Maple Leafs big winners in new NHL

Despite whining, it’s goals galore Special teams now playing bigger role

Somewhat lost in Tiger Williams’ rant over the new NHL last weekend was the fact that, on a few of his points at least, he was absolutely right.

Williams pointed out that 5on- 5 scoring is no higher in the new NHL than it was in the old one. He’s right about that one, but the Leafs should be the last team to complain about all the penalties and power play goals this season.

In the bad old days of 2003- 04, teams were averaging 5.1 goals per game, with 3.7 of those coming at even strength. Going into last night’s NHL games, teams were scoring an average of 6.2 non-shootout goals per game, 3.9 of which came at even strength. The Leafs, meanwhile, have been one of the biggest benefactors of the crackdown on obstruction and stick fouls so far. Of the 58 non-shootout goals the Leafs have scored so far this season, 26 have come on the power play. That accounts for 44.8 per cent of their goals this season, which puts them fourth in the NHL in that department behind the Atlanta Thrashers ( 52.4) Phoenix Coyotes ( 46.9) and Montreal Canadiens ( 47.0). Which makes it all the more perplexing why Leaf coach Pat Quinn railed against the new NHL earlier this season, a rant that earned him a $ 1,000 fine from the league.

“ It’s a different game,” Sundin said. “ You can’t take as many penalties the way we have been doing and we have to be better in our own end.” The Leafs have been complaining about their power play recently, but it has actually been one of the best in the league most of the season. A 2- for- 10 showing in a 6- 4 win over the Washington Capitals Tuesday night gave the Leafs a success rate of 23.6 per cent.

If anything, the Leafs should be more worried about how their penalty killing has gone south recently. A 6- for- 7 showing against the Capitals had the Leafs at an 82.4 per cent success rate, good for 15th in the league. But as recently as a week ago, the Leafs were in the top five in the NHL. The empirical evidence suggests that special teams are having an enormous impact on the style of play this season. Quinn acknowledges that play on both sides of special teams will have to be a larger part of the game plan, particularly if the referees continue to call penalties with such vigilance.

“ We’ve always done that,” Quinn said. “ But penalty killing we usually do every game now and it’s taking up more and more time. The power play, we’re going to have to spend more time on that now because it has kind of gone flat a little bit.” The Leafs also gave up three 2on- 1 breakaways on the power play and if the Capitals had scored shorthanded on any of them, it would have been a huge momentum swing.

“ Everybody is looking for cookies now,” Quinn said. “ And when you do that you end up giving up chances like that.”