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Monday, November 30, 2009 7:46 PM

The Phil Factor

James Mirtle

The Maple Leafs have now played 12 games with Phil Kessel in the lineup and 12 games without him, which makes for an easy comparison as to how they’ve fared in both scenarios:

Stats Without Kessel With Kessel
Record 1-7-4 5-4-3
Goals for 2.50 3.00
Goals against 4.08 3.17
Shots for 32.9 36.4
Shots against 30.0 30.9
Shooting % 7.6% 8.2%
Save % .864 .897
Power play 14/50 (28%) 8/46 (17%)
Penalty kill 34/46 (74%) 36/45 (80%)

Kessel obviously hasn’t been the only factor in Toronto’s improvement the past 12 games, as the goaltending has also been far better with rookie Jonas Gustavsson getting all but three decisions over that span.

Still, goals for are up by half a goal a game with Phil the Thrill, and he’s got eight on his own – all at even strength (which was where the Leafs couldn't score in the early going). He's also been a big factor in terms of shots on goal, with 5.6 per game so far, way up from his normal average.

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Globe On Hockey Contributors

Eric Duhatschek

Eric Duhatschek

Eric was the winner of the Hockey Hall Of Fame's Elmer Ferguson award for "distinguished contributions to hockey writing" in 2001. A graduate of the University of Western Ontario's grad school of journalism, he began covering hockey in 1978 and after spending 20 years covering the NHL and the Calgary Flames, joined The Globe in 2000. Eric has covered four Winter Olympics, 19 Stanley Cup finals, every Canada Cup and World Cup since 1981, plus two world championships.

 
Allan Maki

Allan Maki

Allan joined The Globe in 1997 after spending 19 years as a reporter and columnist at the Calgary Herald. Born in Thunder Bay, he graduated from the Ryerson School of Journalism in 1977. A past president of the Football Writers of Canada, Allan has covered every Grey Cup since 1980. He's been to seven Olympic Games and covered everything from rodeos to the World Series to the Super Bowl.

 

James Mirtle

James Mirtle joined The Globe as an editor and reporter in the sports department in 2005 and now covers the Toronto Maple Leafs. A graduate of Ryerson University and Thompson Rivers University, he has written about hockey from junior on up the past decade and has a background in new media, statistical analysis and blogging. You can follow him on Twitter here.

 

Matthew Sekeres

Matthew is The Globe's national sports correspondent in B.C., covering the Canucks, Lions and other sports happenings on the west coast. Montreal-born and Ottawa-raised, Matthew is a graduate of Carleton University's School of Journalism. He has worked at four metropolitan dailies and for TSN. Matthew has covered the Beijing Olympics, three Super Bowls, the NBA Finals, nine Grey Cups and the Stanley Cup playoffs.

 

David Shoalts

A native of Wainfleet, Ont., David joined The Globe in 1984 as a layout and copy editor in the sports section. He attended the University of Waterloo and Conestoga College. After graduating in 1978, he worked at the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun, and later the Toronto Sun. He has covered the Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL since 1990 and became a hockey columnist in 2003.

 

Darren Yourk

Darren is the editor of globesports.com and host of the Hockey Roundtable podcast.