I put together this chart prior to last night's game for The Globe's hockey blog, but figured it was worth a mention here as well. It's a look at the Leafs' first 12 games without Phil Kessel and the next 12 with him in the lineup:
|
Stats |
Without Kessel |
With Kessel |
|
Record |
1-7-4 |
5-4-3 |
|
Goals for |
2.50 |
3.00 |
|
Goals against |
4.08 |
3.17 |
|
Shots for |
32.9 |
36.4 |
|
Shots against |
30.0 |
30.9 |
|
Shooting % |
7.6% |
8.2% |
|
Save % |
.864 |
.897 |
|
Power play |
14/50 (28%) |
8/46 (17%) |
|
Penalty kill |
34/46 (74%) |
36/45 (80%) |
The team's still no world beater, but his one-man production has made a big difference in Toronto (eight even-strength goals in 12 games will do that). The problem is that, in a game like last night's 3-0 loss to Buffalo, good teams like the Sabres can really focus on Kessel and shut him down, leaving not enough offence to compensate for that.
Tyler Myers was out there for nearly 25 minutes last night, and even though they were the road team and didn't have last change, he saw a lot of Kessel in that one.
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