The Toronto Maple Leafs need to split up the power-play into 2 units

There is no reason to get upseet about anything that happens in the Toronto Maple Leafs training camp.

It is a long season, and the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to try a ton of different things, and just because you see stupid things like Max Domi not playing with Auston Matthews, or the coach loading up one super-unit on the power-play does not mean those things will happen in the regular season.

You can't blame Berube - he can't just pick up where Keefe left off, he's got to learn a few things for himself. Going through that might be annoying for us fans who already know better, but he's got to learn.

So even though I am going to spend the rest of this article talking about why you should split up the stars on the power-plays, I just want to make it clear that I know that this isn't permenant and I'm not angry about it.

The Toronto Maple Leafs need to split up the power-play into 2 units

The reason you should never load up a power-play with all your best players is because it doesn't do anything to make you better, but it does make you worse. Here's how:

Basically there is no upside to doing it, but the cost is that your post-power-play lines get all screwed up and 5v5 is a far more important game state and the risk isn't worth the reward.

In the NHL, every single player is awesome. What seperates the best from the other NHL players is that they can pull of their best moves in traffic against other NHL players and don't need a ton of room to get shots or passes off. The power-play changes that.

Take a player off the ice, and create a ton more room, and every single players is a lot better. Most NHL players can play on the power-play and be completely fine. But the best players don't have as much room for improvement because you can only be so good, so there is a point where you get diminishing returns. What this means is that Matthews-Marrner-Nylander isn't significantly better than Matthews-Marner-McMann.

When you put all five of your best players together, you don't get a Power Rangers situation. There are only so many touches, and only so many shots you can take. Plus, star player make everyone around them better, and the extra room improves your b-level guys.

This creates a situation where say Nick Robertson or even Connor Dewar and William Nylander are not as far apart - talent wise - on the power-play as they are at 5v5.

Therefore, if you split up your stars you should get two units that are equally effective. Since sometimes one or the other unit will feature players on hot-streaks, this is obviously better. Additionally, when you load up a power-play unit, they usually still only get a single minute of ice-time or else the after-the-power-play lines are all screwed up because everyone is tired.

This led to Sheldon Keefe often starting the fourth line after every power-play, basically giving the other team a mini-power-play if they were smart and predicted it and iced their best players.

What's the point of loading up one unit if that unit has to split time with an inferior unit? When the upside is barely there to start with, this strategy makes no sense.

It is far better to split up the two units equally so that you don't have to juggle lines when the power-play is over, and so that your best players make your B-level players better.

Loading up a single unit is a bad strategy.