The Toronto Maple Leafs have just finished a string of poor games.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have experienced some hard times lately, going 2-2-1 in their past five games, following an amazing run that saw them rank as the second best hockey club in the league. Only a few of losses to Carolina kept them from being the greatest team over the previous 30 games.
Those five games include two really worrying games against the Edmonton Oilers and the New Jersey Devils, a loss to Carolina in a shootout, and a loss to a mediocre Flyers squad.
The Jersey and Oilers games both essentially capture the essence of this team: The Leafs first establish a five-goal lead but nearly blow it. Next, they battled the Devils.have one of the best periods it’s possible to have and then play two completely garbage ones.
And worst of all, the common denominator of all these games is that the goalies sucked, except for one game where Joseph Woll reminded us of his potential.
The Leafs are a team that can outscore its problems and really nothing else, as we have seen over the past few months when they have come very close to becoming the NHL’s greatest team.
The Leafs have some of the worst goaltending in hockey, at least among playoff teams, a subpar blue line, and a poor defensive unit.
The Leafs still lead the NHL, though. Since January 18th, a span of nearly 30 games and more than one-third of the NHL season, in both 5v5 and overall goals. They are receiving more than 70% of the points that are available to them at this time. (Naturstattrick.com statistics).
However, they’re doing that while permitting a tonne of objectives. Their proportion of predicted goals does not suggest they should be a top team, and during this time they’ve had the 13th best XGoals rating, and the15th best goaltending.
There is no way a team with those numbers should be first among the top teams in the league, but the Leafs are just outscoring everyone in their path.
