Toronto Maple Leafs Unsustainable Special Teams
What can I say about about the Toronto Maple Leafs unsustainable run that has not already been said? It is obvious to anyone who watches. Let alone individuals who actually analyse the statistics that are so incredibly damning. The Maple Leafs were successful for a period last season and earlier this season but they have, as expected returned to where they were expected to reside. They were expected to reside on the bubble of being a playoff team or being on the outside looking in. Overall their special teams is just unsustainable and is already showing it’s effects. Their powerplay efficiency, and penalty kill have a great indication on the success that they will have. With the Leafs current system they must take less penalties.
Not only do they rely too much on their powerplay (28.6% of their total goals) which is 7th highest in the league. I don’t believe this is sustainable in a league that acknowledges that it has less penalties in the post season. It might be an effective way to score a lot of goals in the regular season, but when the playoffs come you cannot expect to receive the same calls that you get in the regular season.
If Toronto is a team that survives on special teams they are not doing a great job of it on the penalty kill. The penalty kill was something that they prided themselves on last year (87.9%) which was good enough for 2nd in the league. And was a component of their team that was greatly improved with Randy Carlyle’s arrival. This season they are currently residing at 78.4% which ranks them 24 in the league on the penalty kill. This penalty kill efficiency is around Ron Wilson PK levels. Personally I thought this was one of Carlyle’s biggest upsides but it certainly isn’t this year.
What makes this especially troublesome is the amount of time that the Leafs spend on the penalty kill. The Leafs have had 111 penalty kills which is the 5th most in the NHL. They also lead the league in times short handed (119) which is the best stat for this.
The Leafs have drawn a lot of penalties this season. While it is not easy to track penalties drawn. In terms of plays that are borderline but they embellish that extra bit to get the penalty. They are among the league leaders in opponents penalty minutes at 404 which is good enough for 4th in the league.
A stat that is an interesting indication of how much time a team spends on the powerplay compared to the penalty kill is called “penalty efficiency ratio.” Which according to Sporting Charts is “is a statistic that measures the number of power play minutes a team has for each minute of penalty time. This attempts to measure the relationship between the time a team is on the power play compared to the time a team spends killing a penalty. The higher this number the more time they spend on the power play compared to penalty kill.”
The Maple Leafs currently have the fifth worst penalty efficiency ratio at 0.90. And with a penalty kill that is so inefficient in my opinion it is only logical that they are going to give up a lot of goals.
I don’t think it takes an expert to say that a team should take less penalties and draw more penalties. The Leafs do have a lot of time spent on the power play but definitely have to become more disciplined. This is especially important playing the way that they do. If you are going going to give up a lot of shots. I suggest you don’t take so many penalties. I don’t think that takes a rocket surgeon.
All statistics from http://www.sportingcharts.com/stats/nhl/team/
No comments:
Post a Comment