A few numbers jumped out as the Maple Leafs were getting set to play the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.
The Leafs have playing defence with better results recently, and one reason is their willingness to throw themselves in front of the opposition when they’re winding up to shoot.
Before Wednesdays NHL’s games, the Leafs were fourth in the league with 872 blocked shots, after the Islanders (907), Minnesota (887) and Montreal (883).
The Leafs also were second in giveaways, with 614. The Edmonton Oilers were first with 618. While that might indicate some carelessness, part of it would come from playing a fast-paced game that’s not conservative.
The Leafs were ninth with 397 takeaways, and their aim was not great, as they were ninth with 679 missed shots.
And though the Leafs aren’t a necessarily physical team at forward, they were fifth with 1,332 hits. That’s not one statistic that coach Ron Wilson necessarily likes, as he pointed out earlier this season that if a team is hitting along, it might not have the puck as much as it should.
The Leafs will have a morning skate on Thursday after players had the complete day off in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Leafs by the numbers
Following Phil
As if living and breathing with the Leafs involvement in the playoff race every night isn’t enough, following the progress of Phil Kessel on his way to 40 plus goals is another stat of regular interest for fans of the team.
With a little help from the empty netter Monday night against the Oilers, Kessel has three goals in his last two games and has 29 in 53. At that rate, Phil the Thrill is on pace for just shy of 44. While it is reasonable to expect that checking will tighten further down the stretch, Kessel has a small cushion on his drive for 40.
Here’s the most impressive stat of Kessel’s progress so far this season: In his 32-goal effort last season, Kessel didn’t get his 29th until Game 75 on March 24.
Kessel won’t often have two easier goals than he did against the Oilers (see the video of his first here) , but it’s part of the accumulation process for any elite scorer.
Growing pains fuel Gardiner
It would have been so easy for Jake Gardiner to sulk.
But in this, his rookie season in the NHL, the swift-skating defenceman has shown the type of mental toughness that has the Maple Leaf brass collectively smiling from ear to ear.
When Gardiner was scratched for four consecutive games last month, it would have been easy for the University of Wisconsin alumnus to get down on himself. Instead, he has rebounded in a big way since getting back into the lineup.
Since returning to the ice, Gardiner has produced seven points in nine games. More impressive is the fact that he has five in his past five, including the first two NHL goals of his promising career.
“It’s nice that they are finally going in,” said Gardiner, whose second of the season helped the Leafs beat the Edmonton Oilers 6-3 on Monday.
Almost five months ago, during a Leafs preseason game in Detroit, an Eastern Conference scout raved at the potential of Gardiner, pointing out that he had the poise and savvy of a player far beyond his years.
It seems those skills are coming to the forefront in a big way right now.
Leafs getting to know where they stand
Scoreboard-watching can become a sport unto itself, especially since the Maple Leafs have just 30 games remaining in the regular season.
The Leafs got some help on Sunday when the Washington Capitals lost to the Boston Bruins, ensuring that Toronto would stay in eighth place in the Eastern Conference for at least another day.
Though there is plenty of hockey to be played in the next two months, the fight for the last playoff spot in the East appears like it will be a four-way fight involving the Leafs, Florida Panthers, Ottawa Senators and Capitals.
“It’s is kind of expected that every team is going to win down the stretch,” Leafs defenceman Luke Schenn said. “If we worry about our own games, later on we will be in a good position. We should be in the post-season if we continue to win. Last year (when the Leafs were chasing a spot), I think we were doing more scoreboard watching than we are now.”
Joffrey Lupul glanced at the standings on Sunday long enough to realize that the Boston Bruins, winners of all four games against the Leafs this season, were six points ahead of the Leafs before they beat the Caps.
But Lupul said he will wait another 10 games or so before he starts to study the standings earnestly.
“I don’t drive myself crazy looking at the standings quite this early,” Lupul said. “Once we get to the 20-game mark, that is the time I really start looking at it daily.”
Special teams help pace Leafs, bury Senators
Penalty killing perfection has been becoming a habit for the Maple Leafs.
On Saturday night, the power play did its part.
After scoring just twice in their previous 28 opportunities, the Leafs potted two power-play goals on five chances during a 5-0 victory against the Ottawa Senators.
Having John-Michael Liles back as an integral part of the power play helps. But Liles didn’t have a point on Saturday. Instead, it was Phil Kessel and Mikhail Grabovski who made scintillating passes for power-play goals by Dion Phaneuf and Cody Franson.
Meanwhile, the Leafs killed three penalties and have killed all 22 they have faced in 2011-12.
In the Senators dressing room, Jason Spezza felt special teams helped bury his squad.
“We lose the special teams battles, our power play doesn’t score, our penalty kill gets scored on,” Spezza said. “Our five-on-five is probably a fairly even game, but you need some support on your power play and stops from your penalty kill. It’s kind of the recipe for what was going on when we were winning games. Now we’re losing games and those are two contributing factors.”
Sixth Sense
The recent burst by the Leafs and slump by the Senators (losers of four heading into Friday’s date with the Islanders) only adds to the intrigue of the suddenly resurgent Battle of Ontario.
But here’s where Saturday’s game in the capital gets even more meaning. Granted, it is cart before the horse material and certainly other teams battling for the bottom playoff spots in the Eastern Conference could have a say, but the Leafs find themselves just two points behind the Sens with two games in hand.
