Maple Leafs’ Penalty Kill Has Elevated to New Heights

The Toronto Maple Leafs special teams has had its ups and downs over the last few seasons. It has either gone hot for a stretch of games or extremely cold. Last season, their penalty kill had a favourable result as they were top-10 in the league with an 81.2% success rate.

This season, not only is it once again one of their strengths, the Maple Leafs penalty kill has been absolutely dominant as it seems that nothing can get by them when they’re down a man. They’re currently leading the league in that category with an outstanding 97.4% penalty kill rate. The only power play goal that they allowed was against the Nashville Predators and have killed off 27 straight penalties since. 

That alone is impressive as the Maple Leafs own the second-best rate through the first 11 games in NHL history and the first time leading it since 1993-94, per Sportsnet stats. While it has been a strength for a while, it is on another level right now. 

Quicker, Aggressive and More Composed

Assistant coach John Gruden has taken a strong penalty kill and elevated it to one that is more dominant and impacting the game on both sides of the puck. 

It does help that they already had the personnel in Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev leading the way. Though, adding players that they brought in the offseason have also played a big role in this situation; namely Colton Sissons, Teddy Blueger, Nick Paul, Brandon Duhaime and even Easton Cowan have done a fantastic job killing penalties to this point. Their ability to pressure puck carriers and take the time and space away effectively has been extremely noticeable.

The Maple Leafs are much quicker not just with their feet, but with their sticks and ability to converge quickly and negate any potential play from unfolding. They’re doing so without getting caught, showing more poise and patience to execute a play with great one-on-one coverage and taking away any possible outlets. They’re not cheating or even straying away and getting caught out of position like we have seen in the past. 

Even when things get tough, they’re quick to the puck first and making sure it clears the zone and down the ice. They’re aggressive, but they don’t put themselves in vulnerable spots. The way they pressure, attack and get secondary help really helps by keeping the play to the outside and not allow any dangerous plays from unfolding.

Despite the five-on-five defense needing to be better, having a strong penalty kill has really helped limit the goals against in the first month.

Defense to Offense

While the Maple Leafs can shut things down when being down a man, they can also transition and get their looks offensively as well when the opportunity presents itself. Their ability to quickly spot break out options and create rush opportunities has become a part of their identity on the penalty kill.

While there’s going to be a discrepancy in shots for and against, the Maple Leafs do have 11 shots for on the penalty kill, which is sixth in the league per Natural Stat Trick. Not only that, they already have a short-handed goal thanks to Cowan against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

After Cowan converges and gets in between two Blue Jackets players, he forces Sean Monahan to turn the puck over. As the puck gets to an open area, Oliver Ekman-Larsson quickly regains possession and makes a crisp and accurate breakout pass to spot a streaking Cowan at the offensive blue line. He quickly walks in and wires it past Jett Greaves to make it 4-1. 

Plays and details like that are going to be reasons why the Maple Leafs penalty kill is going to be a real threat in the league this season. The smart reads, decision making and ability to pounce and create scoring chances will make them dangerous in any situation.

This is just another area where the Maple Leafs have excelled in and will be a reason why they can get meaningful points.

Statistics from NHL and Natural Stat Trick.