Leafs neck-and-neck with one other team for Stanley Cup odds

This should quiet the naysayers!

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HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Leafs neck-and-neck with one other team for Stanley Cup odds
Kostas Lymperopoulos/CSM via ZUMA Wire

What a difference a few weeks can make! It was only November when analysts were talking about the trouble the Toronto Maple Leafs were going to have just to make the playoffs if they continued at their current pace. Long story short, they didn’t. Toronto has done a complete 180 under new head coach Sheldon Keefe and oddsmakers are starting to take notice.

According to MoneyPuck.com, The Leafs are now tied with the Vegas Golden Knights for the best chance at winning the Stanley Cup this season at eight percent each. The next closest is Washington with 7.8 percent, while every other team comes in at 6.9 percent or lower, all the way to zero (The two teams with no chance, by the way, are Detroit and New Jersey). As for making the playoffs, Toronto scores an 86.9 percent chance and is projected to have just over 100 points to finish the season. A far cry from the doom and gloom many analysts were predicting a short while ago!

MoneyPuck makes it predictions by using data from the current season and “running a simulation of the rest of the NHL season 100,000 times. Doing this. “we can create precise probabilities of the outcome of the season for each team.”

Since taking over behind the bench on November 20th, Keefe has managed a record of 22-15-5 in 39 games. That’s a .727 win percentage; excellent numbers, even if it is a fairly small sample size. What was once apprehension about a wasted season while the team was in a potential Cup window has turned to optimism among management, players and fans themselves. This is not the same team that was playing under Mike Babcock. Players seem more relaxed and, in turn, more focused on the game. Keefe appears to know how to better utilize players’ talents. A great example would be the increased ice-time for Auston Matthews, who is flourishing under his added responsibility and looking more and more like the star player everyone believed he could be.

Toronto’s next game comes Sunday against the Florida Panthers, another opportunity to keep rolling and to keep the odds of winning the big prize headed in the right direction. 

You can view MoneyPuck's full breakdown of the most recent numbers here.

Source: MoneyPuck