ight while Phoenix hosts Montreal. Under Paul Maur

A look at the slumping Toronto Maple Leafs, Alexander Steen, Scott Gomez, Fantasy tips and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking. The world is crashing down around the Toronto Maple Leafs, and new head coach Peter Horachek, as they have managed all of two goals during a five-game losing skid. It’s one thing to be losing – the Leafs were already doing that – but coming up empty, with no offence to speak of, night after night, is quickly wearing thin on a fanbase that was ready, maybe even hopeful, for a new-coach bounce. Even if the early schedule has been more than a little daunting – the trip through California then St. Louis was going to be tough no matter who was behind the bench – there is no hiding from the fact that the Leafs’ results under Horachek have been poor, but taking a deeper look at the numbers, there is also reason to believe they are not the worst team in the history of hockey. Setting a low bar, I know. First, let’s compare the overall numbers under the last three Maple Leafs coaches: Ron Wilson, Randy Carlyle and Peter Horachek. COMPARING LEAFS LAST THREE COACHES COACH GP G/60 GA/60 SH% SV% Ron Wilson 310 2.7 3.1 9.0% .896 Randy Carlyle 188 2.8 3.0 10.3% .912 Peter Horachek 7 1.3 3.4 4.5% .879 (G/60 - Goals/60 minutes; GA/60 - Goals Against/60 minutes) What this shows is a complete aberration in the shooting and save percentages under Horachek. Unless you want to take the position that the new coach is driving percentages in such a way that the Maple Leafs suddenly have the worst shooters and worst goaltending in the league, after spending the past five years among the top shooters and riding strong goaltending for the past couple seasons, the most reasonable explanation is that the Maple Leafs’ current slump is a percentage-driven fluke. It doesn’t make it any more pleasant to experience, but it’s not as bad as it seems. The Leafs have had percentage-fueled streaks in the past. Remember the 10-1-1 stretch that ended way back in mid-December? It was no more reflective of the Maple Leafs’ true talent than this current slump would be representative of the team’s true talent. If the underlying numbers (shot attempts, scoring chances etc.) don’t change, there’s not much reason to expect sustainable change when it comes to goals. Next, here is a comparison of the Maple Leafs’ play during 5-on-5 situations. This is where we can see that Horachek has improved the Leafs’ puck possession and the only thing that seems out of whack is the percentage of goals-for, which goes right back to crashing shooting and save percentages. 5-on-5 COMPARISON COACH CF/60 CA/60 CF% SC% GF% Ron Wilson 58.4 58.1 50.1% 50.2% 48.3% Randy Carlyle 50.3 64.2 43.9% 44.2% 48.1% Peter Horachek 54.8 56.0 49.4% 49.5% 23.8% (CF/60 - Corsi For/60 minutes; CA/60 - Corsi Against/60 minutes; CF% - Corsi For%; SC% - Scoring Chance%; GF% - Goals For%) (Corsi = shot attempts) The fascinating part in all this is that Toronto’s underlying possession numbers have improved under Horachek and should provide reason for optimism. Admittedly, when a team scores two goals in five games, trying to be optimistic requires searching for a faint silver lining on enormous dark clouds, but the point of this is to understand that percentages tend to fluctuate a whole lot more than shot attempts. Seven games isn’t enough to declare that Horachek has forever improved Toronto’s puck possession, but it appears that they are headed in the right direction. Now the Leafs just need to get back to finishing opportunities like they did in the past because there isn’t any reason to justify shooting 1.5%, as they have over the past five games. Even as percentage variance goes, thats a remarkably bad run. This isn’t to say that everything is fine with the Maple Leafs or that they should remain content with improved underlying numbers, because even with the improvement, they are a below average team but, at the very least, try not to be blinded by short-term percentage variance that simply can’t continue. HEROES Alexander Steen – The high-end two-way performer for St. Louis, and former Maple Leaf, is riding a 10-game point streak after getting a couple of assists in a 3-1 win over Colorado. During that 10-game streak, Steen has recorded 18 points (7 G, 11 A). Scott Gomez – The Devils centre has been an unlikely source of offence, but he registered a couple of assists in a 5-2 win at San Jose, giving him nine points (2 G, 7 A) in his past eight games. James Wisniewski - The Blue Jackets defenceman had a goal and two assists in a 3-1 win at Minnesota. He has seven points (3 G, 4 A) in the past nine games and has the best possession stats (48.0% Corsi, +1.2% Relative Corsi) of Columbus’ regular blueliners. ZEROES Sean Couturier & Matt Read – Plus-minus doesn’t hold a lot of analytical weight, but these two Flyers forwards were both minus-5, with possession under one-third (33.3% and 31.8%, respectively), in Monday’s 7-4 loss to the Islanders. Tyler Bozak & James van Riemsdyk – By the same token, this pair of Maple Leafs forwards each took a minus-4 in a 4-1 loss to Carolina. Sometimes you’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time and, sometimes, being in the wrong place is what leads to being minus-4. Jonathan Bernier – Toronto’s goaltender surrendered three goals on 13 shots, getting pulled 42 seconds into the second period, against Carolina. In seven games this month, Bernier has an .877 save percentage, his worst save percentage in a month for which he’s