Toronto Maple Leafs Should Abandon the Concept of Defense All Together

The Toronto Maple Leafs are not a good defensive team.

But Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock continues to treat his Ferrari like a beat up Chrystler LeBaron.

Kyle Dubas has assembled what could be the greatest offensive team of the modern era.  And make no mistake, Babcock does let his team play offense, but I’d like to see him put an emphasis on offense and creativity. No more quotes about Matthews being a potentially great 200 foot player.  I want Matthews to think about one thing, and one thing only.  Goals.

And so it’s time to let the eagles soar.

Defense? Who Needs It?

All I hear from disgruntled fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs is how the Leafs can’t play defense and how they won’t make it far in the playoffs because of the nonsensical idea that games are somehow different then.

The team assembled a roster that is antithetical to the traditional NHL roster, so why not play like it?

The other night the Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs played an incredibly entertaining first period that featured seven goals.

And you can be the coaches were not happy about it.  They should have been encouraging their boys to keep it up, keep up the pressure. The goal is to outscore your opponent, but we’re so hampered by tradition that goal scoring is never the priority of an NHL team.

Despite playing less games than some teams, the Leafs have attempted more shots than any team in the league.

They are attempting five more shots per game than the next most offensive team.  It might surprise you to learn that they are allowing only the 17th most shot-attempts against per game. (naturalstattrick.com)

They are doing this while their coach preaches defense and “playing the right way” so I’d like to see what they could do if they just went all-in on offense and completely abandoned defense all-together.

yeah, I know exactly what you’re going to say – defense wins hockey games, and all that. I know, I know.

But what if it doesn’t?  The best defense is a good offense.  You can’t get scored on when you have the puck.

The Toronto Maple Leafs should play extremely high-risk, high-reward hockey. They should trade chances and trust in their Vezina worthy goalie.  They should play the percentages and realize that a team that has Matthews and Tavares and Nylander and Marner and Barrie and Rielly is going to score on a higher percentage of their shots than the other team.

They should do away with every defensive player on the roster.  See you later Guathier and Timashov.  Welcome back Nic Petan and Jeremy Bracco.  Marincin and Holl? How about Sandin and Liljegren?]

The Toronto Maple Leafs have the roster to do it.  To even build this roster they’ve spit on so many traditional NHL team building tenants.  Why not go all the way?

Put an emphasis on creativity.  I heard Babcock say something in a pre-season game about how he didn’t want to see any “toe-drag nonsense” from guys trying to make the team.

On my team, you’re benched if you don’t try at least three toe-drags per game.  I want forwards breaking the zone early. I want defensemen pinching.  In fact, I would quit calling them “defenseman” all together.

I’d adopt Ryan Stimson’s terminology and start calling them wing-backs, and I’d consider turning some forwards into defenseman.

Defense sucks.  Give me goals.

I mean, when anyone mentions the best player, they mention Wayne Gretzky, not Nick Hjalmarsson.  Whenever anyone mentions the best team, they mention the Edmonton Oilers from the 80s, not the 1995 New Jersey Devils.

The Toronto Maple Leafs should not try to be something they’re not.  They should not focus on defense, or trade for anyone who is defensive. They should take what they’re good at, and concentrate on it.  They’ve got more offensive talent than any team in the league, so they should play like it.

NHL teams already play too conservatively, so if the Leafs broke with tradition and played an offense-only game, they’d be unstoppable.