid way.
For instance, anyone using that phrase probably thinks the Leafs came up short last night.
They didn’t.
Toronto Maple Leafs Have Great Game, Don’t Win
If you want to measure how a team is doing, one game won’t tell you anything. But if you had to pay attention to just one game, certainly the least important part of that game is the result.
While that sounds counter-intuitive, the fact is, hockey is a game where you need a very large sample size for result to have meaning, since goalies make it so the best team doesn’t win very much compared to other, better designed games. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Who was the best team last night? It was the Leafs.
People can laugh at the numbers stuff, but for someone to watch that game and then go on TV and tell people its a measuring stick game the Leafs failed in, is just, in my opinion, lazy. The score makes that argument, but if the score is all you need, why any analysis at all? https://t.co/AIiG5iBZlb
— Editor in Leaf (@EditorinLeaf) February 2, 2023
Boston was impressive in that their goalie was spectacular and they executed whereas the Leafs did not. But what is “execution” in hockey when you can make a great play and the goalie or cross bar can render it meaningless?
The Leafs had the puck more, took more shots, had way more scoring chances.
“Measuring stick” my left foot.
The Toronto Maple Leafs enter the break knowing that they have beaten Boston once, and lost twice to them due to bad luck. They know that if they keep playing how they’ve played them this year, they’ll win more than they lose. That is success.
The Leafs had the puck 59% of the time last night.
The shots (5v5 where 52 minutes were played) were 46-35, and I probably don’t have to tell you that when a team in the NHL gets 57% of the shots, they usually win.
The Leafs had 12 more scoring chances and five more high-danger chances. They were – by far – the better team last night. Given Samsonov’s overall play this year, I don’t think they should worry about why they lost either.
Auston Matthews didn’t play, and he would have made a big difference.
Again, I struggle to figure out what a single game is supposed to measure. And again, I think the term “measuring stick” is about as embarrassing as someone saying “LOL” or “OMG,” outloud but the Toronto Maple Leafs went up against the luckiest team in the league and played one of their best games of the year, even though their best player and their goalie were no shows.
Next. Gotta Credit Old Lou. dark
What’s the problem? You’ve never seen a hockey game where the goalies made the other 36 players irrelevant? Give me a break. The kind post-game analysis I saw last night explains why people actually think Ivan Barbashev and Luke Schenn are good players for the Leafs to acquire.