The Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the NHL's worst power-play, so should they fire a coach or trade a few players?
It's hard to believe that the Toronto Maple Leafs power-play is so bad, despite their talent. When you look at the construction of this roster, offense should never be an issue. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares are four of the top players at their positions, yet they can't score on the man-advantage.
The Leafs power-play went through a tough stretch with Guy Boucher last year, but they eventually finished with a respectable 24.0 percentage, good enough for seventh in the league. That percentage dropped significantly in the playoffs as the team finished with a 4.8 percentage in seven games versus the Boston Bruins and was a big reason why Guy Boucher was fired and eventually replaced by Marc Savard.
With Savard in charge, the Leafs currently have a power-play percentage of 14% percent through 14 games, which is unacceptable, but what did we expect?
Toronto Maple Leafs need to fix their power-play issues
Sure, the Leafs scored three PP goals the other night, but who cares? It is not good to have scored almost half your total power-play goals for 14 games in just one night.
It's not like Savard was a master during his tenure in Calgary. Last season, the Flames finished seventh worst in the NHL with a 17.9 power-play percentage, but at the same time, his talent was much worse. Team's that lead the NHL on the power-play are not usually surprises, but instead are the team's with the best offensive talent.
That may be the most obvious statement I have ever made but it needs to be said. You don't typically see a team with a multiple 60 goal scorer struggle on the power-play, so something has to give.
At this point in the season, I don't think it's a cause for concern, but it needs to be talked about. Your power-play doesn't have to be perfect right now, but things need to move in the right direction. This group is way too talented to not score when they have a man-advantage and if they continue to struggle, they're not going to win enough regular season games.
As much as we'd like to assume the Leafs are locks for the playoffs, nothing is guaranteed and not scoring on the power-play can sink an entire season.
This team needs a balance of skill and discipline and I think that boring style is bleeding into the power-play too much. If the power-play is the only place you be creative then maybe these are not the players you should move forward with.
I think the power-play will naturally fix itself but if it doesn't then someone is going to get traded. No one will be fired because the coaches are all too new, but if this doesn't get fixed soon then something is going to happen. ,