4 Areas the Toronto Maple Leafs Will Need to Improve
By Edward Eng
3. % Rebounds Converted to Goals by Opposition
One of the more surprising statistics that probably most people didn’t know about was the fact that the Leafs were the league leaders (or dead last depending on how you see it) when it came to the percentage of rebounds being converted into goals by their opposition at 16.82% last season.
Just to put things into perspective, strong defensive teams like the Carolina Hurricanes and the Tampa Bay Lightning were down around 10-11%.
Both of the Leafs goalies Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll tend not to give up a lot of rebounds from their style of play.
This was true even last year with Matt Murray also in the fold.
However, their opponents were still converting them into goals at a higher rate than the rest of the league, even though rebounds weren’t occurring often.
What that meant was that the Leafs defense were not successful in clearing rebounds effectively when it did occur.
As a result, the Leafs should be more conscientious this season in working together as a group to help the goaltender clear rebounds out of harm’s way whenever possible, or at least hinder the shooter from getting off a good shot from the rebound.
Otherwise, by giving the opposing team second and third chances at the net, the probability of it staying out becomes a lot lower in the end.
The Toronto Maple Leafs lack physicality on their blue-line and this could continue to be a problem this year.