The Toronto Maple Leafs lack of offence continues to depend on Frederik Andersen to put together wins
Coming off of a fairly uneventful win against the Los Angeles Kings, the Toronto Maple Leafs were carried by a 37 save performance from Frederik Andersen to extend their winning streak to three, in a game the power play struggled to provide any offensive assistance.
The Maple Leafs have struggled to play a dominant 60 minutes of hockey this season, and one prominent issue within the last ten games has been the power play.
Sometimes it is hard to believe that the Leafs had one of the most dangerous special teams in the league this time last season. After an uncharacteristic 3/33 stretch with the man advantage throughout the last ten games, including a lackluster 1/6 performance against Vegas on Thursday, something needs to be done about the special teams strategy.
The Zone Entry is Not Working
After watching enough unsuccessful power plays this season, I’ve come to realize one of the Leafs biggest issues is how they gain control in the offensive zone.
Almost every time, the Leaf defensemen begins the breakout by skating up to their blue line, dropping the puck off to a forward, who then skates up ice and dishes it off to a winger waiting on the blue line, who has absolutely no momentum.
This results in a lot of turnovers, yet a lot of NHL teams have adapted this strategy within the last decade and have done very well. The Toronto Maple Leafs are not one of those teams.
Toronto needs to begin utilizing the speed of their defensemen when breaking out, especially Morgan Rielly. Not only does this add another option to your power play which at times seems both predictable and one-dimensional, when Rielly picks up speed, he has the ability to put some of the best defenders in the league on their heels.
Relying on unbelievable performances from Frederik Andersen is a theme the Leafs have become all too comfortable with, and although we are still very early into the season, this is something that needs to be eliminated from the team’s identity. Every team will need their goaltenders to steal games away for them at some point in the season, but it is far too early to have these bad habits re-emerge
Someone the Leafs are desperately in need of, arguably more than ever before, is Zach Hyman. It seems that the role Hyman plays for the Leafs has become increasingly more important in his absence, and with Martin Marincin and Nic Petan placed on waivers earlier on Thursday, Hyman’s return could be as soon as Saturday against Philadelphia
Not only will Hyman bring an energy that takes a massive load off of Tavares and Marner on the forecheck, but Hyman’s relentlessness and physicality on the forecheck is something that has been forced to be replaced by players like Trevor Moore and Illya Mikheyev.
As other teams in the Atlantic division continue to excel in areas that the Leafs are not, Toronto needs to innovate their offensive strategies to set themselves apart from the crowd if they want to stay competitive.