The Toronto Maple Leafs have gradually begun turning back the clock. And the new faces on the team have played a massive role in making that happen.
The two-year Craig Berube period attempted to transform the Maple Leafs into something they hadn’t been for nearly a decade. The Leafs built a puck-possession machine based on speed and skill.
That was the whole point of the Core Four.
But Berube wanted a team that focused on grinding and winning 2-1 games. The idea would have worked had the Leafs embraced a full-on rebuild.
Alas, that’s not what they did.
Fast-forward to today, and the Leafs are heading back to that puck-possession game they had under Sheldon Keefe. Interestingly, Jim Hiller was an assistant under Mike Babcock, another old-school coach, but who, unlike Berube, understood that playing a sound all-around game was the right formula for winning.
Yes, it’s been a challenge. The Leafs haven’t been overly consistent. But that’s to be expected at this juncture. Nevertheless, when you look at guys like Jack Roslovic, Kirill Marchenko, and Gavin McKenna, you can see that speed, puck possession, and overall uptempo style manifesting once again. But it’s not just the top-six that are turning back the clock. The depth guys are also doing their best to bring back a familiar playing style.
Depth forwards helping keep the pace
There was a reason why John Chayka practically redid the bottom six. It wasn’t so much to save on cap space. He wanted the depth guys to match the playing style of the top two lines.
Under Berube, the bottom six was slow, predictable, and pretty much destined to pound the opposition. None of that happened. And that’s why last season was such a disaster.
This season, the point was to have no disconnect between the top two lines and the bottom two. It’s like what the Colorado Avalanche do. They throw four lines out there that can run with the puck and not give the opposition a break. A good example of that was Thursday night’s game in Calgary. The Flames hung tough with Colorado for about 20 minutes before falling apart in the second period.
With a team like that, it’s only a matter of time before the opposition falters.
And so, that’s what Jim Hiller is trying to accomplish with the Maple Leafs this season. However, unlearning something and learning something new is much harder than learning something from scratch.
Ultimately, the early returns have to be encouraging. The difference between the Maple Leafs of this season and last year is abysmal. It’s practically night and day. And no, Toronto is not running away with the Atlantic Division. But the signs are there to suggest that the Leafs should improve as the season wears on to the point where they could seriously challenge for one of the top three spots in the division.
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