Toronto Maple Leafs: How to Stop the Bleeding (If there Is Any)

It’s not time to go all out ‘freak out’ mode, but you could be a little concerned with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

After the game against the Washington Capitals, and the horrible two goals in 11 seconds, the Toronto Maple Leafs have to regroup and find a way to stop – whatever this is.

It’s not like the team is doing horrific, they’re third in the Atlantic, second in the NHL in terms of expected goals for at 46.34 and they lead the league in goals for with 31.

The offensive structure for the Toronto Maple Leafs has been perfect, yet the defense hasn’t looked up-to-par so far.

As I wrote above, the Maple Leafs are 2nd in the league in expected goals for, but check off 2nd in the NHL for expected goals against as well with 13.58 (all stats are 5v5 and are courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com).

There’s a quote from Spider-Man that reads: “With great power comes great responsibility.” 

And that perfectly describes the Toronto Maple Leafs.

This is the best offensive team in the NHL (the power), yet still not the greatest in the defensive zone (the responsibility). Toronto needs to find a way to be both powerful offensively, and be responsible in their own end – if they find that, everything is fixed.

Quick fix, or will it take time?

The Toronto Maple Leafs coaching staff can find many ways to fix the problems.

Starting with the defense, if nothing improves in the next few games or so, it could be time to take Cody Ceci off the top pairing. It probably will happen anyways once Travis Dermott returns from injury.

Zach Hyman is also returning from injury around the same time and will likely give another boost to John Tavares and Mitch Marner, who’ve combined for 16 points so far this season.

The goaltending is, well, a growing problem in itself. Frederik Andersen is known to have a rough start to every season, so we shouldn’t be worrying about that yet, but here we are.

Michael Hutchinson is having a similar start, both goalies have sub-.900 save percentages through eight games and it’s been disappointing.

Hutchinson has only played two games this season, both on the second half of a back-to-back and it has been hard for the backup.

Could it be time to find a new backup? I’ll save that for another article.

There’s one other scenario – fire the coach. Babcock’s seat is getting warmer and warmer, if nothing changes, he could be the next change.

But listen, the Maple Leafs aren’t playing horrible. While they’re not playing great either, they can find other ways to win (I hope).

If they cannot find much success in the future, it’s either Babcock, the Backup (if he plays bad in next few games) or line shuffling that needs to happen. I worded it like that because it sounded good off the tongue, but I’ll order them:

Line shuffling; will be changed once Hyman and Dermott return
If Hutchinson can’t play well in the next few games, look for a new backup
Find a coach who can adjust and play the style of hockey Kyle Dubas wants

Number one is the only likely scenario and the only one I want to happen. I like Hutchinson and I (sometimes) like Babcock, but they also have their fair share of work cut out for them and if they can’t figure it out, it might be time to go.