4 Must-Haves For Toronto Maple Leafs Playoff Success
Spring is finally here and the annual agony known as Toronto Maple Leafs playoff hockey is rapidly approaching. Once again, fans will be hoping that regular season success will translate into a long Stanley Cup run.
Unlike the last few years, this year’s Toronto Maple Leafs roster has been unable to hide its biggest faults, particularly a weak defensive group and inconsistent goaltending. Despite these glaring weaknesses, the team has still been able to put up a pretty decent .644 points percentage (per StatMuse.com), good for 10th overall in the league.
Many folks will (not unreasonably) say that the team just hasn’t shown enough strength to be called a contender for the Cup this year. However, those are likely the same ones who (also not unreasonably) claim that regular season results mean very little once the post-season begins.
Let’s not (ever!) forget last season’s Boston Bruins team, which set an all-time regular season record with 135 points, only to bow out shamefully in the first round of the playoffs at the hands of the Florida Panthers.
That same Florida team, which barely snuck into the playoffs, made it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals (dispatching the Leafs in Round 2) before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights.
What Do The Playoffs Have In Store For The Toronto Maple Leafs?
It’s highly likely that the Toronto Maple Leafs will face either Boston or Florida in Round 1 of this year’s playoffs. In other words, they have to find a way to beat either their long-time kryptonite nemesis (the Bruins) or the team that last year ended their brief playoff winning streak at one (Florida). You may recall that the Leafs got beat up (literally) and “goalied“ by the Panthers.
So, what do the Toronto Maple Leafs need in order to advance to Round 2 of this year’s playoffs? Let’s have a look……..
A Team Focus On Defense
Things looked bad for the Toronto Maple Leafs after losing to the Ottawa Senators on February 10. Morgan Rielly took offense to Senator rookie Ridly Greig’s slapshot empty net goal, and ended up with a 5 game suspension.
Given Toronto’s already depleted blue line, expectations were low with the team’s best defender sitting out. Yet somehow the Leafs won all 5 games of Rielly’s absence. Why? It seems that the team’s collective conscience realized that if they didn’t buckle down and play solid team defense, they would likely get blown out and embarrassed.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are now 19-2-1 without Rielly in the lineup. Similarly, they are 35-19-2 without Auston Matthews.
The team really does play better defense when players know top guys are missing. The forwards backcheck and the defense make the smart, simple play. The challenge is to play that way when everyone is healthy.
This falls on coach Sheldon Keefe to get the message of team accountability through to his players as a group, but also to the stars that they need to dial back the risky spin moves and blind passes that often end in highlight goals, but also lead to untimely giveaways.
Patience will lead to plenty of scoring opportunities for the best players without having to resort to the fancy stuff.
An Abundance of Grit
Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brad Treliving commented before the season about bringing more toughness to the lineup with the offseason signings of Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi and Ryan Reaves. A common complaint about the team in recent years has been the lack of pushback when opponents try to “take liberties” with Toronto players.
That’s certainly a fair complaint, but it took some time this season for the mentality to shift in the right direction, and it will need to become even more evident once the playoffs roll around.
Go back to November 2, when defenseman Timothy Liljegren suffered a serious ankle injury after being “accidentally” nudged into the boards by Boston’s Brad Marchand. Whether or not Marchand was guilty of evil-doing (there was no penalty called) was irrelevant. No Leaf so much as gave him (or any Bruin) a gentle shove in response.
The team was rightly called out afterwards, and the players knew they had failed their teammate, vowing that it wouldn’t happen again.
For the most part, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been good to their word, and have responded to other teams’ behaviour with the desired snot (see Rielly’s suspension as well as Jake McCabe’s $5000 fine for dishing out some aggressive crosschecks to the Bruins on March 7).
The team isn’t short on sandpaper guys, with new additions Ilya Lyabushkin and Joel Edmundson joining McCabe and Simon Benoit on the blue line, and with the aforementioned Betuzzi, Domi and Reaves up front.
However, this needs to be an “all hands on deck” attitude throughout the lineup. Although we don’t necessarily want to see Mitch Marner or William Nylander drop the gloves, it wouldn’t hurt them to throw a jab here or there in an after-whistle scrum.
Better Than Competent Goaltending
It seems as if every year, the Toronto Maple Leafs exit the playoffs at the hands of a team whose goalie was “better than ours”. Last year it was Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky. The year before it was Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevsky. The year before that it was Montreal’s Carey Price.
All three of those goaltenders were able to come up big when their teams needed them.
In the Toronto crease, Jack Campbell wasn’t bad against Montreal and Tampa Bay. Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll weren’t bad against Florida.
But none of them were able to steal games for their team. None of them gave their teammates the confidence to blitz the opposition when a goal was required, knowing that their goalie had their back if the puck went back the other way.
Samsonov has played surprisingly well since returning from what could have been a career-ending slump earlier this season, and Woll was on a roll before a high-ankle sprain sidelined him in December. He’s played well since his return, but needs more games to get back into a groove.
Whoever ends up starting playoff games for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team needs more than just competence from their goalies.
A lot of things have to go right for any team to win during the playoffs. Timely scoring. Lack of key injuries. A healthy dose of good luck. But often, exceptional goaltending is the difference between winning and losing.
Somebody Has to Lead
There has been quite a bit of criticism over the course of the “Core 4” era that the Toronto Maple Leafs stars disappear during the playoffs. While that isn’t entirely fair, neither have we seen anybody rampaging through the scoresheet when it counts.
Last season, in 11 playoff games, Marner had 14 points, Matthews 11, Nylander 10 and Tavares 8. All respectable numbers, given how hard it is to come by goals in the playoffs. The year before, the results were very similar.
Competence and respectability are very fine attributes, but they don’t get your name engraved on the Stanley Cup. In addition to those qualities, winning teams need leadership.
Somebody has to stand up, put the team on their back, and refuse to lose. A point per game scoring pace won’t cut it. Somebody needs to rack up two points per game, game after game. Maybe a Gordie Howe hat trick?
I’ve used the word “somebody” several times now, but I’m referring to Auston Matthews.
Guys like Steven Stamkos aren't afraid to throw down with an opponent. Can you even imagine the reaction of fans and teammates if Matthews got angry enough to pummel Sam Reinhart or Charlie McAvoy?
I’m not saying that Matthews needs to fight to be a leader, but he has to find a way to elevate his game to the point that he wins games on his own. He’s the highest paid player on the team, the face of the franchise, the best goal-scorer in the league.
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Once the contract of John Tavares expires next season, Matthews will most likely take over as captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. It’s not too early for him to prove beyond a doubt that he deserves to wear that “C”.