The Maple Leafs are 30th in the league in shots against with only the NYI giving up more.
Leafs present Dcore is a direct result of that factor and if it wasn't for Andersen's outstanding play while facing the most shots the underlying results would be much worse than they are.. Freddy is masking the constant mistakes the Dcore that plays in front of him, making it appear better than it is.
Leafs are moving in the right direction but the defensive mistakes and blunders are still far too prevalent.
I never believed that in the past, and never will.
Shots on goal or against, are really dependent on the forwards.
In any hockey game, both teams will get at least 20 shots on goal. Usually 10 shots on goal a period was the rule of thumb.
If a team let 20 shots on goal in a period or 50 in a game, the whole team was not doing well.
Shots on goals not same as chances. The recent Columbus game in Toronto was a good example of that.
Columbus shot the puck every chance they got from anywhere on the ice. Anywhere on the ice the puck is directed towards the net. How can we fault the defenseman for that point shot or bad angle shot?
That is the job of the forward.
My opinion is not how bad the Leafs defense is, but how truly bad some of the forwards are at defense on the team. To play defensively as a forward, you do it every single shift, not half the time, or often with these Leafs, sometimes not at all.