Leafs Worst Penalty Killing Stretch
By Gus Katsaros
11 years ago
I was looking at the past season schedule, particularly a period of the Leafs worst penalty killing of the campaign, a span of 20 games between November 19 and January 3.
This period of time could have been a total disaster had the Leafs not been firing at a 24% clip on the power play (17-for-71) carving out a 9-8-3 record in those 20 games – 4-2-2 at home.
During this time, the Leafs gave up 23 power play goals on 84 opportunities, their worst string of penalty killing futility (72.6% success rate) on the season. Toronto allowed 62 goals and the 23 power play goals against represented 41% of the 55 total goals given up during the entire season.
Defensemen were called for 40 minors. The tables below represent a snapshot of the penalties at November 19 of the Leafs blueline. As a unit, they totaled 31 minor penalties out of 83 minors for the entire team.
As an aside, Joffrey Lupul led Leafs forwards with 23 minors overall, but led the club with 13 minors by November 19. During that 20-game span, he had four minors, and six more before he was shut down early due to injury. (The tables are running off the screen a bit—sorry about that.)
| Player | Min. | Board | Rough | Hold | HoStick | Hook | GoalInt | Int | Trip | XCheck | HiStick | Slash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gunnarsson | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Franson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Phaneuf | 8 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Gardiner | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Liles | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Schenn | 7 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Komisarek | 8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 31 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
This next one is up to January 3. The Leafs had 172 minors called, 71 by the defense.
At even strength, their on-ice numbers showed that the top line was doing it’s job scoring goals, while most of the rest of the lineup struggled.
| Player | Min. | Board | Rough | Hold | HoStick | Hook | GoalInt | Int | Trip | XCheck | HiStick | Slash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gunnarsson | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Franson | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Phaneuf | 16 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Gardiner | 8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Liles | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Aulie | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Schenn | 11 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Komisarek | 8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Grand Total | 71 | 5 | 16 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
Other than holding the stick, the Leafs doubled the amount of every penalty category.
There was an alarming increase in the amount of boarding calls during that time span, going from one to five.
They followed up with a 17-game period without allowing a power play goal (28-for-28), winning 10 games (10-6-1), while a greater portion of the lineup was firing a 10-percent or better shooting percentage.
This is the breakdown in penalties at Feb 29, up to and including Ron Wilson’s last game as the Leafs bench boss.
| Player | GP | Board | Rough | Hold | HoStick | Hook | Int | Trip | XCheck | HiStick | Slash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gunnarsson | 60 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Franson | 48 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Phaneuf | 64 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Gardiner | 57 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Liles | 48 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Schenn | 62 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Fraser | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Komisarek | 30 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Grand Total | 6 | 17 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 15 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 |
And of course this wouldn’t be complete without the end of season values.
| Player | GP | Board | Rough | Hold | HoStick | Hook | Int | Trip | XCheck | HiStick | Slash | USports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gunnarsson | 76 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Franson | 57 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Phaneuf | 82 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| Gardiner | 75 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Liles | 66 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Schenn | 79 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Fraser | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Komisarek | 45 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 6 | 24 | 8 | 1 | 12 | 15 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 1 |
**Data compiled from CBS Sports
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