from Justin Bourne of Sportsnet,
The question I’m going to get into today is, if you’re the Toronto Maple Leafs, how much do you want to acknowledge the Lightning's players who try to drag you into scrums with face-washes and jawing and other forms of emotional warfare, when there’s an actual hockey game to be won? I think it’s well-established that no team wants to be a Sedin getting rabbit punched by Brad Marchand, they don’t want to be Auston Matthews not acknowledging the choke-out attempt from Ben Chiarot, they can’t just “turn the other cheek” for seven games when both cheeks are getting punched in. But you also can’t get lost in the sauce when there’s actual hockey to be played.
Fun facts on the Lightning’s “edge”:
This season they “lead” the NHL in PIMs, they’re second in fighting majors, and they’re first in misconducts. They live in the box, totalling an average of 12:10(!) in PIMs per game, which is up from last year when they finished second in PIMs per game with 11:30. That year they finished two seconds behind the Preds 11:32 per game, which was built on the back of Tanner Jeannot’s league-leading 14 fighting majors (among forwards), so … Tampa promptly traded for him.
A stunning fact: this is the 11th straight season the Lightning have either finished first or second in the NHL in PIMs per game (it’s here I’ll note the presumably-pure-coincidence that this is Jon Cooper’s 11th season with the team). I say “first or second,” but they’ve only been second twice and have lead the league nine times. The 2011-12 season was the last time they were outside the top-two, but what’s even crazier is you have to go back to 2005-06 to find a season where they weren’t top-5 in the NHL in PIMs per game.
Even with this history of playing an, er, abrasive game, it’s increasingly become a larger part of their identity.
I enjoy Justin Bourne's work.
Toronto and TB went into the trade deadline knowing their first round opponent. Toronto loaded up on grit. Getting Jeannot for TB was fab, pricey, but fab.
The interesting thing is that if TB advances - other teams will be able to match their grit.
I felt the Isles in 2020 and 2021 were able to match their grit. The Isles did not have # 21, 86, 77, 91 or 88. They took them to 6 games in 2020 and 7 games ( a 1-0 loss) in 2021 before losing to the eventual champs. Clutterbuck, Lee (2020 only), Martin, Cizikas, Mayfield, Komorov etc. were effective from a physical standpoint.
Toronto might be a different story. My intuition says that TOR will be weak in the nets, but I can't explain why TOR has given up 171 goals this year vs. TB and 202 goals against this year.
TOR did import ROR, Schenn, and others at the deadline along with Simmons, Bunting, Gio and others.
Can't wait to see it!
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