The 6 Toronto Maple Leafs Ideas That I Hate the Most

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in an interesting position.

On one hand, we should be happy that the Toronto Maple Leafs are in first place half way through the season. Add in their injury troubles, and their record becomes even more impressive, which should set off a ton of hope and hype for the rest of the season.

But on the other hand, we've been here before: for nearly 60 seasons the Leafs have failed to win a President's Trophy, Art Ross Tropy, Norris Trophy, Vezina Trophy or to make an appearence in the Stanley Cup Finals, let alone win the Cup.

And furthermore, all of the numbers we have for predicting the future: namely puck-possession and Expected Goals, 5v5 goal differential and 5v5 save percentage, say the Leafs are in for a tough second half as their results adjust to more accurately reflect how they've played.

So that is interesting, or at least it is to me. But it's also an intro, and here now are the six things I hate the most about this team.

The 6 Toronto Maple Leafs Ideas That I Hate the Most

Trading Morgan Rielly

I don't think people understand that $7 million is great value for a solid second-pairing defenseman. Rielly is worth every dollar he makes, has a full NTC and is one of the only good puck-movers on a team that needs more, not less, puck-movers.

(Some of the) Reporting

Generally, the Leafs are a well covered team, but I have a few notes: 1) Stop doing the trade rumour thing where you try to be realistic so you can say you were right. The Leafs might end up trading for Scott Laughton, but who cares? They should aim higher and we should help them. 2) Combined plus/minus is not a thing. 3) Stop saying upper and lower body injury when you know what the injury is.

Ryan O'Reilly

He had the chance to sign here, and he left. He's 2 years older now, and while his advanced stats are good, his results are down right awful. He has the opposite problem the Leafs have. This already didn't work, and he chose to not be here, and now people want to spend even more assets to acquire this guy?

The only good thing about Ryan O'Reilly is the irony: he has a Cup and a Conn Smythe, and is considered a PLAYOFF WARRIOR but played in the playoffs just once (and lost in the first round) by the time he was Marner's current age. On the other hand, Mitch Marner is considered a playoff failure even though he's just in his ninth year and has played 57 playoff games.

Dump and Chase

According to the NHL Edge stats, the Leafs are the second fastest team in the NHL when just counting their forwards. *(Their defense is so slow they fall to 10th overall in team speed).

Still, I don't care how fast your team is, dumping and chasing the puck when you have four of the highest skilled players in the NHL is extremely bad strategy. The Leafs play the way an expansion team would play to level the playing field. Their results are good, at least so far, but I think asking Matthews and Marner to play this way is more ridiculous than coming up with an alter ego with a soul patch at the height of your fame so you can release your worst songs.

Matthews and Marner (and Nylander) Together

I don't know how much more proof you need, but Mitch Marner makes everyone he plays with into a superstar....unless he plays with Matthews then he is too hyperfocused on getting Matthews the puck.

NHL teams should never play franchise players on the same line regularly. Obviously when you need a goal, double up, but normally it's far smarter to get the bump franchise players give to regular players. In the Leafs case, with Nylander and Marner and Matthews on different lines would upgrade six other players and make it so they almost always have a franchise player on the ice.

The Power-Play

It's not that hard: Auston Matthews on one unit, Mitch Marner on the other. End of problem.