The Toronto Maple Leafs are the NHL’s second-best team since the completely arbitrary date of January 18th.
During this time, the Toronto Maple Leafs are the NHL’s highest scoring team, both 5v5 and overall, and while their numbers suggest they are crazily outperforming what their results should be, at least their goaltending isn’t propping them up.
The Leafs have very average goaltending over this streak. The Samsonov Redemption story has played nicely and his win-loss record looks great, but realistically, he’s been league-average at best, allowing three goals most every night.
Can the Leafs sustain this? Not likley. Teams that vastly outperform their Expected Goals for an extended period of time almost always have to sufferer a massive correction when regression kicks in. However, teams that outperform their Xgoals Percentage usually do it with goaltending, not scoring.
The Leafs – with Marner, Tavares, Rielly, Bertuzzi, Domi, McMann, Robertson and Auston Matthews himself – might just be able to. (stats naturalstattrick.com). They should still probably be a bit worried about it, however.
One thing I’ve considered is that the NHL should have a development league in the summer. A structured place to test new rules, let some free agents show off their skills, and get some extra ice time for prospects and players, similar to the NBA Summer League. Base it in one city, a couple games a day over a few weeks, see if we like a smaller or larger neutral zone or bigger nets or a lacrosse box on the ice next to the benches where you can change players without risking a too many men call. Heck, what if we had blue ice instead of white?
