3 Things to Worry About the Toronto Maple Leafs Heading Into the Playoff Run

Penalty Killing Is Killing the Leafs

With the Leafs penalty killing being one of their forte the past few seasons, it has certainly taken a huge step back in 2023-24.

Having ranked consistently in the top third of the league in recent years, they have actually found themselves sputtering in the bottom third for the majority of this season.

More notably, since March 1st, the Leafs have put up a penalty kill success rate close to just 75%, ranking them 9th worst in the league.

For those that remember from playoffs past where the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning feasted on the Leafs with their potent power plays, by having a struggling penalty kill heading into the playoff run, it could amount to a huge problem for the Leafs going forward.

If it wasn’t already bad enough to have a power outage for their power play at the worst time of the year, but to pair it with a penalty kill that has been in most part disappointing, it could potentially create a special teams nightmare for the Leafs in the coming weeks.

Again, for their more recent struggles, it might have something to do with Marner missing the past few weeks since he is one of their key cogs when a man short.

Or perhaps with the recent new additions in Ilya Lyubuskin, Joel Edmundson and Connor Dewar to their penalty kill units, they needed an adjustment period to learn the system and positioning with their new team before they could be performing at their absolute best.

Either way, the Leafs will need to find a solution quick with just three more weeks to go before it’s too late.