Blue Line Station
Fansided

New York Rangers: Intrigue as a reeling Toronto team come to town

By Steve Paulus

TORONTO, ON - DECEMBER 28: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs takes a face off against Filip Chytil #72 of the New York Rangers during the second period at the Scotiabank Arena on December 28, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - DECEMBER 28: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs takes a face off against Filip Chytil #72 of the New York Rangers during the second period at the Scotiabank Arena on December 28, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 4
Next

About the Maple Leafs

While New York City is the media capital of the world, Toronto is the media capital of the world when it comes to hockey.  In a hockey-mad town, the mediocrity of the Maple Leafs is front page news.

Dropping out of a playoff spot on Monday in a season when they fired Mike Babcock and a season after they signed John Tavares, is beyond belief to the Toronto fanbase. When you look at the talent on the roster, it’s no small wonder.

The Maple Leafs boast one of the top offenses in the NHL.   They average 3.58 goals per game, third best in the NHL.  Their defense isn’t as strong, as they allow 3.25 goals per game. Only five teams allow more.  Their defense is actually worse than the Rangers who allow 3.22 GPG.

Their best players are indeed their best players statistically.  Their leading scorers are Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares.  They’d better be. That quartet combined makes $40.4 million, half of the team’s cap space.  That’s substantially more than New York who has $33.8 million tied up in their four highest paid players.

The Leafs face an off-season filled with change as half of their starting defense will be unrestricted free agents, including Tyson Barrie and Jake Muzzin.  if you think the Rangers’ cap situation is bad, the Maple Leafs are much, much worse.

As described, their goaltending is thin with Andersen an able top goalie, but he has a history of concussions and is under contract for only one more season.  It’s yet another reason they could use Alexandar Georgiev.

With the resurgence of the Tampa Bay Lightning, it looks like the fight for first place in the Atlantic Division will be between Boston and Tampa.   That leaves the Maple Leafs to fight for third place with the Florida Panthers with Montreal nipping at their heels.  Right now the top two wild card teams are from the Metropolitan Division and if the standings hold, that means the Leafs need to finish ahead of Florida.   They have lost twice to the Panthers in the last month by a combined score of 13-7.

This is a must win game for Toronto as is their contest Friday against Anaheim. After the next two games they have an absolutely brutal schedule with games against Pittsburgh (2), Florida, Montreal, Vancouver, Arizona, Tampa and Carolina with only two “easier” games against Ottawa and Buffalo.  By the end of February the city of Toronto could be in an uproar.

The Rangers have an added incentive towards seeing the Maple Leafs fail.  The Blueshirts currently hold the NHL record for most consecutive seasons without a championship at 53.  The Leafs’ current streak is 51 seasons.  If they don’t win this season and just go two more, the record book gets rewritten and that black mark against the Rangers is erased forever.

Home/Analysis