Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Run and Gun

The Toronto Maple Leafs can’t score much lately.

What at one time looked like the league’s best offense has dried up. It’s not really that big of a problem though – offense is the Toronto Maple Leafs strength, and several of their players are snake-bitten so far this year when it comes to shooting percentage. They’ve also been missing Auston Matthews.

Eventually, they will return to their high scoring ways. The team will make roster moves to address the roster’s current short-comings and the coach will settle on a semi-regular lineup. But in the mean time, there are ways in which the current roster can improve.

The Toronto Maple Leafs came out flying to start the season, scoring at will and filling nets at a crazy pace. But since then, they’ve attempted to “play the right way” and they haven’t had much success. (They have had success in the win/loss column, but history shows that goaltender based success is not sustainable over a long period).

They brought in Roman Polak, they asked their players to curb the two-line passes, they dumped the puck in more than they were previously doing so. And it hasn’t worked. The results – including a sweet six game winning streak – have been decent, but the underlying numbers are terrible. The move to a more balanced approach has resulted in less offense, and no appreciable better defense.

Hockey is filled with clichés, so perhaps you’ll excuse me employing a couple right now: 1) Play to your strengths and 2) the best defense is a good offense.

In my opinion, the Leafs ned to stop worrying so much about playing how they’re “supposed to” and focus on doing what they do best: outskating other teams and sending wave after wave of offensive players that simply can’t be countered.

How to Do It:

These problems won’t last because the Leafs aren’t going to stick with this exact roster forever. But for now, I think they should line up Matthews-Nylander-Kadri down the middle. This is just not something any team can play defense against. It’s a huge edge available to them and they need to use it.

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Secondly, they need to get Kasperi Kapanen – who’s speed and defensive acumen should make him indispensable – and Josh Leivo into the lineup regularly.

To accomplish this, they must first trade Bozak and bench Martin. Then, I need to see Marner partnered long-term with Matthews.

Finally, on defense, the Leafs need to re-unite Carrick and Gardiner. This was last year’s best pairing and the team will instantly improve once they re-unite it. With Zaitsev now with Borgman, the Leafs will always have a puck moving defenseman on the ice at all times. No more wasting time with Polak and worry about whether the opposing coach is going to sneak his best players out against him.

Better Team, Guaranteed.

The team is now faster, and way harder to play against because with this kind of speed and offensive capabilities, other teams will be the ones adjusting their games. The Toronto Maple Leafs need to bend other teams to their will, and not change their game to suit how certain people think the game should be played. They have the players and the talent to run and gun, and so they should.

It’s no coincidence that when they were flying to start the season they were actually limiting shots and chances against. The problem was that Andersen was slumping and playing horribly, and so it seemed like the Leafs needed better defense when in fact all they needed was goaltending.

The fact cannot be lost on management that when the team was playing well, they had bad goaltending, and when the goaltending got good, the team was playing bad.

Next: How Expansion Might Effect the Leafs

Andersen can’t handle October. But now that we’re beyond that, it’s time for the Leafs to employ what the analytic section of their management team knows to be true: They’re a better team if they dress a skilled lineup and don’t worry so much about traditional defense.

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