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Toronto Maple Leafs Are a Strong Defensive and Elite Penalty Killing Team

By James Tanner

May 2, 2022; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe congratulates forward Mitchell Marner (16) and forward David Kampf (64) after his goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the second period of game one of the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
May 2, 2022; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe congratulates forward Mitchell Marner (16) and forward David Kampf (64) after his goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the second period of game one of the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Toronto Maple Leafs make for a great study in narratives vs reality.

For example: The Toronto Maple Leafs are an excellent playoff team that has proven they can win in the post season by being the better team in 90% of their playoff games in this era.  They have been among the best teams of all time at coming from behind in the playoffs, and have deserved much better results than they’ve gotten.

But they are still talked about as a team that needs to play the right way, and perform when it counts, and play Playoff hockey – even though that is all B.S narrative for people who are too lazy to dig deeper on their own.

Another example is that the Leafs haven’t been a high-flying offensive team since the early days of the Mike Babcock era.  They are currently one of the best defensive teams in the NHL.

Since I doubt you agree, let’s look into some numbers.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Elite Defensive Team

At 5v5, the Leafs allow the sixth lowest shot-attempts and shots per minute in the NHL.

They have the 7rd lowest expected goals against per minute in the league.  They have the 5th lowest actual goals against per minute in the NHL.

The reason the Leafs are such a good defensive team is that they loaded their roster with players who can move the puck, and who are (outside of their scorers) low-event, defensively responsible players.

Matthews, Marner, O’Reilly are the best of the best when it comes to NHL offensive stars who also play strong defense.  O’Reilly has won a Selke and both other players will eventually win one.

Engvall and Kamp are two of the best defensive players alive.

Alex Kerfoot, Calle Jarnkrok, Zach Aston-Reese and Noel Acciari are also excellent defenders.  It shows up in the numbers.

But it’s the PK that really shines. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

The Leafs have the 11th best PK save-percentage, so it’s taken their overall PK numbers down, and by PK Percentage they are a pedestrian 13th overall.

However, their underlying numbers are great, so as the season progresses they should expect to improve their overall standing to become one of the top PK teams in hockey.

On a per-minute basis here is the Leafs ranking for various PK stats:

Shot-Attempts Against: 5th

Shots-Against: 9th

Goals-Against: 6th

Expected Goals Against: 2nd

Scoring Chances Against: 5th

Dangerous Chances Against: 1st.

To Sum Up:

The Toronto Maple Leafs are ranked 11th by PK Percentage, but any look into the underlying numbers shows they are a lot closer to being the best penalty killing team in the NHL.

They limit shot-attempts better than all but five teams, and no team allows less high-danger chances when killing a penalty.

The narratives of anything in the public sphere are never going to match up exactly to reality, and the more people who care, and the less important the topic, the less aligned narratives will be with what actually happens.

Next. Three Trades to Pass On Making. dark

The Toronto Maple Leafs are the perfect example of this.  They may have sunk half their cap into four players, but they then went out and built one of the deepest, most balanced, best defensive teams in the NHL.

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