If you had solicited criticisms of the Toronto Maple Leafs over the past few seasons — and you didn’t always have to solicit them to come across them — they would’ve centred around two issues. Some thought they didn’t defend well enough and others thought they lacked grit. You could find other takes, those who didn’t like Freddy Andersen or questioned their depth, but the most common (and I’d argue most valid) criticisms were about defending and a lack of edge.
What just about everyone agreed upon though, was that the team was skilled and could score, and that they were fast. It wasn’t just their core four guys who were skilled and moved well out there, they had depth guys like Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson and yes, the straight-line pursuit of Zach Hyman. Farther down the lineup you were more likely to find a name like Trevor Moore (or Nic Petan, or Nick Robertson in one playoff round) than a plodder.
Even where you may quibble and say “those guys weren’t that fast,” they had the type of skill that zipped the puck around and made the group feel fast. Whatever it was, it was in stark contrast to how the fourth line of Nick Ritchie, Jason Spezza and Wayne Simmonds may make you feel this season.
We had Leafs radio colour man Jim Ralph on Real Kyper and Bourne after the Carolina game, where he said this:
“One of the things that’s perplexing about them is, whenever you heard other coaches talking about the Leafs, they would always say ‘they’re fast, you really gotta watch their speed.’ They gave up, what, four or five odd-man rushes, and I think the Kerfoot/Marner rush shorthanded was the only one they had for. I think that’s what’s sort of mind-boggling is, where’s the speed? The first pass out of the zone never seems to be on somebody’s tape, then they create very little off the rush, and they’ve never been a great team scoring the ugly goals off rebounds and redirections, but that other element has just disappeared at this point. You like to think they have a couple good games and get their swagger back at some point.”
To Ralphy’s point, the Leafs have still been dominant in most “underlying” offensive statistical categories, but rush chances are where they’re routinely getting smoked. They’ve given up more odd-man rushes (47) than they’ve earned on the season (38), but even their total there is misleading, given they had 20 over their first three games with Montreal and Ottawa. They’ve only had 18 in the five games since, and one ended up in the Tavares goal which started Wednesday’s comeback.
This is a team built to create while the defence is in movement, making them less sure of where everyone is. As a team they’ve been elite in creating chances off O-zone possessions, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those type of chances have resulted in less actual goals for the Leafs than their “expected goals.” They’re better with things in movement (a guy like Marner, who’s not-so-coincidentally struggled to produce, in particular).
Ralphie mentioned that passes out of the D-zone have been lacking, and that lack of transition speed has been evident. I think it’s fair to wonder if the concept of being a talented team that wants to maintain possession is a good idea on paper, but maybe not in practice without a thoroughly elite lineup. You remember Mike Babcock’s obsession with “playing fast,” which was just moving the puck up as fast as you can, then getting it in and going after it. He just wanted to play at the other team’s end of the rink. The lack of north/south play this year has at times left me saying “move it” more than I recall in previous years. There’s a balance to be struck between the two competing schools of thought.
Down 2-1 in the second period of the Chicago game, we had this clip of Auston Matthews watching Justin Holl enjoy the company of the puck for too long, leading to this lamentation, which lip-reading reveals to be “We’re playing so fluffing slow” or something thereabouts.
After each game I take a look at the Leafs stats (via SportLogiq) to see what might need more attention, and as the season has gone on there’s been a trend that may just be a blip … or maybe it’s not. They rarely connect on any meaningful measure of stretch passes, and their individual zone exit numbers are low. It’s just all a little perplexing from a team we had thought of as a quick strike transition group.
Part of it could simply be the way teams play them now, which Sheldon Keefe mentioned has been a strategic challenge. Opponents stay right over top of their forwards on breakouts, slowing everyone down every step of the way. But there’s also the greater issue of personnel.
The changes they made this off-season alone don’t seem to make them much slower, but you can talk yourself into it if you look close enough. Ritchie in and Hyman out slows them down. There may be some aging going on from Simmonds or Spezza or Tavares or Muzzin or any of the other older players. There’s also the injury to Ilya Mikheyev, a top-nine forward who skates well.
More than anything though, this seems to me like a problem of their play so far — and I think trust — rather than foot speed. It’s not hard to see a world where the Leafs find their trust in one another and start simply reacting quicker. That means that when there’s going to be a teammate touching it in the D-zone, taking off and trusting that they’re going to get it out and get it to you. That means D-men jumping into the offence sooner because they trust that a forward is going to cover for them. That means jumping to cause a turnover rather than holding position knowing everyone else is providing back-up. Speed and trust are tied together, and it’s easy to forget that there was meaningful turnover to the offence, with all of Ritchie and Bunting and Kase and Kampf being dropped in this season, and it can take a little time to learn new teammates’ tendencies, preferences and timing.
I don’t think the Leafs are suddenly slow, per se, but so far this season they’ve played slow, and if they hope to get back to being the team that won its division last season, they’re going to have to find their pace again. Speed in the NHL only goes in one direction, and you don’t wanna be the team standing still.
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