Saturday FTB: Things that are interesting after half a season

Things that surprised me while looking at NHL.com:

• The Leafs have the fourth lowest goals against
• Tampa has scored 27 more goals than the Leafs
• Calgary has the second best record in the league... what?
• Three of the bottom 5 teams in the league (LA, Philadelphia, New Jersey) were all teams that were expected to at least be in the playoff bubble...
• Meanwhile the Islanders, Sabres and Habs are all fighting for the wild card. Go figure.
• Elias Lindholm has 20+ goals and better than a PPG, Skinner has 30+ goals already, even Hanifin is on pace for a career year. Maybe the problem isn’t that Carolina doesn’t have scorers, it’s that they’re where offense goes to die?
• Having said that Sebastian Aho is clearly better than McDavid and if he played for any other team he’d be better than 2 points per game
• The top 10 goalies by save percentage with at least 15 games played include: Jack Campbell, Robin Lehner, Linus Ullmark, Casey DeSmith, Jaroslav Halak, and Anton Khudobin. Just outside the top 10 also includes Curtis McElhinney and David Rittich. How many former star goalies are seeing their backups on this list? It’s been a weird year for goalies, man./

ONTO THE LINKS!

Morgan Klimchuk traded to Ottawa for Gabriel Gagne | by elseldo

Mike Babcock on Morgan Rielly: “He makes elite plays every night” | by MLHS

DGB Grab Bag: The problem with letting the players police the game | by Down Goes Brown

Since complaining about bad refs has been all the rage of late...

@OHLHockey I know the refs are amateurs and and get unfairly criticized a lot, but this is ridiculous from Brandon Biggers in the Knights/Spirit game tonight. That has to be looked at. pic.twitter.com/H5a4qFZZeE

— Rob Freeman (@Rubbers29) January 12, 2019

Randy Carlyle snapped when asked if he’s worried about his job security and then abruptly ended the interview. Said “dumb question” and then called the reporter a “jerk.”Seat is getting awfully hot with losing streak now at 10 #nhlducks

— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) January 12, 2019

GO LEAFS GO!