The Toronto Maple Leafs are more physical than you might think

One longstanding presumption about the Toronto Maple Leafs is that they are a soft team. By that, I mean they have had the reputation of not being overly physical and are not willing to get nasty when emotions run high.

However, with a couple of newer faces, the team is beginning to show that they do not like to be pushed around and are more willing to fight back.

Sure, Toronto is far from the team that used to lead the league in fighting majors when Fraser McLaren and Colton Orr were in the lineup. Yet, with players like Ryan Reaves and Tyler Bertuzzi buzzing around, the whole team is stepping up and playing physically.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, TSN 690’s Jon Goyens joins Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk to explain what the Leafs are doing to show they are a much more physical team.

Jon Goyens: Would you be shocked if I told you that this team, who is not known for being the most physical team, that since the All-Star break they are no. 2 in the NHL for total hits and hits-per-60 minutes. I don’t think that anybody would even take a guess they are the most physical.

Yeah, Ryan Reaves gets his bumps, but to be fair, he can’t catch a lot of the hits that he wants to put on there, but it’s the contributions of others. It goes down the line, and it’s spread out right across the 20-man roster that they’re dressing on a nightly basis. It’s guys like Bobby McMann…Matthew Knies just leans on guys…When in doubt, you’ve added sandpaper in guys like Jake McCabe, or even Joel Edmundson.

You can watch the entire segment and full episode here…