3 Things to Worry About the Toronto Maple Leafs Heading Into the Playoff Run
The Leafs seem to be doing quite well recently, is there anything left to worry about?
After playing some solid hockey in recent weeks, the Toronto Maple Leafs currently sit in third place in the Atlantic Division with 95 points, and currently have a small chance at second place, along with perhaps an outside shot of even chasing down a division title.
Nevertheless, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a playoff spot 100% sewn up (even if not mathematically clinched at this point) heading into the final weeks of the NHL regular season.
The Leafs offence has been firing on all cylinders with Auston Matthews leading the way after scoring his 60th of the season on Saturday, while the defense has hung in there decently despite encountering some injury woes to the back end.
And that's putting it politely, since the Leafs were missing three of their six regulars in the last two games they've played.
More importantly, the goaltending situation appeared to have stabilized as both Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll have been solid option in the past few weeks in net, making them a potential strong tandem to throw at any opponent heading into the playoffs.
However, despite everything seemingly falling into place for the Blue and White, there are actually still some major concerns for the team going forward as they make their preparations for their playoff journey in the coming weeks.
Here, we will take a look at three particular aspects of the Leafs game that could make fans worry as the end of the season approaches.
Power Outage in the Leafs Power Play … Again
For the past few seasons, the Leafs have always fielded one of the best power plays in the league.
After all, with a monstrous first unit loaded with the core four of Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander, while quarterbacked by the highly-talented Morgan Rielly, it is highly expected already that they would do exceptionally well with all that firepower.
Not to mention with the added incumbents of Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi and Bobby McMann, even the secondary unit can be tantalizing.
However, at just about the same time this year as in previous years, their power play always seem to suffer a power outage prior to the start of the playoffs.
For this season, the Leafs power play had been toiling with only a 9.1% success rate since the beginning of March, trailing only the lowly Anaheim Ducks and Montreal Canadiens for the third worst mark in the league.
Perhaps the Leafs sorely miss the swift passing and creativity of Marner, who has been out since the first week of March due to a high ankle sprain. But then again, this has happened as well in previous years, so perhaps it has to do more with their set plays during the man advantage instead.
Maybe by creating some variety and movement on the power play, it can help resolve the issue in the long run. But nevertheless, since it has been a recurring issue, the Leafs will need to find a way to rectify it before the start of the playoffs, or else it could eventually spell their doom.
Penalty Killing Is Killing the Leafs
With the Leafs penalty killing being one of their forte the past few seasons, it has certainly taken a huge step back in 2023-24.
Having ranked consistently in the top third of the league in recent years, they have actually found themselves sputtering in the bottom third for the majority of this season.
More notably, since March 1st, the Leafs have put up a penalty kill success rate close to just 75%, ranking them 9th worst in the league.
For those that remember from playoffs past where the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning feasted on the Leafs with their potent power plays, by having a struggling penalty kill heading into the playoff run, it could amount to a huge problem for the Leafs going forward.
If it wasn’t already bad enough to have a power outage for their power play at the worst time of the year, but to pair it with a penalty kill that has been in most part disappointing, it could potentially create a special teams nightmare for the Leafs in the coming weeks.
Again, for their more recent struggles, it might have something to do with Marner missing the past few weeks since he is one of their key cogs when a man short.
Or perhaps with the recent new additions in Ilya Lyubuskin, Joel Edmundson and Connor Dewar to their penalty kill units, they needed an adjustment period to learn the system and positioning with their new team before they could be performing at their absolute best.
Either way, the Leafs will need to find a solution quick with just three more weeks to go before it’s too late.
No More Injuries … Please
With the Leafs making just minimal moves at this year’s trade deadline, they are counting heavily on every player on their current roster to play at their best.
In doing so, the combined effort would help lead the team to success down the stretch and hopefully into the playoffs. However, many of their key players have been dropping like flies in recent weeks in terms of the injury front.
We have already mentioned Marner and his high ankle sprain, who obviously is one of the key superstars that drive the bus for this Leafs team, so they definitely need him back as soon as possible.
But on top of that, key players such as Calle Jarnkrok, Morgan Rielly, Mark Giordano, Timothy Liljegren, along with even newcomer Joel Edmundson now, have all miss some significant chunks of time in recent weeks due to both minor and major ailments.
For the Leafs to be at their best, they will need a full healthy roster (or at least as close to one as possible) heading into the playoffs in order for them to have any chance at getting out of the Atlantic Divison and eventually the daunted Eastern Conference.
As a result, hopefully when the current core of injured players make their way back into the everyday lineup, the Leafs will not suffer any more ill-timed injuries to put them in a bind at this time of the year when things matter most. (All stats from NHL.com)
manual
Overall, if the Leafs can somehow address and managed these issues in the coming weeks, they could be going into the Stanley Cup playoffs as an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. Otherwise, we could be in for another frustrating early exit once again.