The Toronto Maple Leafs Record Against Bad Teams Gets Worse

The Toronto Maple Leafs can’t beat bad teams!

The 2023 Toronto Maple Leafs regularly slaughter and destroy bad teams, then get bad results.

This is really only a problem if you don’t consider the nuance and subtleties of the situation.

For instance: the Leafs games against the bad teams constitutes a very small sample size, while in fact the underlying numbers show that they rarely are outplayed, out worked, or deserve to lose.

So while the Leafs record against Chicago, Montreal et al. is really just an anomaly that has nothing to do with whatever silly narrative people are talking about now. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Chicago Blackhawks

The Leafs had a sick goalie who probably shouldn’t have been playing (based on his horrible performance) and they were without arguably their best defenseman in Rasmus Sandin. (You could argue it, but I’d call him second best after Liljegren).

Regardless, the Leafs were flying and they controlled – even dominated – play.  The Chicago goalie was ridiculous, and there was a really weird lack of calls against the Blackhawks for obvious penalties.

In the NHL, a team that controls 60% of the game should expect a lot more than two power-plays on the night.

Keefe hasn’t done too much experimenting through the first two games, but David Kampf has to be more of a fourth line player because he has no offense.  With Ryan O’Reilly here I really question the need for Kampf on the team at all, since you have Acciari to centre the fourth line.

I would really consider saving him cap space and keeping Kerfoot when the other shoe drops (*i.e a trade for a defenseman).

As for last night’s game, who cares about the result? The Toronto Maple Leafs are about finding what works, what doesn’t, and getting the lineup right for the playoffs.

They will be playing Tampa, and the only question is who will have home ice, which barely matters, because losing isn’t an option for this team at this point.  That is why, despite having what is clearly already the best paper roster in the NHL they will continue to add for the playoffs.

Look for the Leafs to add a defenseman to push Justin Holl out of their lineup before the trade deadline approaches.   They will resume the easy portion of their schedule tomorrow against the Buffalo Sabres, a team that still has playoff aspirations, but which may run into trouble because there are so many teams vying for the two wildcard spots.