Fun with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL Standings for Monday October 28th
The Toronto Maple Leafs are off to their usual October start, which is not that good, but not that bad!
The Toronto Maple Leafs have lost three games in a row - one to Columbus, one to St. Louis, and one to their oldest enemy, the Boston Bruins.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have lost four of their last five games, and have ruined what had been a pretty good start to the season. I would very much like to see the Leafs with a better record than the 4-4-1 they are currently rocking, especially since there are no ties in hockey and that's really a sub-.500 4-5 record.
No matter - it's a long season and teams are never quite as good or as bad as they appear in the first month of the season.
Except for San Jose - they are exactly as bad as they appear!
Fun with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL Standings for Monday October 28th
Probably the worst thing about the Leafs bad start is that the Buffalo Sabres not only have the same record as the Leafs do, but the Sabres are doing it with bad goaltending while the Leafs - becacuse of Anthony Stolarz - are getting some of the best goaltending in the NHL.
If you go through any nine game stretch with some of the best goaltending in the league and your record is under .500 that does not bode well for the future. The Leaf are 14th in Expected Goals, and they have a PDO over 100, so....that is not good. On the bright side, Auston Matthews' future production will likely overcome any regression based problems. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Mark Stone currently leads the NHL with 17 points, while Nikita Kucherov and Nico Hischier lead the league with 8 goals.
The Leafs are 16th by points overall, and 17th by points-percentage. In the Atlantic, the Leafs are tied for 4th, 5th by points-percentage. They are one Montreal victory with their game-in-hand from being tied for last place.
The Leafs are not currently in a playoff spot, and their .500 points percentage puts them ahead of only Pittsburgh, Montreal and Philedephia.
The Panthers are currently leading the Atlantic, while the Rangers are leading the Metro. The Jets are the NHL's best team, the last remaining perfect record, and the Leafs oppontent tonight. (standings nhl.com).
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The Flames remain surprisingly strong, while the Sharks have not yet won a game and are in last place. The Toronto Maple Leafs play the Jets, Kraken, Blues and Wild this week in what is hopefully a much better week that the one they just finished.