E.L. wrote:
The anti-stats rubes are out in full force critiquing the Leafs. That's not what happened here. Arguably the most underrated, underappreciated player from an analytical point of view is none other than Phil Danault, who is literally an elite 5v5 centre. His body of work showed he was capable of shutting down Matthews. With Tavares out and not much depth after that, the top-heavy Leafs suddenly didn't matchup well. But if you only eye tested it or looked at goals, you'd think Danault was a layup against the Rocket Richard champ.
The narrative on the Leafs is fucking ridiculous. If anything, Dubas's hard shift AWAY from analytics did more harm than anything else.
Danault is an analytics darling, despite not-great production. I agree he's about as good a defensive center as you will ever find in hockey. He has the speed and talent to shut down virtually anyone, and he most certainly did so in this series.
I'm still curious as to what prompted this hard shift in the offseason. I really think the Leafs made themselves a little too slow, which is saying something because the Habs are technically a REALLY slow team, yet they sure didn't look like it.