The Toronto Maple Leafs have faltered over their past few games, and one big concern is their penalty kill has suddenly forgotten how to prevent goals.
- With another loss for the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Senators on Saturday night, it now moves them into a tie with Tampa Bay for second in the Atlantic and only four points separating Ottawa and the Leafs.
The team did manage to jump out to a 2-1 lead but watched it evaporate into a 4-2 loss. They gave up another needless shorthanded goal, and it’s really tough to see the bright spots when this has been a months long issue.
It’s been really bad recently too.
Make it five straight games the Maple Leafs have let the opposition score on the power play, and for a team that had so much promise and a standout penalty kill earlier in the season, and with the playoffs only a few weeks away, it’s not a good sign looking forward.
If Toronto didn’t take so many needless penalties, it wouldn’t be an issue but it seems the team often has a problem with discipline, and will often find themselves shorthanded and even down two men pretty often.
They’ve given up 39 goals on the PK, they take 3.45 penalties taken per 60 minutes, though they’ve also drawn the most penalties per 60 minutes (all stats courtesy of MoneyPuck).
Make it five straight games the Maple Leafs have let the opposition score on the power play, and for a team that had so much promise and a standout penalty kill earlier in the season, and with the playoffs only a few weeks away, it’s not a good sign looking forward.
If Toronto didn’t take so many needless penalties, it wouldn’t be an issue but it seems the team often has a problem with discipline, and will often find themselves shorthanded and even down two men pretty often.
They’ve given up 39 goals on the PK, they take 3.45 penalties taken per 60 minutes, though they’ve also drawn the most penalties per 60 minutes (all stats courtesy of MoneyPuck).
It would be one thing if they were able to kill them off but it often feels like the team tries to cycle too much, and acts a bit complacent in front of the net. Often times the team will get pelted with shots, or get rushed off the puck by an aggressive forecheck and give teams more opportunities.
They have a PK rate of 78%, which is good for 16th, which compared to playoff standouts like Dallas, Tampa Bay and Florida is pretty atrocious given their talent.
A lot of it can be due to Chris Tanev being absent, as he and Jake McCabe are responsible for a lot of the heavy lifting when down a man, and without him the team had to rely on some weaker defensive pieces to weather the storm.
The playoffs are make or break when it comes to special teams, and both your penalty kill and power play need to be at their best in order to give yourself the best chance of success.
At the current rate, Toronto is doing everything possible to make life harder for themselves.
Time to lock in boys, there’s only a few weeks left to get it right.
