Fansided

Toronto Maple Leafs win, now lead the NHL in arguably the most important stat

The Toronto Maple Leafs played perhaps the best game of the season so far.

By James Tanner |
Oct 21, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov (86) blocks Toronto Maple Leafs forward Bobby McMann (74) from getting to a puck as Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Jonas Johansson (31) and forward Brayden Point (21) defend the goal during the third period at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Oct 21, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov (86) blocks Toronto Maple Leafs forward Bobby McMann (74) from getting to a puck as Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Jonas Johansson (31) and forward Brayden Point (21) defend the goal during the third period at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images / John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

The Toronto Maple Leafs played perhaps the best game of the season so far, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning decisively on Monday night.

There were some rough spots, and it wasn't exactly a dominating performance, but the Toronto Maple Leafs did a lot of things right over the full 60 minutes and ended up with a solid victory.

Considering that the Rangers game on Saturday could have gone either way, and their only other loss was a 1-0 shutout in which they hit four posts and put 47 other shots on net, the Leafs have to be extremely happy about their start to the Craig Berube era.

The final score in this one was 5-2, and the games first star was Anthony Stolarz (I mean, in my opinion; I did not care to stay tuned to find out who the broadcast named as the three stars). (all stats naturalstattrick.com).

The Toronto Maple Leafs move to 4-2 with a solid effort vs Tampa Bay

The most impressive thing about this game is that the Leafs scored 4 5v5 goals and allowed only one. Two were by William Nylander who now has give goals in his first six games.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are winning 16-6 so far this year at 5v5, which is over 70% of the total goals scored in the game's most important state. They lead the league in this stat, which is arguably the most important one.

Others would say expected goals matter more, at least for predicting the future, and unfortunately for the Leafs they are 11th in this stat. When the sample size is larger, expected goals will definitely be a better indicator, but for now, having only played six games, I am more interested in the real totals. The Leafs game against LA Kings was so weird because of the early blowout that the stats for that game are still messing with their stats.

One caveat for the Leafs: they lead the NHL in PDO which is the combined total of save and shooting percentages. If this number goes over 100, you are getting lucky and if it's under 100 you are getting unlucky. A 105 rating is very lucky, but this makes sense because Anthony Stolarz is not going to save 94 out of every 100 shots for very long.

One issue that unsurprisingly reared its head last night: the third pairing of Conor Timmins and Simon Benoit is absolutely awful. Neither of these guys should be regulars on a team that wants to win the Stanley Cup.

I also thought Nick Robertson had a great game, and Pontus Holmberg proved the coach right for scratching Reaves in stead.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs will take on the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight.

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