What Other New Changes We Can Expect from the Toronto Maple Leafs New Coach

The Toronto Maple Leafs are off to a great start under new coach Sheldon Keefe.

Depending on how last night’s game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres went, the Leafs are either 4-0 or 3-1 under their new coach.

Either record is a great start, and that is partly to the many changes under the new coach.

The team is focusing more on holding the puck and looking for plays, rather than taking low percentage shots, or dumping the puck in.

One very noticeable change is on line changes when the players will hold the puck and circle back.  You can also see the team doing this if they don’t like their options on the break in, whereas before they’d just dump it in the corner.

This has led to more high-danger scoring chances, and the Leafs have been a dominant team under the first three games (maybe four?) of the Keefe era.

Other changes include defenseman who are more active in jumping up, especially through the neutral zone, and forward who fall back to cover them, and the back-up goalie starting the first game of a back-to-back.

Not only is this Leafs team better, it’s more fun to watch. You wouldn’t think it’d take a genius to increase the ice time of Auston Matthews and John Tavares, but who knows?

There’s been a lot of changes so far, and there’s going to be more as the new coach adjusts to and learns about his lineups strengths and weaknesses.

Toronto Maple Leafs Changes to Come

One thing we will definitely see more of as the Leafs progress is in-game strategy changes and adjustments.

Babcock was stubborn, and he didn’t care if something wasn’t working. If he said it would work, it would work eventually……..even if it didn’t.

You can expect Keefe to be the exact opposite in this regard.  Earlier the Lightning stacked their top line with their three best players (Point, Kucherov, Stamkos) to compensate for the Leafs being able to throw out back-to-back lines featuring Tavares and Matthews.

Babcock didn’t adjust to this strategy and the Leafs got smoked, because three elite players on one line will beat two.  Perhaps Keefe would counter with Matthews, Nylander and Tavares?  It will be fun to find out.

Another change you can expect is to see less of Freddie Gauthier and Cody Ceci.

There is no excuse for playing Cody Ceci as a top pairing guy, and I think we’ll finally see Morgan Rielly get the kind of partner he deserves.  Could it be Sandin, Dermott, Holl, Barrie or even Muzzin?  Literally everyone the Leafs have is a better option.

As for Gauthier, he just doesn’t score enough to justify his spot in the lineup.  He’d be great on a team like the Islanders, but the Leafs will want to go with a higher offensive potential, and when Marner, Kerfoot, and Moore are all healthy, I’d expect Gauthier and Timashov (who doesn’t appear to be an NHL player at this time) to be the odd men out.

Especially with the emergence of Pierre Engvall as a viable NHL player.

Those are just some of the many changes we will see from the new coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.