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Coyotes Never Had a Chance

November 22, 2019, 2:12 PM ET [48 Comments]
James Tanner
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The Coyotes never had a chance.

The Toronto Maple Leafs fired Mike Babcock and brought in Sheldon Keefe to take over. If there's ever a game you don't want, it's the first game of a team after they fired their coach.

The Leafs looked positively giddy having gotten rid of Babcock with a six game losing streak. They took the shackles off their offense and the Coyotes never had a chance.

It was perhaps one of the worst games the Coyotes have played this season. They started OK, but the Leafs, buoyed by one of the most insane glove saves you'll see this season, took over after the first and that was that.

The Leafs had 60% of the shot-attempts, and had more possession than even that would normally indicate because Keefe had them circling back with the puck when changing lines (as opposed to the standard dump in) and they passed on a lot of easy shots to get the puck low (as seen in the heatmap on Naturalstattrick.com) for high danger chances.

If not for Kuemper - who was his usual spectacular self - and the Coyotes taking no penalties, the Leafs may have hit double digits in goals.

The scoring chances 37-15, most of them extremely dangerous.



The Coyotes had no answer for either the Tavares or the Matthew lines, who were 80% and 60% respectively.

Mike Babock had the Leafs playing his idea of "playoff" style hockey, whereas Keefe came in and let them loose. The Leafs followed up with a clinical performance that puts the league on notice that they are back and still a contender.

The Coyotes couldn't do anything, especially in the second and the third. It's not that they played bad, it's that they probably haven't faced a team all year who did what the Leafs just did to them - which was run four (mostly) offensive lines while trying to keep the puck the entire game.

It didn't help that Jason Spezza found a time machine back to 2008 before this game because at times it looked like the Leafs had three elite centres.

If the Coyotes want to win the Stanley Cup this year, it's obvious who their opponent is going to be now in the East, so they better figure out a way to defend whatever that was.

If the Leafs can do that in a game without a practice, Mitch Marner, or a single power-play, the rest of the NHL should be scared.
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