Maple Leafs Gazette

Category: Opinions

Maple Leafs Opinions cover critical junctions of the Maple Leafs season, including winning streaks, losing streaks, trades, and coaching news. If Leafs Nation is talking about it, look for coverage here!

  • The Leafs Power Play is Back

    The never ending media circus surrounding the Leafs has had a few main targets in the early going of this season. John Tavares is struggling. What’s up with Matthews? Will the secondary scoring pick up?

    One question, however, loomed larger than the rest: What in the world is wrong with the power play?

    As recent as last Sunday against the Minnesota Wild, the Leafs power play was rattling along at a roughly 7% clip. The scoreboard graphics indicated they were between 30th and 32nd in the league, a horrendous mark considering the money and talent invested in the players in question.

    Sure, at times it looked okay. The Leafs were stringing together power plays where they held the puck well, got a few shots, maybe had one or two good scoring chances. Enough to think, they’ll score on the next one. But the next one would come, and they wouldn’t.

    For a team built to be more defensively sound than last year, at the cost of some offensive production, having a good power play will surely be critical. Loading up a line with Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Tavares, and Rielly, with the opponents a man short? It should be an absolute shooting gallery. But it wasn’t. And then Matthews got hurt.

    There is no logical way that subtracting Auston Matthews from any facet of the Leafs improves them. He’s the best player on the team, an offensive menace who gets Selke votes. There’s a case to be made he’s the second best player in the world, sans McDavid (it depends how you see Nathan MacKinnon and Nikita Kucherov, but there’s a case to be made).

    Well, throw logic out the window. The Leafs power play fixed itself overnight without their captain. Tuesday night in Toronto, against the Boston Bruins, the Leafs put three power play goals past Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman. Matthew Knies, who essentially slotted into the top unit in Matthews’ absence, had a field day, parking himself in front of the Bruins net and wreaking havoc with the defense. He had a goal and an assist on the power play, and played a starring role in all three goals en-route to a 4-0 Toronto victory.

    Then, in a Friday night clash with the Detroit Red Wings, the Leafs did it again. Still without Matthews, this time former captain John Tavares took the wheel, mucking it up in front of the net on Mitch Marner’s goal before sniping a goal of his own for the eventual winner.

    Five power play goals in two games is wild, and it rockets the Leafs power play unit to 16th in the league, converting at an 18.4% clip. If they keep it going against Montreal tonight, it’ll rise even further. If the team can maintain this new momentum when Matthews is back?

    Look out.

  • Opinion: Leafs season threatens to go south early

    This year was supposed to be different.

    It still might be. There have only been 8 games played, roughly a tenth of the regular season. The Leafs sit at 4-4. Not great, but a reasonable platform to build on. There have been good signs: New signings at defense and goalie have fit in well, and the team has several statement wins already. Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Anthony Stolarz looked like the perfect complement of signings to help the Leafs, especially come playoffs.

    But, yikes. Less than a week ago, everything was pointed in the right direction. The Leafs smoked Tampa Bay 5-2, scoring at will and suffocating the Lightning all over the ice. They played physically, standing up for themselves and teammates. It was a breath of fresh air, and coming off a tight loss to the Rangers (yours truly was in attendance!), the Leafs looked fine. Good, even.

    Then, one day after playing the Lightning, the Leafs flew to Columbus and posted a truly miserable effort. It was 6-2 and it felt like it could have been worse. Rookie goaltender Dennis Hildeby was shelled, and demoted to the AHL soon after. Nothing was going right.

    Well, it’s a back to back game. They had to travel. They were tired.

    All true. But every NHL team has to play multiple back to back games throughout the season. The good ones don’t get destroyed when it happens, especially not against Columbus. It’s a continuation of the Leafs disturbing habit of playing down to their competition, and losing.

    Still, bad games happen. The team has to take the rest day to regroup, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. That the next game was at home, against new coach Craig Berube’s former team, seemed to ensure that the poor effort would not be repeated. The St. Louis Blues have started fairly strongly, but they’re generally seen as a fringe playoff team this year. Better than Columbus, but far from, say, Dallas or the Rangers.

    All that to say: The Leafs should have won last night, for a multitude of reasons. There was pride on the line, for their new coach and for the players. They had a rest day. They were playing at home, against a team that on paper is worse then them.

    And, in some ways, it was a carbon copy of the Columbus game. The Leafs were outhustled, frustrated offensively, and made multiple boneheaded defensive plays. Some of the lapses were so bad that Berube took turns benching some of his top players, such as William Nylander and Mitch Marner. Joseph Woll looked rusty in his comeback game, but the defense did him no favours. It was an awful game, and piles pressure on team ahead of a huge game in Boston Saturday. The Bruins are also struggling, and once again there is pride on the line. Boston are hated Original Six rivals, and eliminated the Leafs in the playoffs last year. Not for the first time in recent history, either.

    If the effort after the Blues game is the same as it was after Columbus, the alarm bells will get louder.

    For past stories, including season previews, player profiles, and opponent previews, click here.

    For the NHL.com box score of last night’s game against St. Louis, click here.