Monday Morning Musings With The Big E: Leafs Penalty Kill Concerns?

The Toronto Maple Leafs finished last season with the single worst penalty kill in the entire NHL with an abysmal 74.6% success rate. Their penalty was as far beyond bad as Wayne Gretzky was beyond good.

With a mere 27 games left in the season last year, Brian Burke pulled off a pair of blockbuster deals that officially put the world on notice. These will be Brian Burke's Toronto Maple Leafs.

The morning of January 31st 2010 was a day that fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs will remember for a lot of reasons. They disposed two contracts in Jason Blake and Vesa Toskala that were thought to be impossible to trade because they were over-valued.

Burke brought in Dion Phanuef, Fredrik Sjostrom, and veteran goal tender Jean-Sebastian Giguere.

The addition of Phanuef accomplished two things, and one almost as quickly as the other. Phanuef managed to almost single highhandedly change the aura of the Leafs' on-ice product.

From walking into the dressing room, changing the music station and cranking the tunes to writing words of motivation on the butt of his stick to yelling at and communicating to his teammates, the once virtually silent Leafs dressing room started buzzing.

Giguere was equally effective at changing an attitude on the team.

Before he arrived, when the team played you could almost see the looks of despair as they watched yet another goal was scored against them for one reason or another.

Whether the fault belonged to the goalies or the organization is something that will be debated ad nausem. The truth is it doesn't matter. Giguere gave the team instant credibility in net as well as instant confidence on the strength of two shutouts in his first two games as a Maple Leaf.

"Freddy" Sjostrom, heralded as a penalty killing specialist, was more than a welcome addition the the team.

Sjostrom has always had a knack for killing penalties. His size, speed, and reach have also been welcome. One of the most welcome attributes that he brought to the team was his ability to stay out of the penalty box.

The Toronto Maple Leafs last year gave up an average of 3.21 goals per game while scoring only an average of 2.56.

They also surrendered 77 goals while on the penalty kill. That is very close to a goal a game.

The additions of Sjostrom, Phanuef and Giguere payed an immediate dividend on the PK. The last 27 games of the season saw a marked improvement in the penalty kill. In fact in the next ten games the team went 37-3 while short-handed for a remarkable improvement of 92.5%.

While ten games isn't always an adequate indicator, over the final 27 games the Maple Leafs averaged a little over 89% on the penalty kill. This would have been good enough for number one in the league by a wide margin.

Brian Burke's dealings over the off season has done nothing to suggest the penalty kill will slide backwards in terms of changing personnel and in fact has made the team better in both the defensive and offensive categories.

Expect the Maple Leafs' penalty kill to be among the best in the league this season. With a more solidified goal tending presence for the entire season, one of the best defensive corps in the league, and some decisive leadership both on and off the ice, there really is nowhere to go but up.