Toronto Maple Leafs Faltering, Jake Gardiner Shining in Advanced Stats

October 28th, 2014 by Sean Tierney Leave a reply »

The Toronto Maple Leafs have face-planted to start the 2014-15 season despite an offseason of hope.

With seven points in their first eight games, the Leafs sit 14th overall in the Eastern Conference, just ahead of the perennially bottom-feeding/rebuilding Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes. 



The situation came to a head Saturday night as the Leafs held a players-only meeting after a 4-1 loss at home to the Boston Bruins, according to TSN's Jonas Siegel. Shortly after, rookie defenseman Stuart Percy was demoted despite a strong start to the season that had spectators wondering where Jake Gardiner fits in the Toronto lineup.

Worst of all, the advanced stats reveal that the Maple Leafs deserve their fate in the early part of the season. Fifteen of the team's 19 qualifying skaters are below the 50 percent mark in Corsi For Percentage (CF%), and the team has posted the fifth-worst CF% in the NHL (tied with the Philadelphia Flyers) at 47 percent. 

These awful possession rates haven't been the result of bad luck. As a team, the Leafs boast a 99.08 percent PDO—t ...

Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
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