Winning a Close, Low-Scoring Game is Good For the Toronto Maple Leafs

Last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs took down the Nashville Predators by a close 3-2 score.

Not since March 2, when they beat the Calgary Flames 2-1, have the Toronto Maple Leafs won a hockey game with fewer than 7 goals scored.

The Leafs entered last night’s game coming off a game where they played hard, but ultimately came up short and lost 5-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes.

It would’ve been easy for them to throw in a half-effort game against the Predators, but they didn’t.

Toronto Maple Leafs Dominate a Low Scoring Game

They checked well, outshot the Preds 34-25, went 2/5 on the power play, and dominated the game overall.  (naturalstattrick.com).

The reason why winning a close-checking, tight game like this one is that it is exactly the type of game played in the playoffs.

In round 1 of the playoffs last year, the Leafs went toe-to-toe with the Lightning, alternating wins until game 7. Every game from games 1-6 featured one team scoring at least 4 goals. It was very run-and-gun hockey, which is what the Leafs have been playing for the majority of their recent games.

In game 7 of last year’s playoffs, where Tampa Bay played a tight-checking, defense-first style of game that the Leafs ultimately lost. The Leafs only scored once on 31 shots and went 0/3 on the power play, coming up short 2-1 in that game 7.

Winning games like last night is good practice for when those games inevitably occur in the playoffs.

Come playoff time, Toronto will have to be comfortable playing these types of games. They will not  always be able to out-score all their issues as they have done so recently.

Another highlight from this game was Joseph Woll’s performance in net. Woll stopped 23/25 shots he faced, and both goals that he let in were not his fault whatsoever.

Last year in the playoffs, Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Jack Campbell put up a 3.15 GAA and a .897 SV%. While Campbell arguably played better than his stats showed, the Leafs will need stronger goaltending if they want to make it past round 1 and beyond.

I think the Leafs have what it takes to make it far in the playoffs. They have arguably the strongest team in the “Auston Matthews era”, and they came oh-so-close to beating the defending two-time cup champs last season.

One thing is for sure, however, the Leafs will need to win those close-checking games if they want to make it past Tampa Bay. If not, we’ll be seeing Matthews and Marner on the golf course in early May, rather than the ice rink.