The Toronto Maple Leafs should be approaching the end of their second month of play.
By this time last year, the Toronto Maple Leafs had played 26 games. That is almost a third of a season. They had gone through a six game losing streak and fired the coach who they had only recently brought in for a record contract in both length and heft.
The oldschool Babcock was always a contradiction for the vision that Shanahan and Dubas were putting forward of a skilled, team that allowed their talented players to be creative. Babcock publicly disagreed with management decisions, and according to Sportsnet, his team had lead a league-low 21.1% of the time at the time of his firing.
With a 12-10 and 4 record, the Leafs were in 18th place, but things were looking up with the now Sheldon Keefe coached team. The Leafs won their first three games under Keefe by a combined score of 14-4, and won four of their first five.
Babock and Keefe
If we are honest, most coaching changes don’t have a big effect. The NHL constantly recycles the same coaches over and over again through a ridiculous cycle of hiring and firing. Few NHL coaches are interested in innovation, and with minor exceptions, almost every single NHL team plays the exact same way.
Yes of course at a pro level all small difference are a big deal, and of course people interested in the minutia of hockey strategy can spot differences between teams. But in the NHL, teams aren’t doing anything that really pops out to the casual observer in the same way as say a blitz does in the NFL or a defensive shift in the MLB.
The coaching change with the Leafs was different because Babcock wasn’t utilizing players in the way that management envisioned when those players were acquired. The Leafs gave him a sleek, highly skilled roster and he tried to coach it like he had a team full of 12 grinders and the year was 1998. (all stats for this article naturalstattrick.com).
So unlike most NHL coaching changes, this one represented both a significant change in both team strategy and player deployment. When Keefe was hired and the Leafs started to play a very different kind of hockey game. You didn’t have to be steeped in minutia to notice that something unusual was happening. Holding on to the puck became a priority. Players would loop back with the puck and try again. Visually, it stands out vs how the rest of the NHL plays.
In December, following two straight losses to start the month, the Toronto Maple Leafs went 9-1-1, in an incredible run that saved their season. During this run, the Leafs had their healthiest roster of the year, and it is also the only time they received strong goal tending for an extended period. This 9 and 1 run isn’t an example of how the Leafs will normally play, but it shows what this team is capable when things go right.
Look at these ten games, look at how they finished 8th overal after Keefe was hired even though they completely changed systems and styles in the middle of a season (almost unheard of by the way), and look at what they did in the last five minutes of game four vs Columbus.
That is what this team can do. Oh, and Auston Matthews isn’t even in his prime yet.