Concerning Trend Emerges for the Toronto Maple Leafs and It Will Need to be Addressed Imminently
The Maple Leafs have not had the ideal start to the season, but there's one issue preventing them from gaining any momentum and it will need to be addressed.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are currently sitting 3rd in the Atlantic Division, but we shouldn't confuse their playoff positioning with the team actually playing well enough to be in the hunt. The Leafs have not been good this season and are barely over .500, with a 6-5-2 record through their first 13 games, and there's a very obvious reason as to why.
Power play struggles aside, there's another aspect of the game that the Leafs appear to be floundering in. The team takes far too many penalties, which has a huge influence on the state of every game, allowing opposing teams to quickly build momentum. How many penalties are the Leafs taking this season? Well, their opponents are averaging 4 power plays per game against them. Very concerning.
The Leafs have historically been a very good team at 5-on-5, so when they put themselves at a disadvantage the way they have been, it's difficult to impose their will on the opposition at even strength the way they often have. Yes, the Leafs' penalty kill s better this season than it was last year, but in a game where you need to score more goals than the other team in order to win, the team is not doing themselves any favours.
Craig Berube recently addressed the issue very publicly, revealing that his team needs to stay out of the box if they want to give themselves a better chance to win hockey games. It's also difficult when situations like this arise, and the officials ignore one obvious infraction only to penalize the Leafs seconds later.
We're not quite at the quarter-mark of the season yet, so it's far too early to panic. But the Leafs will need to buckle down and clean up some aspects of their game to avoid digging themselves into a hole in November.
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