The Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans are honored and very lucky to get to watch Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner on a nightly basis.
But everyone has a bad day, and last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs two best players of all-time had what was perhaps the worst game either of them have ever played.
Marner and Matthews, along with Matthew Knies, were on the ice for all six Carolina Goals. And it wasn't just the goals against - they were dominated by the Hurricanes, and the Leafs never really had a chance.
The loss ended the Leafs five game winning streak.
Carolina Hurricanes Beat the Toronto Maple Leafs
The game started out pretty great, actually. The Leafs were up 2-0 and Nylander had a 2 on 1 where he hit the post, a breakaway where he was robbed, and then another breakaway where he did score. It was a great sequence that promised a great game. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
But then nothing happened. Nylander disappeared for the second and third periods, and Matthews and Marner only with they did.
The second period was especially bad for the Leafs, where were just outright throttled.
This game was pretty bad overall - the top line was garbage - not only were they on the ice for an impossible six goals against, but the Hurricanes had 65% puck-possession time, and scoring chances were 11-2.
Forget the shorthanded goal and the empty netter, Matthews and Marner were still on the ice for four 5v5 goals against. Yikes!
The Hurricanes are the NHL's top statistical team, and are pretty much the opposite of the Leafs in every way: The Hurricanes are at the bottom of the NHL in 5v5 save-percentage, but they are 21 spots above that ranking in the overall standings, doing it on the basis of being the NHL's best puck-possession and Expected Goals Percentage team.
The Leafs on the other hand, are a 5th overall in the NHL, but they are doing it the opposite way: they are a bad puck-possession team with a lousy Expected Goals Percentage, but they are getting top-five goaltending and their position in the standings matches that.
The Leafs may be 7th by points-percentage, but they are 25th in puck-possession, and 20th by Expected Goals, but 4th in 5v5 save-percentage.
So while the Leafs are ahead of Carolina for the moment, it is only because of the luck of goaltending. The Leafs cannot hope to sustain their level of goaltending, and should therefore expect a standings correction in the second-half of the season. These are two teams going in opposite directions, unfortunately.
One thing the Hurricanes do that the Leafs should copy is playing their three best forwards on three different lines and their three best defenseman on three different pairings.