Toronto Maple Leafs Key To Success Revealed Thanks To Shocking New Statistic

In a perfect hockey world, teams would love to get a shutout every night. Realistic it is not, but depending on how teams are built, sometimes you can get close to perfection and start turning heads around the league.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are just such a team as a new statistic revealed by Sportsnet gives a big clue behind the team's success, and while it seems obvious at first; it tells a bigger story.

If this were the Maple Leafs of last season, perhaps the record wouldn't be as flattering however thanks to the new regime change it's a breath of fresh air for fans.

Struggling for years to not only have a competent blueline, but consistent and reliable goaltending, the Leafs have improved immensely in both categories.

Adding Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Philippe Myers, and Anthony Stolarz has made the team unrecognizable to last season's squad.

Bringing in Craig Berube certainly helped things out, and his insistence on playing a grittier and more defensive game has clearly paid off so far.

Toronto is blocking more shots, hitting more, and putting more pressure on their opponents leading to mistakes and less productive scoring chances.

Toronto's forwards also need a bit of credit as well. Names like Steven Lorentz, Connor Dewar and David Kampf have all been great defensively.

Meanwhile Max Pacioretty, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson decided this season to focus on being edgier and shown a lot more aggressiveness and throwing a lot more hits.

When the team is in sync, clearly the results are there and when they minimize their mistakes, play tight defense, and capitalize on their chances they're nearly perfect.

But as we've seen before, when the team is missing a piece or two; it can turn from a perfect team to a perfect storm in a heartbeat.