The Craig Berube era for the Toronto Maple Leafs went sideways because of his stubbornness to play a style that wasn't fully suited to the roster that was constructed. Brad Treliving, who built the roster and hired the coach to lead it, rightfully took the blame for how bad a match it became, and the organization now hopes that the duo of John Chayka and Jim Hiller will be more compatible.
Chayka rebuilt the roster this offseason with that in mind, compiling a group of forwards in the bottom six who can play the defensive structure that Hiller is planning to use and take away some of those grinding minutes from the top six. The new head coach's plan is to utilize a system that the players have fun playing in, and that likely starts with them playing more to their roles.
Berube held players like Auston Matthews and William Nylander to a standard, which they did need, but he relied on them too much to play the defensive role better suited for bottom-sixers. Nylander was still able to get past his defensive zone starts by blowing the zone and getting open for an obscene number of breakaways, but it was the captain's offensive numbers that hurt, considering he was expected to take the puck 200 feet.
Jim Hiller has to teach defense while opening up the offense
At one point, the Maple Leafs focused on offense too much under Sheldon Keefe to the detriment of their defense. They did a complete 180 with Berube, and it was then that the offense couldn't get the job done last season. While Keefe was making the playoffs but coming up short in those rounds with his offensive style, the defensive style eventually put them into an even worse hole.
Hiller's job will now be to find a middle ground that suits all parts of his roster. He has to get the bottom-six to buy into a role to shut down the talented teams of the Atlantic Division. In contrast, offensive players like Matthews and Nylander need to get more attacking zone starts, and specifically, Matthews, to get back to his old point-scoring pace.
It won't be an easy tightrope to walk, and even though it's Hiller's job to implement the system, it's the players who need to buy in. Keefe lost the room late in his tenure, Berube never really had it, and if Hiller fails to do so, it might finally be time to admit that it's a player leadership issue, more than all the head coaches and management who have walked through the doors.
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