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2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

Bender said:
I can understand Tanev and Stolarz but Carlo who's 29 with a plate infection? Willy with god knows what? The first two are injuries of players getting ground down due to age/injury history, but I just don't see it with the rest.
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It is not all encompassing. Young players get hurt too - they just tend to get hurt less frequently due to less wear.
An older team might have a Tanev-Stolarz pair while a younger team would be less likely to have as many age-wear related injuries and so not as many injured. Recovery time for older players is also longer. But of the 3 skaters you mention, Carlo has the least number of NHL games played at 657 which is in the top 16% all time for regular season NHL games played - so those three have had a lot of NHL wear.
 
Man what a season so far 51 points and still out, 51 points this time last year is 3rd in the Atlantic, Florida the defending champs only had 53 points this time last year, only when we get off to a rough start does the east become so competitive. :mad::ROFLMAO:
 
Relatively small sample size compared to the first half of the season’s parade of bad, but it looks like the late November road trip and then Christmas party/New Year break helped the team turn the corner on chemistry and confidence. Also getting healthy bodies back of course.

It is hard to overstate my satisfaction that following this tumultuous offseason, we are now seeing pretty much everyone on the team driving play within their roles, and some depth guys elevating their games to fill out special teams niches effectively, and just the general vibe of sticking up for each other on the ice and taking the piss out of each other off the ice.
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/2010740145012498495
Slight system adjustment in that it's no longer an auto-dump in for entry plays (supported by cleaner breakouts that harken back to Babcock's low centre swing play); I assume there's some give and take from the Coach/Players about that balance. Great teams use both methods effectively, and I think the Leafs have the horses to execute both styles.
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/2010819641271050646
Laughton’s monster 19-for-20 effort in the faceoff circle against Philly rightfully received a lot of attention. He has been a monster in the faceoff circle in general since arriving in Toronto after a 12-year run of fairly middling results on the dot in Philly. In 661 games with the Flyers, he won just 49.7% of his draws, and he topped out at a single-season high of 54.2%. Since arriving in Toronto, it has shot right up; in 20 games last season, he won 54.7%. In 26 games this season, he’s at 62.3%. As a Leaf, he’s won 60.2% overall in his 46 games.

Years ago, as Matthews’ game began to mature and Tavares came on board, the Leafs employed Manny Malhotra — an excellent faceoff man in his playing days — on their staff. When Malhotra eventually departed, I was curious to see whether his departure would negatively impact the faceoff results, as the Leafs finished 10th-1st-4th-4th in the category during his four seasons on the Leafs bench. Since Malhotra left, the Leafs finished second last season and now rank first. Obviously, personnel matters, but the Leafs have figured out faceoffs.

– Nic Roy is also winning a career high 54.3% right now. He has never finished above 48.8% in a full season. These are massive leaps for already established and experienced players.
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I never pay much attention to faceoffs, but this is pretty bananas. The skill dev team is building on established, veteran players.
 
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