The Special Teams are bad again

[BlackAdam]

Say what you want about the Power Play, but you can't be giving up a goal on the Penalty Kill every game.
You can get by with a bad Power Play but a worse Penalty Kill will sink you. It's just that much more goals you need to score to win a game.

Click to read more...

 

[BlackAdam]

To further elaborate, Leafs were 23rd last year shorthanded with a rate of 76.89. Definitely a lot of team points they lost out on cause they couldn't keep puck out.
The same pk was awful against the Bruins in the playoffs.

 

[Incognito]

We're also getting f***ed by the refs on a regular basis, which doesn't help. So far this season, we've been shorthanded 41 times while only getting 32 powerplays. Those numbers don't pass the eye test.

 

[BlackAdam]

Bad calls are gonna be called but you still need to kill them. Leafs are not gonna go far in the playoffs with a 64.7PK% they had against boston

 

[wingman75]

Jets were ripping seam passes like it was practice. PRACTICE!

 

[Gabriel426]

This is the thing, since our PP sucks, our PK will sucks. As during practices, the PK unit will think they are amazing as they are stopping AM, MM, Willie, JT and Reilly, lol.

 

[tmlms13]

We're also getting f***ed by the refs on a regular basis, which doesn't help. So far this season, we've been shorthanded 41 times while only getting 32 powerplays. Those numbers don't pass the eye test.

That's nothing new. Leafs are bottom 5 in PP opportunities for like 7 years straight.

 

[Craig Button]

This is the thing, since our PP sucks, our PK will sucks. As during practices, the PK unit will think they are amazing as they are stopping AM, MM, Willie, JT and Reilly, lol.

Mitch Marner is our main Penalty Killer

Auston Mattews tags along on the PK with Marner

 

[sxvnert]

Re: PK
Leafs need to create a proper third line which would contain higher end two way PK players.

 

[arso40]

Re: PK
Leafs need to create a proper third line which would contain higher end two way PK players.

hard to do that with domi on it

 

[Gabriel426]

Mitch Marner is our main Penalty Killer

Auston Mattews tags along on the PK with Marner

And who would they practice PK against?
Lol

 

[Cap'n Flavour]

Jets were ripping seam passes like it was practice. PRACTICE!

This is a team-wide problem but I've noticed that Tanev in particular, while good at a lot of things, has struggled with anticipating and stopping passes going near him.

 

[Maple Leaf]

need to pp specialist and some penaloty killers not david kampf

 

[TMLBlueandWhite]

You know they're getting desperate when they have Marner QB'ing the power play.

It's been a combination of system, execution, and deployment. As in the system is broken, the execution horrendous, and the player deployment questionable. One alone is enough to derail not only the special teams but the entire season.

All three happening at the same time should be enough to get Savard fired.

 

[darrylsittler27]

I don't know how the Leafs do it. They are like the Keystone cops. Every year their special teams suck so they hire another guy whose history shows he sucks. I wonder what historically garbage special teams coach they will hire next. Are they blind or just stupid? Wait..don't answer that. Another first round exit coming up. Leafs powerplay 1 for 36 attempts. Pk at 63 per cent. I don't know why we lost! I'm sorry but why do they hire management that are stupider than fans?

 

[Maple Leaf]

I don't know how the Leafs do it. They are like the Keystone cops. Every year their special teams suck so they hire another guy whose history shows he sucks. I wonder what historically garbage special teams coach they will hire next. Are they blind or just stupid? Wait..don't answer that. Another first round exit coming up. Leafs powerplay 1 for 36 attempts. Pk at 63 per cent. I don't know why we lost! I'm sorry but why do they hire management that are stupider than fans?

they just hire their buddies
who da hell is treliving

 

[notDatsyuk]

That's nothing new. Leafs are bottom 5 in PP opportunities for like 7 years straight.

That might be more perception than reality.

Over the last 7 seasons they finished: 29th, 31st, 23rd, 21st, 21st, 18th, and 25th, and are actually 8th at the moment (small sample size).

So they have actually been "bottom 5" twice in the last 7 seasons, that being the 17-18 and 18-19 seasons. Over the last 5 seasons their worst finish has been 8th worst.

Yes, bottom half, but not "bottom 5".

