I'm gone a week, just one week, and the Maple Leafs go from the Bruins bet shot at another lottery pick to the top team in the NHL. I know many fans must be giddy. Afterall, last season it took 20 games for the Leafs to reach 4 wins. It's still too early to be planning parade routes. Still although you can't qualify for playoff action in October, it is possible to dig yourself a hole so deep you can never find your way out. That's what happened last season.
Still some good things have happened to start the season. For one thing, Giguere looks nothing like Toskala which means so decent goaltending. Then there is penalty killing. Last season the Leafs were at the bottom of the league but after 4 games they are 3rd overall. Part of the improvement relects the improved goaltending situation. Last year the penalty killing forwards were Matt Stajan, John Mitchell, Alexei Ponikarovsky and Niklas Hagman. This year it is an entirely new group made up of Fredrik Sjostrom, Tim Brent, Kris Versteeg and Colby Armstrong. The penalty killing may drop off but it won't drop to the bottom of the league.
Secondary scoring was supposed to be a concern for the Leafs this season. However, Clarke MacArthur has resolved that issue early on. MacArthur is streak scorer but he is capable of scoring 20 goals. A great signing by Burke in the early going. The Leafs are 3rd in goal scored for now. What many people fail to realize that this is an entirely different lineup from last year. There were only 7 players in the lineup against the Rangers that played at this point of the season last year. Even Phil Kessel wasn't in the lineup at this point last year. By the way wasn't that a great overtime goal by Kessel on Friday night. Enough whining about the draft picks. This guy is a great scorer.
Last season the Leafs outscored their opponents in most games but lost because of weak goaltending. The Leafs had 10 games where they had 40 or more shots on net and lost all 10 of those games including a 61 shot effort against the Islanders. This year they continue to outshoot their opponents but are giving up fewer shots, with only 23.8 shots per game, second lowest in the NHL.
The powerplay needs some work still. The preseason games I watched and the season opener showed some similarities to last season. The Leafs do not move the puck around well on the powerplay which provides the defending team lots of time to cut off shooting lanes and block shots. The top teams not only have good shooters on the powerplay but keep the puck moving.
The big surprise was the waiving of Jeff Finger. Just a couple weeks ago I heard Brian Burke clearly state he doesn't believe in dumping salary by sending players to the minors. He suggested that players shouldn't be punished for earning too much and a failure to honour contracts would make it harder to recruit free agents. So this move so early in the season came as a surprise. Though I don't disagree with the move.
Looking forward to Monday's game.
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