At stake, right now anyway, is sixth place and a look at the standings gives clear meaning why that could be a coveted spot entering the post season. Whoever prevails in what looks to be a soft Southeast Division is likely to claim the No. 3 seed and meet No. 6 in the opening round of the playoffs.
Who knows what might transpire over the next couple of months, but avoiding Boston and the New York Rangers early on certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Sticking with Reimer the right call
Ron Wilson finds himself with a nice problem.
Really, it’s anything but that.
James Reimer returned to the net on Wednesday night after a long layoff and shut out the Pittsburgh Penguins 1-0 with 25 saves.
His Maple Leafs goaltending partner, Jonas Gustavsson, had three shutouts in January and came within minutes of a fourth.
Defensively, the Leafs are playing much better. When they need the saves, for the most part, they have been getting them (the third period on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh aside).
Wilson could start either goalie and be secure in his belief that he’s going to get a sharp performance (look at the Leafs’ opponent on Saturday, the Senators, for the opposite. Coach Paul MacLean is loathe to glance in Alex Auld’s direction. The Sens will ride Craig Anderson long and hard).
It’s good to see that Reimer will get the start in Ottawa on Saturday night. Turning to another goalie after the other just recorded a shutout is a rarity in hockey.
That allows Wilson to go with Gustavsson against Edmonton at the Air Canada Centre on Monday. And Reimer would be rested to start against his boyhood team, the Winnipeg Jets, on Tuesday in Manitoba.
Let’s be clear: Leafs’ PK is super-duper awesome
Ron Wilson likes to get his digs in at reporters, often for reasons that are clear only to him, but the Maple Leafs coach couldn’t have been more off-base during his post-game scrum on Wednesday night.
When asked after the Leafs’ hard-fought 1-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins if the officiating is becoming more playoff-like, in that not as much is being called, Wilson got around to saying: “We have been really disciplined and we have gone more than a month without giving up a PK goal. I know the negative ninnies don’t even want to mention that because we are doing something well, but it is something that is a big shot of confidence in everybody’s arm. We feel pretty good going out and killing penalties now.”
It’s hard to say who the “negative ninnies” are. The Sun, as well as other media outlets, regularly has been reporting the good things the Leafs have been doing on the penalty kill.
The Leafs have been perfect when shorthanded, wiping out all 19 short-handed situations against them in 2012.
This is what Wilson said on Jan. 22: “For all the emphasis about how good we would be if we could kill penalties, now we can kill penalties and we’re struggling to win games. It shows how irrelevant some of the things that are said. It’s a 60-minute game. It doesn’t come down to four or six minutes of killing penalties. There is still 56 minutes you have to fill. You can focus on specific areas for all the wrong reasons. At the end of the day, it is about winning games, period.”
So does killing a lot of penalties matter a whole heck of a lot? Depends on what kind of mood Wilson is in, apparently.
Turning questions around to take shots at reporters has popped up fairly regularly in Wilson’s tenure in Toronto. The point of it has never been explained.
Kessel, Lupul need to break cold snaps
February began with unseasonably warm temperatures in Toronto, but the Maple Leafs’ top two forwards remain in a cold snap.
The production of Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul dropped fairly dramatically in the latter part of January, and the Leafs need the pair to rev up again in a month that’s just as crucial as the last.
After scoring a goal in four consecutive games, Kessel had just three points (two goals and one assist) in the final nine games of the month and slipped to 11th in NHL scoring with 51 points. Offence is linked to solid defence, and Kessel was minus-6.
Lupul was not much better. In the past nine games, Lupul has one goal and four assists and also was minus-6. Three of those assists came in a victory against the Minnesota Wild on Jan. 19. It should be noted, too, that Lupul has not scored a power-play goal since Dec. 17.
Lupul is ninth in NHL scoring with 52 points, seven points behind leader Evgeni Malkin, who brings his Pittsburgh Penguins to the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday night.
The Leafs went 4-4-1 as Kessel and Lupul slumped.
Few teams can contain the speed that Kessel and Lupul bring every night. Still, the gaps have been getting tighter for the duo, and they’re going to have to find ways through the traffic.
The Leafs could hang around the playoff race if Kessel and Lupul don’t produce as much as they did through December. But their chances of advancing in the top eight will increase only if their most dynamic players start putting the puck in the net again.
Leafs’ January record has to be replicated
The month of January — forget that the third period against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night was a disaster — turned out to be rather successful for the Maple Leafs.
The Leafs were 7-4-1 in January, and it’s a winning percentage they’re going to have to try to replicate in February to keep their charge to a playoff spot alive.
No less than 14 games, starting with the second half of a home-and-home with the Penguins on Wednesday night at the Air Canada Centre, await the Leafs in February.
Toronto crept into eighth place in the Eastern Conference with a point after they lost 5-4 in a shootout to the Penguins on Tuesday. If the Leafs head into March with just a .500 record in the previous month, they’re bound to be on the outside of a playoff spot again.
It’s great that Mikhail Grabovski (there’s no way the Leafs can trade this guy, by the way) and Clarke MacArthur have found their scoring touch. But your best players have to be your best players, and the Leafs have to get more from Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul. They’re not getting the same kind of space as they were before, but good players find a way around, or through, that.
The biggest test for the Leafs comes right away after they lost for the first time this season (18-0-1) when leading after 40 minutes.
They’re young and everything, but they’re too deep into the season for that to be an excuse.
Anything less than a fine bounce-back performance against the Penguins on Wednesday would be two steps back.