The corollary is that we take fewer penalties. Over the same 7 seasons we have had the 7th, 2nd, 8th, 4th, 18th, 16th, and 11th fewest penalties called against us. Currently only two teams have had more penalties this year.

The interesting part is that, over the last 7+ seasons, we have had 1532 PP opportunities and 1533 PK opportunities.

 

[Stephen]

The PP1 unit plays like the players haven't agreed on when to meet in the opposition zone, and once they get there they just keep it on the perimeter like timid guests not sure if they need to take their shoes off before going into the slot area. And there's no real agenda as to who should have to puck when or where and order of preference as to who should take the shot. And oops where does the time go.

 

[thewave]

The PP1 unit plays like the players haven't agreed on when to meet in the opposition zone, and once they get there they just keep it on the perimeter like timid guests not sure if they need to take their shoes off before going into the slot area. And there's no real agenda as to who should have to puck when or where and order of preference as to who should take the shot. And oops where does the time go.

Right. MM MR WN is going to do that. JT has been slow and useless up until the other night as well. AM isnt putting them in.

Sounds and looks like bad chemistry.

 

[Nineteen67]

Jets were ripping seam passes like it was practice. PRACTICE!

One of the biggest problem with the Leafs PP is they don’t rip passes.

 

[Da Mash]

Different coaches and same results.

Biggest issue and it has been right in front of us for several years......we have no point shot as a threat.

Rielly is some kind of player that constantly gets a pass. When fans mention the "core"

Its always the forwards that are implied.

Tanev is finding out Rielly is not a easy player to play with.

When is the last time we had a D with a rocket of a shot?

I know Berube thinks its all about not being cute. Having set plays and good passing isnt the issue. We have certain players that need to shoot more often. Domi, and Marner for example.

But you need a threat at the top of the PP and we just dont have it.

Our PK is doomed if Mathews plays on it IMHO. Its not his forte. Marner is very good at PK. We supposedly have the D for it as we locked up our top 4 now....we need some active sticks and some speed there at the forward spot.

 

[Ports]

Don’t these coaches study how the other top teams run their special teams? Just put the right players in the right positions. Why reinvent the wheel ? Their PP entries are pathetic passing off to players standing still at the blue line and they over handle the puck once they get in the ozone. Watching other top PP’s, they spread their forwards out more and look for one timers, moving the puck quickly not dusting it off. The top PK’s apply pressure while maintaining structure while the Leafs have no structure and collapse down low while giving up one timers and high danger chances .

 

[ACC1224]

PP
It seemed last game they moved the puck much quicker which resulted in some better looks.
Goals will come, too much talent not to be a top PP team.

PK
Seems they do well but then a small breakdown occurs and the puck is in the net.
I think we should be much more concerned with the PK than PP .

 

[DarkKnight]

Holmberg is a horrible Pker. Knies is learning, still needs some seasoning there. Matthews can win a draw, other than that he still seems to be figuring it out. Kampf is beyond over rated.

 

[LeafGrief]

On the PP their zone entry plan is an utter joke. They drop pass, drop pass, drop pass, and then when the final guy gets it he builds up a bit of speed to beat the lone forechecker and then passes it to a standing still Tavares at the LW blue line and tries to skate past the defenseman on that side for a chip pass from JT. Unfortunately, JT has zero speed or acceleration in this position and NHL defenders are quite good at stopping chip passes.

Then, on the odd time when this zone entry scheme works, they just don't have a plan. They have the most success when they force it down low and pass out front where JT/Nylander/Matthews can pounce on it, but for the most part they just pass it around the perimeter until Matthews or Nylander take a shot from the faceoff dot. When we spend 30 seconds per setup attempt, which is a 50/50 at best, for a contested shot from the circle against a barely screened goalie, you're not going to score many goals.

On the PK teams just massacre us with the cross seam pass to the LW faceoff circle. Ovi, Caufield, Pastrnak, Stamkos, any friggin right shot who plays there knows theyre putting up points that night when they're playing Toronto. The cross seam pass to the right side isn't quite as bad, it's only Kucherov who takes us to school there. Our forwards never get their sticks in that cross seam lane, the puck will go back to the defenseman, who passes to the RW forward who immediately zips it over to the LW and we're fishing it out of the net.