Not saying Kally was great but that 1st period reminded me so much of the Habs series, the Leafs just continued to give up odd man rushes and needed their goalie to bail them out. I don’t think any team could win a lot of games if their teams continue to give up odd man rushes.
In the beginning of the season Leafs won 2-1 against TB, both Vas and Campbell were awesome but Leafs did have up a lot of odd man rushes.
That is the weakness of the heavy posession style the Leafs use. When they're in the offensive zone and it's going well, it's a beautiful thing to watch in action. The risk is that with all the pinching D-men, it makes it suseptible to counter attacks and odd man rushes.
Last year vs Montreal, Montreal generated exactly 1 goal off of sustained zone pressure. The rest came by way of the powerplay or transition offense off of turnovers - including the game 5 and 6 OT goals and the game 1 winning goal which came off of a turnover on the powerplay. This is something Vegas keyed on vs Colorado as well. Colorado uses their defensemen to generate a lot of their offense and Vegas has good two way forwards - especially Stone and Pacioretty, and would use them to try and force the Avs Dmen to turn the puck.
The adjustments the Leafs made to that this year:
1) The Leafs no longer look to circle back at the blue line if there isn't a clean zone entry, they dump and chase a lot more now. This style of play is beautiful when it works but if teams can clog the neutral zone and blue line to prevent entries, then you are forced to circle back constantly and when you dump it in as a last resort, forecheckers don't have the speed built up to properly get to the puck. Montreal last year keyed in on this and starting standing guys up at the blue line to prevent zone entries. The first Montreal goal last year in Game 7 is a good example of how it worked against us. This year, if the Leafs circle back, it will usually be before the center line to produce a more optimal breakout. If they get to the blue line and are blocked from a zone entry, they will dump and chase.
2) The forecheck is a more conservative 1-1-3, the third man back helps cut down on any odd man counter attack rushes. Earlier in the year they used a 1-2-2 forecheck which is a more aggressive form style of forechecking but is suseptible to more counters. You also need fast skating d-men to run it effectively and Toronto's dmen aren't fast, they're mostly high IQ guys who have good positoning. Rielly and Liljegren who wasn't playing earlier this year anyways are the only dmen who I'd call fast skaters. It was a disaster for Toronto as they started 2-4-1 that in October culiminating in a 7-1 loss vs Pittsburgh where 5 of the 7 goals came off of rushes.
3) The defensemen this year are generally just better at making decisions. I think a key to why they were bad last year is that Keefe switched Sandin and Dermott back and forth during their series.
4) Matthews and Marner have taken huge steps defensively. They disrupt a lot of rush and break out attempts. Bunting is also really good at this. The Kampf line is a shutdown line whereas last year the third line was another scoring line so you got two defensively responsible lines. Nylander when he's engaged can be great at NZ defense but when he's not, he's not. That's why I think he's playing alongside Kampf and Engvall now. Tavares is slow but he's been an okay guy most of his career position wise, that's why he's currently with Kerfoot and Mikeyhev who are decent two way guys in their own right but have speed.
