The Toronto Maple Leafs have had issues all season long. Take your pick: Goaltending, defense, penalty kill, power play, injuries. It seems like every week, the issues rotate. But one problem that’s been consistent throughout the season has been the Leafs’ power play.
Even without Mitch Marner, the Maple Leafs should have a good, if not great, power play. But they don’t. Entering Thursday night’s action, the Maple Leafs power play is 30th in the league. Its 15.0% is barely above the chronically offensive challenged LA Kings and the dismal Calgary Flames.
But as a December 18 article in The Athletic pointed out, the Maple Leafs haven’t just struggled on the power play. They’ve been atrocious. The article highlighted the following:
“The Leafs are in unfamiliar territory: dead last with the man advantage. That should be impossible with the talent at their disposal. The fact they’re one of two teams scoring under five goals-per-60 with the man advantage and that the other team is the Calgary Flames should be a massive indictment on the franchise. For a team that gets so few power-play chances every night, they can’t afford to waste them to this degree.”
So, a couple of things to unpack here. First, the Maple Leafs just aren’t getting the same scoring chances with the man advantage. The once-booming one-timer from Auston Matthews has evaporated. Anyone who can come up with that answer could be credited with saving the franchise.
Second, the Leafs don’t draw as many penalties as other teams. Some clubs are quite adept at producing power play opportunities. That’s not the case for the Maple Leafs. The Leafs have had just 80 power play chances. In contrast, the 31st-place Kings have had 102.
Based on those numbers, you would think that if the Leafs had more power play opportunities, they could score more. But the evidence contradicts that notion.
On Thursday night against the Washington Capitals, the Maple Leafs got five power play chances. The result? Zippola. 0-for-5 on the power play, leading to a 4-0 shutout loss. Had Toronto scored at least once or twice, the game would have been much closer. But they didn’t, and the scoreboard reflected that reality.
The piece concludes the thought with this intriguing reflection:
“How bad is it? The last time the Leafs scored under five goals per 60 with the man advantage over any 30-game stretch was the end of the 2015-16 season — the year they finished dead last. It’s a first during the Auston Matthews era and the team desperately needs it to be the last 30-game stretch at that level of ineptitude.”
All Leafs’ fans who lived through that 2016 tanking will recall just how bad the club was all around. While this season’s team wasn’t nearly as bad, things are approximating 2016 levels.
Perhaps there’s a silver lining here. The Maple Leafs may not need to do much more than improve their power play to become a truly competitive team. Often, Occam’s Razor proves to be the way out of a jam.