Reporter Calls For The Firing Of Brendan Shanahan

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Tyler Ball
November 23, 2023 (7:16 PM)

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Today a reporter used his platform to call for the firing of several Maple Leafs front office members including Brendan Shanahan.

Reporter Calls Out Maple Leafs Despite Recent Success

Today a reporter by the name of James Tanner discussed the Toronto Maple Leafs. He is not satisfied with their current performance and is demanding changes be made.

Brendan Shanahan should be fired, along with Brad Treliving and Sheldon Keefe.

The team needs a soft-reset, not a full rebuild, but Shanahan and his cronies are no longer the ones to oversee it.

Tanner's frustration comes from the structure of the current team. The extreme amount of assets put into the offensive end of the rink with little to no regard for defending. While making his point Tanner uses some interesting metrics that show he might be right.

Reporter Supports His Bold Position To Fire Several Maple Leafs Staff

Calling out Shanahan, Treliving, and Keefe is a bold take regardless of when it is made. Despite it being controversial Tanner did his research and backed up his points. The first point is that the Maple Leafs cannot rely on their offense to consistently outscore opponents.

If a team is regularly having less than 50% puck-possession, if they are being outshot, out-chanced and outscored at 5v5, then their record will eventually match those numbers.

A team like the Leafs, with two decent goalies, and a ton of scoring, can outscore their problems for a while, but no team can do so over a long period.

Then he takes a look at some more advanced stats that show despite the Maple Leafs' solid record they are being heavily outplayed.

The Leafs are 12th in 5v5 Corsi (i.e shot-attempt plus/minus which approximates puck possession). They are 15th in shots-for percentage. They are 19th in goals-for (they have been scored on more at 5v5 then they have scored).
They are 14th in scoring chances-for percentage.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are 24th out of 32 teams when it comes to the total percentage of high-danger scoring chances in their favor. Put all these numbers together, and they are 23rd in Expected Goals Percentage (which is the most accurate future predicting stat we have). (stats from naturalstattrick.com).

Put all of these metrics together and it does indeed show that the Maple Leafs are not playing to the level their record says. On top of that, their record is disappointing so they are playing well below expectations.

While Tanner makes some very good points firing a general manager who just came to town could set off the fanbase even further. Regardless of the path the Maple Leafs take they absolutely need to do something to fix their issues.

As Read On - Editor In Leaf - Toronto Maple Leafs Should Still Fire Everyone, Despite Win Streak