played at least five games. LINEUP NEED TO KNOW Mark Fraser – The Devils defenceman played a season-high 22:23 at San Jose, his first time playing more than 19 minutes in a game in seven games since his return. SHORT SHIFTS Flyers RW Jakub Voracek had a pair of assists in Monday’s 7-4 loss to the Islander, pushing his league-leading point total to 55 (17 G, 38 A) in 47 games…Islanders LW Nikolay Kulemin scored a pair of goals and added an assist in a 7-4 win over Philadelphia, and has six points (5 G, 1 A) in the past five games…Islanders C John Tavares had a goal and an assist, giving him 19 points (9 G, 10 A) in the past 14 games…Hurricanes C Eric Staal scored a pair of goals in a 4-1 win at Toronto; he has 10 points (8 G, 2 A) in the past dozen games…Blue Jackets LW Scott Hartnell recorded a goal and an assist in a 3-1 win at Minnesota, giving him nine points (2 G, 7 A) in the past eight games…Blues LW Jaden Schwartz picked up a goal and an assist in a 3-1 win against Colorado, giving him 14 points (7 G, 7 A) in his past 11 games…Islanders D Johnny Boychuk (2 A) and Nick Leddy (1 G, 1 A) each had two points and were both on the ice for four even-strength goals for (and none against) in the win over Philadelphia…Devils RW Jordin Tootoo and C Tim Sestito had strong possession games (14 shot attempts for, 3 against, 82.4%) in New Jersey’s 5-2 win at San Jose… Flames G Joni Ortio made 33 saves, on 34 shots, in a 2-1 overtime win at Los Angeles…Hurricanes G Anton Khudobin stopped 34 of 35 shots in a 4-1 win at Toronto…Canucks G Ryan Miller had 23 saves on 24 shots in a 2-1 win at Florida…Blue Jackets G Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 25 of 26 shots in a 3-1 win at Minnesota…Flyers G Robb Zepp was pulled after allowing four goals on 20 shots at the Islanders. FANTASY FOCUS Some players to consider for your lineup - digging extra deep today: Dale Weise – It’s fine that he has four points (2 G, 2 A) in the past seven games, but interest in Weise is more due to his taking regular turns on Montreal’s top line with Tomas Plekanec and Max Pacioretty. Kevin Klein – Nothing on the power play for this Rangers defenceman, but Klein’s 17 even-strength points ranks 18th in the league among defencemen, ahead of Kevin Shattenkirk, Mark Streit, Ryan Suter and others. Kyle Quincey – The Detroit defenceman had seven points in 38 games to start the season, and now has five points (1 G, 4 A) in the past four games. Like Klein, no power play points on the season for Quincey. Ales Hemsky – He got off to a brutal start for the Stars this year, but does have 10 points (5 G, 5 A) in the past 14 games. Much of the data included comes from www.war-on-ice.com, www.puckalytics.com, www.hockeystats.ca and www.naturalstattrick.com Scott Cullen can be reached at scott.cullen@bellmedia.ca Brett Favre Womens Jersey .com) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quickly found themselves a new offensive coordinator, and one thats quite familiar with the NFC South. Chris Lindstrom Jersey . -- What Anthony Jennings lacked in experience, LSU more than compensated for with a talented supporting cast in the Outback Bowl. http://www.thefaclonsshoponline.com/Qadree-ollison-falcons-jersey/ . Coverage on TSN is underway now while action resumes on TSN2 at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. TSN GO also offers TSN subscribers bonus online coverage, with live streams of all four venues. Chris Lindstrom Falcons Jersey . Stevenson scored the first three goals of the game in the first period for Regina (35-22-6), which has won eight of its last 10 games. Patrick DAmico added two for the Pats, Braden Christoffer had a single and Morgan Klimchuk chipped in a goal and four assists. Kaleb McGary Jersey .ca MLB Power Rankings, the third consecutive week that the As have held top spot and the third straight week that they have been one ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays.The Winnipeg Jets look to put an end to the Los Angeles Kings five game winning streak tonight with a 6pm ct face off at MTS Centre. The (30-26-7) Jets have earned five of a possible six points in their last three games and enter tonight with 67 points.? They trail Dallas by one point for a Western Conference Wild Card playoff spot. ?Phoenix, who also has 67 points, lead Vancouver by one point.? The Canucks play in Dallas tonight while Phoenix hosts Montreal. Under Paul Maurice, the Jets record is 11-3-2, which translates to a .750 winning percentage.? Ondrej Pavelec will start in goal. Jets Projected Lines: Ladd-Little-Wheeler Kane-Jokinen-Byfuglien Setoguchi-Frolik-Halischuk Tangradi-Slater-Peluso Enstrom-Bogosian Stuart-Trouba Pardy-Ellerby Captain Andrew Ladd has scored three goals in his last two games. JJacob Trouba leads all rookie NHL defensemen with an average ice time of 22:04.dddddddddddd Winnipeg recalled forward John Albert from the AHLs St. Johns IceCaps this morning on an emergency basis. The (35-22-6) Kings are third in the Pacific Division with 76 points.? Jonathan Quick will start in goal. Marian Gaborik makes his Los Angeles debut after being acquired yesterday from Columbus and will wear jersey number 12. Kings Projected Lines: Gaborik-Kopitar-Williams Brown-Richards-Carter King-Stoll-Toffoli Nolan-Lewis-Clifford Muzzin-Doughty Regehr-Voynov Mitchell-Martinez This is the second of three meetings between these teams.? Devin Setoguchi scored two goals and had an assist October 4th during the Jets home opener in a 5-3 win. ?Winnipegs lone visit to Staples Center will be March 29th. ' ' '