Jets Sweep Nice But the Leafs Issues Remain Unaddressed
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs have had an extremely disappointing season to date.
So getting a sweep in a home-and-home series against the Winnipeg Jets is excellent for the Toronto Maple Leafs, no matter how you break it down.
But it doesn't solve any of their problems.
And, this team has consistently ignored their problems all season long whenever they get strong results. To keep doing so is to play with fire and risk the team's playoff berth.
Jet's Sweep Doesn't Solve Any of the Maple Leafs Problems
Yes, the Leafs won both games against the Jets.
But the first game was completely and 100% stolen by Ilya Samsonov. The Leafs played badly and deserved to lose.
Saturday's game was more of a coin-flip, but the statistics say that Winnipeg was the better 5v5 team. I appreciate that they didn't blow a lead, and I appreciate that their special teams came through for them, but the team who is best at 5v5 tends to win most of the time.
The Leafs dressed Ryan Reaves, and he scored. But he also was on the ice for a goal against, and had an expected goals percentage in the 30s that was among the lowest on the team.
Simon Benoit had a very good game, but last year he was the single worst player in the NHL. He has done a great job filling in, but a second-pairing of Jake McCabe and Simon Benoit is unacceptable. This is a line that will get caved in in a playoff series. They might make a good third pairing, but competitive teams with Cup aspirations need to do better than this.
That brings us to Ilya Samsonov.
He just had to amazing games and goes into the all-star game seemingly having won back the net. But it's too little too late. There is no way you can trust this guy in a playoff series.
The Toronto Maple Leafs needed a goalie last week, and they still need one. Samsonov is just too mercurial to trust, and while I cheer for him and hope he gets his career back in working order, I don't think the Leafs can avoid trading for a goalie.
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Same goes for the coach and GM. They have been having bad seasons, and if you thought they needed to be changed last week, you should still think that. The Jets games were nice. I am glad the team won, but they didn't dominate. They easily could have lost both those games. Probably should have.