The Toronto Maple Leafs went 1-1 this weekend.
First up, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Red Wings in O.T Friday night. This was a pretty pathetic performance, but coming in after the All Star Break, teams are sluggish and anything can happen. Not really anything to worry about.
Then, at home on Saturday, the Leafs rebounded with a much better performance and were able to beat one of the NHL’s best teams the day after losing to one of the worst teams.
That’s just how it goes sometimes.
But what did we learn? We learned that the Toronto Maple Leafs might have the beginnings of something special on the blue line.
Trouble Fitting in Muzzin
With a brand new edition to the blue line, the Toronto Maple Leafs have what should be one of, if not the absolute best pairings in the NHL with Jake Muzzin and Morgan Rielly.
Muzzin and Rielly didn’t disappoint. In two games so far, they are a 59% CF pairing. Despite being one of the top five in the NHL, Morgan Rielly can barely break even, possession-wise , with Ron Hainsey weighing him down, so this is an excellent development.
Though it’s a small sample size, Jake Muzzin is among the best in the world at controlling possession and driving play, so this figures to last.
On Friday Babcock seemed unsure of how to make use of his new blueline, and he played Rielly 28 minutes. Once Muzzin is comfortable with the system of his new team, expect him to join Rielly in the 25 minute per night area, finally addressing the Leafs biggest weakness.
A by-product of the Muzzin addition is that we have learned that Travis Dermott and Jake Gardiner make an excellent pairing. In just under an hour this year, they’re a 64% pairing. That is unreal. Not only has Gardiner struggled to find success with Zaitsev, but Dermott is much to good to be wasted on a third pairing.
This is a top four that works.
There isn’t a trade available that is going to give the Leafs more improvement than they’ll get just by using Travis Dermott more. Regardless of how the pairings break down, one thing is obvious:
It would be insane to enter the playoffs with Ron Hainsey and Nikita Zaitsev as one third of the blue line. On Saturday the Leafs made Nikita Zaitsev their most-used player and the only logic to that move is that they’re trying to showcase him for a trade.
Either than or Babcock briefly lost his mind.
Moving Zaitsev’s salary would be a feather in the cap of Kyle Dubas, as this obvious Lamoriello signing is the one albatross on the roster, contract-wise. However, he’s a right-handed defenseman making less than five million, so he should be movable.
As for Ron Hainsey, Babcock clearly loves him, and that’s problematic. If Mike Babcock can’t be trusted to play Hainsey the proper amount (i.e sixth defenseman) then Dubas should move him out and force Babcock to dress a better player.
If the Leafs could pick up Nick Jensen (pending UFA, right hander) they could pair him with Calle Rosen or Andreas Borgman for a very good bottom pairing.
As it is, with Jake Muzzin on board, Rielly having turned into an elite player, and Travis Dermott earning top-four ice-time, the Toronto Maple Leafs blue line, formerly a weakness, is shaping up to be a strength.
It’s just dependent on Babcock not overplaying his worst players at the expense of Dermott. In the last two games, Travis Dermott has played the role of sixth defenseman, which, quite frankly, is stupid.