Classically speaking, things get tougher for teams when they lose their best player — especially when the player involved is a bona fide top-five talent in the NHL. When the Toronto Maple Leafs lost generational scoring talent and franchise centre Auston Matthews for a span of nine games to an upper-body injury, however, the team stepped up in a big way en route to a 7-2-0 record. It wasn’t fellow stars William Nylander and Mitch Marner leading the way, though the two did play exceptionally well, but instead the team’s defensive defencemen and goaltending.
McCabe and Tanev Among the League’s Best Defensively
To cite two players who combined for a total of two points in a near-370-minute timeframe as the main contributors for Toronto’s success might seem like an extraordinary stretch, especially when Marner and Nylander combined for 26, but in my opinion, the team’s ability to stymy the opposition was why they performed the way that they did. No two defencemen on the team were better at doing so than Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev.
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McCabe, despite playing the most five-on-five minutes — by nearly 20, I might add — in the nine games Matthews missed, allowed the fewest expected goals against per 60 minutes (xGA/60) on the entire Maple Leafs defense corps. Beyond that, that mark ranked third in the NHL as a whole among defencemen with at least 150 minutes of five-on-five time in that stretch. As a result, he performed to an astounding expected goal share (xGF%) of 55.10%. Amazingly, these results were the case despite McCabe having just a 31.19% offensive zone start percentage, the fourth-lowest in the league. So what if he didn’t tally a point in that stretch?
At the same time, offseason acquisition Tanev has been a defensive force himself. He was the only Maple Leafs defenceman to log a smaller offensive zone start percentage than McCabe at 25.00%, the lowest in the NHL. Still, Toronto managed to give up just 1.7 xGA/60 with Tanev on the ice, the second-lowest among Maple Leafs defencemen and sixth-lowest in the league, and he was able to manage an xGF% of 51.80% as a byproduct of that. He led the team in blocks (32) and generated a couple of assists in the process.
Conor Timmins Also Excelled
Despite remaining one of the Maple Leafs’ most unassuming players, Conor Timmins was arguably the best defenseman in the squad during Matthews’ absence. He only recorded one point — a goal against the Montreal Canadiens — but led the corps in xGF% (57.33%). He was 14th among defencemen in xGA/60, allowing just 1.85. He also led Toronto defencemen in expected goals for per 60 minutes (xGF/60), with the team generating 2.49 xGF/60 with him on the ice. It’s high time for Timmins to garner the recognition that he deserves, or at least deserved during that difficult stretch of hockey.
Stolarz and Woll Have Turned Into the NHL’s Best Tandem
While the defence corps was performing stalwart shutdown services on a nightly basis, the goaltending stretch was equally as responsible for the downtick in goals allowed while Matthews was shelved. Anthony Stolarz, who started the year as the Maple Leafs’ starter with Joseph Woll injured, performed to a .924 save percentage (SV%), 2.24 goals-against average (GAA), and +0.2 goals saved above expected (GSAx) in his five starts.
Woll, who struggled early after returning from groin tightness, has been one of the league’s best of late, and that certainly held true during Matthews’ absence as well. In the four games he started, he sported a save percentage (SV%) of .943, goals against average (GAA) of 1.48, and GSAx of +3.28. All three of those statistics ranked second in the NHL in that span behind Devils’ 1B Jake Allen, who also played four games. Woll and Stolarz were two of the biggest reasons the Maple Leafs solely allowed 2.00 goals per game in this nine-game span.
On the season as a whole, Stolarz is third in the league in SV% (.924), fifth in GAA (2.23), and 17th in GSAx (+5.0). Woll, meanwhile, ranks fourth in SV% (.922), third in GAA (2.11), and 18th in GSAx (+4.7). Goaltending used to be a point of pain for a Maple Leafs team that prioritized offense at the expense of poor defense and allowing too many goals. Now, though, they boast what can only be described as the NHL’s best goaltending tandem — Stolarz and Woll split starts and there is no concern of either of them faltering at this point in the season. It’s incredible what they’ve been able to accomplish so far this campaign, and if they keep it up, there is no reason to believe they shouldn’t be regarded as the frontrunners for the William M. Jennings trophy.
Defensive Dominance Propelling Season’s Success
Overall, while on paper it would appear as though the Maple Leafs’ other superstars were responsible for their surprising 7-2-0 record during their best player’s absence, in reality, it was the defense that held them up. Between stellar play from defensive defencemen McCabe, Tanev, and Timmins and sturdiness between the pipes, their offense truly did not have to do much in order to keep their record afloat. Should those facets of their game continue, the Maple Leafs should be able to build upon their .680 play as a team, finish first in the Atlantic Division, and be regarded as true Stanley Cup contenders.
