NHL officials actively trying to screw the Leafs; the numbers back it up
Since last season, the Toronto Maple Leafs own the third best powerplay percentage in the NHL clicking at a 25.9%. In 318 man-advantages at 5-on-4, the Leafs have managed to score 80 goals while scoring another 3 when having a 4-on-3 advantage. When it comes to 5-on-3 powerplays, however, the Leafs struggle to get any sort of opportunity.
Since last season, the Leafs have ONE, yes one, 5-on-3 powerplay, which they needed all of 22 seconds to score on. That powerplay came three quarters of the way through last season and more than a quarter of the way through this season, the Leafs are the only team to not have a 5-on-3 powerplay. Dating back to last season, the Minnesota Wild have had twenty-two 5-on-3 opportunities to lead the league. Meanwhile, the Leafs sit at the very bottom of the league in this department, below the New York Islanders, who have six 5-on-3 opportunities.
That begs the question, how does even the second last team have six more 5-on-3 opportunities as the Leafs?
If we just look at this season, there are four teams with six 5-on-3 opportunities 30ish games into the season, which ties them for the league lead (Nashville, Montreal, Pittsburgh, New York Rangers). There are also four teams with 5 and 4 opportunities, with just over a third of the league having 2 or 3 opportunities and five other teams having at least 1 opportunity.
Many people say the Leafs get favourtism from officials and the NHL for a ton of different reasons, but mostly because the league's "Situation Room" is located in Toronto. That is clearly not the case when the Leafs have played over 100 regular season games and have been given just a single two-man advantage. At this point, we should be asking why the Leafs aren't being treated fairly by officials. That's the more appropriate question here.
Stats courtesy of NHL.com
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 15 | 1059 ANSWERS NHL officials actively trying to screw the Leafs; the numbers back it up Do you think the NHL is biased against the Leafs? | ||
| Yes | 738 | 69.7 % |
| No | 206 | 19.5 % |
| I'm sure it's all just a coincidence | 115 | 10.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
