The NHL season is almost over, and the Toronto Maple Leafs are celebrating their first victory of the year (!!). It feels like just yesterday that we were lamenting the fact that the Leafs didn’t qualify for the post-season for the first time since 2011. Although they’ve had a pretty decent year, they’re still a complete mess. They have the fewest wins (26) in the league, and have the least efficient scoring offense (2.65 goals per game). On the bright side, most Maple Leafs fans can’t wait to see their favorite team (I mean squad) in the 2020 NHL playoffs. Let’s take a look at how long the intermission between hockey periods is, and how you can predict when the next one will start.
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Average Intermission Length
It’s no secret that the NHL is a physically demanding sport, and one that requires a lot of energy out on the ice. Despite the incredible passion that hockey fans have for their teams, there is one thing that fans around the world have in common: they hate waiting for the next period to start (which, by the way, is why we’re not averaging the length of the breaks between periods in this article – we’ll get to that in a bit).
Thanks to Sports Analytics LLC, we now have the ability to track the length of the NHL intermissions, and, as one would expect, they aren’t average at all. The overall intermission length is 4.62 minutes, which is the shortest it’s been since the 2018-19 season. The average American football game lasts 3.5 minutes more than the average NHL game. However, there have been some pretty significant decreases in the average intermission length. The Florida Panthers have the shortest average intermission length (4.21 minutes), while the Dallas Stars have the longest one (5.38 minutes).
There have also been some decreases in puck possession. The Pittsburgh Penguins have the best puck possession in the league (56.8%), and the Nashville Predators are second (55.1%). That’s 14% less than the average NHL team. This could be largely attributed to the decreased passing and shooting. Teams have passed less since the 2019-20 season, while the shooting percentage is 7.6% lower than last year. Interestingly, the Toronto Maple Leafs rank 15th in the NHL in terms of puck possession, which isn’t all that surprising considering many fans still dream of bringing the cup back to Canada. Having said that, even the most ardent Leaf fan would have to admit that this team has been fairly pathetic defensively. They’ve allowed 228 goals, which is the most in the league. Good luck stopping any quick-strike teams in the Eastern Conference.
Leafs’ Worst Game
The Toronto Maple Leafs had one of their worst games of the year on October 19, when they hosted the Carolina Hurricanes. The game wasn’t even close, as the Hurricanes won 7-3. The win was Carolina’s 11th in a row, and they improved to 14-3-0, which is the best record in the NHL. Needless to say, the Leafs didn’t look like themselves, and looked completely out of shape. They gave up five goals in the first period, which is their worst scoring performance in a game since the 2011-12 season, and their worst defeat since the 2009-10 season. This was also the first time this year that they had five or more goals in a game. In their four previous games, they had failed to score more than three goals. Even though the team has improved a lot this year, this was a pretty significant step back.
As a result of the shocking loss, the Leafs dropped to 11th place in the Eastern Conference, and are now just four points ahead of the last place Islanders. This win not only put a huge smile on the face of Hurricanes fans, but it also made a dent in the psyche of the Toronto Maple Leafs. While they had an easy schedule ahead of them, they’ll now have to play a lot of catch-up to make up for the lost ground. Their last two games were pretty uneventful, as they lost to the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers, respectively. If they don’t turn it around pretty soon, they’re going to find themselves staring down the barrel of another long winter.
Predicting The Next Game
Whether you like it or not, the intermissions that occur between periods in hockey are there for a reason. The National Hockey League needs them. Just like Tim Cook said about the Apple Watch: “If you want to be more precise, you could say that its main purpose is to remind you that you need to have breaks once in a while.”
Although waiting for the next game is the worst, it’s an unavoidable part of the sport. Unfortunately for the Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans, they’re going to have to get used to it. It’s going to be a long winter in Toronto, and it’s not looking like the cup drought is going to end any time soon. The good news is that the NHL season is almost over, so let’s hope that they can turn it around in the next few weeks and make the playoffs.