Why did the Leafs finish last in pp time?

[A1LeafNation]

NHL.com - Stats

Usually fast young teams draw a ton of pp time?

What do you think happened?

My conspiracy theory: Babcock ran his mouth too much last year against the officials and they were looking the other way on a lot of potential Leaf pp’s.

My question is does it continue into this year?

Is this something Dubas/Shanny should be in conversations with the NHL head offices about this year?

Your thoughts?

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[Fogelhund]

It's because they scored earlier in the PP than anyone else, and thus, shortened their PP.

 

[A1LeafNation]

It's because they scored earlier in the PP than anyone else, and thus, shortened their PP.

They were still near the bottom in pp opps

NHL.com - Stats

 

[Mr Hockey]

nobody like us?

 

[BoredBrandonPridham]

Were only 1 pp for every 4 games away from average. Someone has to be at the bottom. I don’t think it has to be made into a conspiracy thing or another non-issue to bash Babcock about.

 

[JayDog17]

Babcock played a stretch pass heavy breakout rather than a possession / skating breakout.

 

[MyBudJT]

Oh, now you're bringing up poor memories.

It seemed to me like the refs didn't really give the leafs the respect they give other cup contenders. Hopefully with the addition of Tavares, and another playoff run, we will get more calls called.

 

[Nithoniniel]

We were the second best team in the league at scoring early.
There's always some variance in things like this, we could be on the short end of that.
There could be a bias against us from the referees.

I'd guess at a combination of these things.

 

[Spirit of 67]

You mean the officials aren't bending over backwards to help the Leafs?

Does this mean that HF is wrong?

 

[Liminality]

Not really a big reason for our penalty opportunities but it's interesting to see Kadri's drawn penalty percentage go down. Didn't happen this past season but the one before that.

2013-14
.526 penalties drawn per game

2014-15
.521

2015-16
.816

2016-17
.398

2017-18
.345

According to Stats from the reverse end

The past 3 years we've actually been around average.

2015-16 ranked 11th in penalty opportunities, 2016-17 ranked 17th, 2017-18 ranked 29th.

My conspiracy theory is that we're a young team that isn't given the benefit of the doubt too often, my rational theory is that it was a down year for us.

 

[Notsince67]

NHL.com - Stats

Usually fast young teams draw a ton of pp time?

What do you think happened?

My conspiracy theory: Babcock ran his mouth too much last year against the officials and they were looking the other way on a lot of potential Leaf pp’s.

My question is does it continue into this year?

Is this something Dubas/Shanny should be in conversations with the NHL head offices about this year?

Your thoughts?

There is a quality of playing that draws penalties. There are sufficient number of players (especially defense i.e Carrick) that get penalized and don't draw penalties.

 

[Suntouchable13]

I don't put much stock into that. For all we know they could be first in pp ops this season. Unless they consistently finish at the bottom, I am not worried.

 

[deletethis]

Because the league can't actually make the net smaller for the Leafs, that would be too obvious.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Were only 1 pp for every 4 games away from average. Someone has to be at the bottom. I don’t think it has to be made into a conspiracy thing or another non-issue to bash Babcock about.

Someone has to be 31, sure, but for a top team to be that low is ridiculous. Top teams are at the top for a reason.

 

[Daisy Jane]

Were only 1 pp for every 4 games away from average. Someone has to be at the bottom. I don’t think it has to be made into a conspiracy thing or another non-issue to bash Babcock about.

it's not a bash, when the media asked Babcock about it, and Babcock said that he knows why but he's going to keep his mouth shut about it. If you notice, the first year, he was always very vocal, eye-rolling etc about crap calls, etc and this year, not so much, unless it was really egregious.

I wouldn't say that's 1000 percent the reason (a myriad of factors) but i think it did play a part.
which i think is stupid on the refs part.

If there is an infraction. call it. the end

 

[DarkKnight]

I blame Hyman.

 

[Pookie]

NHL.com - Stats

Usually fast young teams draw a ton of pp time?

What do you think happened?

My conspiracy theory: Babcock ran his mouth too much last year against the officials and they were looking the other way on a lot of potential Leaf pp’s.

My question is does it continue into this year?

Is this something Dubas/Shanny should be in conversations with the NHL head offices about this year?

Your thoughts?

Babcock’s not the first coach to complain about officiating so I don’t see that as a variable.

I do think Kadri’s diving history results in a degree of skepticism from the officials on plays involving him.

I’d also argue that we play such a soft game, the opponent doesn’t get riled up when playing against us.

Maybe those two factors explain the variance.

 

[BoredBrandonPridham]

Someone has to be 31, sure, but for a top team to be that low is ridiculous. Top teams are at the top for a reason.

Ducks ranked even lower and they were as much of a top team as we are. Maybe there isn't much of a correlation, given there seem to be a lot of outliers.

 

[lifelonghockeyfan]

One reason the Leafs were outshot at times, is the Leafs scored early in their PP. And if the Leafs didn't allowed a goal on the PK, the Leafs allowed more shots.
For example. What would you rather have?
A team on their PP scores 2 goals on 6 shots in their 5 PP opportunities and allows zero goals on 10 shots while on the PK five times.
OR
A team that zero scores goals but has 12 shots on their 5 PP opportunities and allows two goals on 6 shots while on the PK.

For those that are proponents that shots against are so important (mostly Leaf haters), they would prefer the second proposal. Net five more shot for, but the two more goals against don't mean anything.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Ducks ranked even lower and they were as much of a top team as we are. Maybe there isn't much of a correlation, given there seem to be a lot of outliers.

Ducks are also a goon team.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Babcock’s not the first coach to complain about officiating so I don’t see that as a variable.

I do think Kadri’s diving history results in a degree of skepticism from the officials on plays involving him.

I’d also argue that we play such a soft game, the opponent doesn’t get riled up when playing against us.

Maybe those two factors explain the variance.

Not the first coach, but he went after them alot earlier in the season I think.

 

[DarkKnight]

Law of averages, kind of bodes well for this season.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Babcock’s not the first coach to complain about officiating so I don’t see that as a variable.

I do think Kadri’s diving history results in a degree of skepticism from the officials on plays involving him.

I’d also argue that we play such a soft game, the opponent doesn’t get riled up when playing against us.

Maybe those two factors explain the variance.

Oilers play a physical game and they are the only team that drew fewer penalties than the Leafs. The Avs, Penguins, Stars, and Lightning are all soft and were all up there in penalties drawn. So I think we can say that's not it. The only thing that makes sense is that it's all Kadri's fault, even though he drew by far the most penalties on the team. In other words, I don't think it would hurt if you did some research

 

[TOGuy14]

 

[Mess]

NHL.com - Stats

Usually fast young teams draw a ton of pp time?

What do you think happened?

My conspiracy theory: Babcock ran his mouth too much last year against the officials and they were looking the other way on a lot of potential Leaf pp’s.

My question is does it continue into this year?

Is this something Dubas/Shanny should be in conversations with the NHL head offices about this year?

Your thoughts?

Soft, small non physical teams do not tend to draw a lot of penalties.

Its the physical contact and retaliation penalties and hard fought battles on the ice that draw more penalties and get more players involved.

Leafs 3 biggest hitters & physical players in Komarov, Martin and Polak are all gone, replaced by 5-10 Johnsson, 5-8 Ennis and 5-10 Carrick, who don't intimidate anyone, so I would imagine that Leafs being near the bottom of the PP list will continue.

Kadri tends to draw the most penalties, but he plays with and edge.

The Leafs have been turned into more of a figure skating team than a hockey team, and while watching figure skating I've never seen a lot of penalties called.