Toronto Maple Leafs: Hyman and Kapanen bringing necessary element
Zach Hyman and Kasperi Kapanen continue to bring what the Toronto Maple Leafs desperately need as they make the push for the playoffs.
While the stars get a lot of the spotlight for the Toronto Maple Leafs, players like Zach Hyman and Kasperi Kapanen continue to draw praise for their play lately.
Despite missing well over a month in his recovery from off-season knee surgery, Hyman is one goal away from matching his career-high and has 36 points in 46 games. It also doesn’t hurt that Hyman has a career-high 20.4 shooting percentage.
In past seasons, Hyman was given this reputation that he was benefitting from playing with either Auston Matthews and John Tavares but it’s hard to make that argument. Instead, everyone is wondering how the Leafs can find more players like Hyman.
"I think he's a really important player because of what he does and what they lack elsewhere."
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 28, 2020
Brian Burke and the Hockey Central panel discuss why Zach Hyman is so important to the @MapleLeafs. pic.twitter.com/LRBTKQWyfQ
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This is where Kapanen comes in.
Of course, both have different roles and styles but what Kapanen has shown lately is that he’s not afraid to provide the much-needed chippiness this team doesn’t always play with. He has also shown that he is willing to stand up for his teammates too.
It all started against the Pittsburgh Penguins when Kapanen fought Jared McCann after challenging Patric Hornqvist for hitting Rasmus Sandin then challenged MacKenzie Weegar after he hit Travis Dermott.
As Mark Zwolinski of the Toronto Star writes, Sami Kapanen gave his son some advice on the fundamentals he needed to be aware of if he were to drop the gloves. Of course, that hasn’t taken away from Kapanen’s ability to score either.
He will need to score seven more goals to surpass the 20 tallies he had in his first full season but he has a similar shooting percentage and has seen a decrease in ice time as well. It doesn’t help that he was disciplined for showing up late to practice.
It appears the message was received loud and clear and maybe knowing that he wasn’t being moved at the trade deadline was an added relief. Now he can just focus on playing and producing in the way the team expected when he signed a three-year extension.
As long as Kapanen and Hyman can provide that secondary element that the team doesn’t have and play a pivotal role on the team’s penalty kill, it should help Toronto down the road.
dark. Next. Travis Dermott re-establishing value
What have you thought about Hyman and Kapanen’s play lately? Let us know in the comments below.