This team has difficulty playing simple and structured hockey

[MilkofthePoppy]

Look, listen, I love the talent on this team. I think the roster assembled, at least at the forward position, is deep. Obviously our defense is a work in progress and our goaltending has been wildly erratic this season; however, we are still in a relatively good position standings wise. Besides the Rangers, Bruins, Panthers, and Knights, the rest of the NHL has been just as inconsistent as the Leafs have been. Carolina is also off to a shaky start, and of course, the Oilers have dug themselves into a bit of a hole, so in my mind the sky is not falling; however, I am still frustrated with this team's inability to use their assets to play a structured and complete game.

Here is a just a couple things I have noticed throughout this season:

* Marner - unforced errors - give aways in dangerous parts of the ice that could wind up in the back of our net
* Tavares - Is it just me or is he a bit of a puck hog? Don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate the Cap, but man you do not need to take on two to three players at once in the offensive zone. I notice sometimes Nylander is in a better shooting position and Tavares would rather elect to shoot.
* Matthews - Again, like Marner, extra fancy, almost like he needs to justify his pay cheque. Up until this year, whenever the puck was on Matthews stick I felt safe and secure. Nowadays I am afraid he is going to try something "creative" in a dangerous area of the ice and give the puck away.
* McCabe - if this guy realized and played to his strengths, he would be absolutely dynamite in his own zone, instead, he sometimes falsely believes he is Bobby Orr. He is simply doing way too much.
* Reilly - an absolute stud this season (was a warrior in the playoffs last year)


These guys need to find a way to play as a five man unit. We have seen it before, multiple times and for a sustained period. For whatever reason, it seems like it cannot be done over a consistent 82 game stretch and playoff drive. I don't think it is a motivation or coaching issue, I think it might be a mental issue. I don't believe for a minute these guys do not want to win. You see it on their faces after catastrophic losses. I think what is happening is that they are simply trying to hard to justify both their contracts and their "superstar" status. The objective that should be ingrained into their heads from management and the coaching staff is that winning is the most important thing, even if it is ugly. All this boy band shit and hair spray shit looks good on bill boards, but true immortality comes from winning championships. In reality they could have both if they wanted.

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[PROUD PAPA]

Sure they want to win in the playoffs. Problem is the opponent generally wants it much more than the core 4. That just doesn't lead to success.

 

[Gallagbi]

If anything it feels like weve been too restrained in key situations previously and any mistake is overblown with big negative results. They play rigid and like they are scared to make a mistake save for maybe the Florida series. In the TB, MTL and CBJ series you saw a really hesitant team and core.

This year we just look out of sync. I dont think its related to roster turnover, but we've weakened our puck movement on the backend with Lilj/Timmins/McCabe injuries and Kling/Benoit/Lag all leave something to be desired in their puck movement and transition. Upfront weve removed a lot of responsible utility players for very specialized guys who all excel in non defensive ways. Robertson, Domi, Bert and Reaves all really struggle defensively and it limits their time to do what they are here for. The nice thing is you can see some of their positives come through. Add in the Marner/Matthews struggles and you get the product were seeing now

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

For a good 2 seasons now I've noticed when they get hemmed in, it's usually the Matthews line on the ice. I know they get the tougher assignments but that doesn't quite match the narrative that Matthews is a great 2-way player. Matthews is a very unique player. He's quick and deceptive allowing him to take the puck away without really being strong on his stick (he usually has his hands 12" apart - it's amazing he can do what he does with that style). Maybe that's just not a great *overall* defensive style?

 

[Stephen]

Part of the issue with structure is we don't seem to have the best passing ability on the team. We just have very sluggish movement at the speed of the guy carrying the puck while everyone else is standing around.

Just think of guys from past eras like Tomas Kaberle who can bring out a puck clean past the neutral zone in transition and dish left or right so crispy to get the forwards going.

 

[57 Years No Cup]

A structured game conflicts with their pursuit of individual stats. And we just can't have that.

 

[Lightsol]

Let's be honest, though; when a team lacks structure like this (and to be honest, it has for a few years now), it's COACHING. If it were just a handful of guys, it would be different. But the team frequently plays with no structure and no real gameplan outside of outskill your opponent. That's a coaching issue.

 

[TMLBlueandWhite]

If you pull out the section called "defense" in Keefe's playbook all you would find is a single page with one big arrow pointing to the other team's end.

I'll be the first to admit that I know the bare minimum about structured defense in hockey. And it's pretty clear that's all this team knows too. So either Keefe's new defensive system isn't very good.

Or he can't teach it to his players.

It's either one or the other. There is no other choice. I suppose it could be both.

It's probably both.

At this point a lightbulb isn't gonna go off in these guys heads and they suddenly get it. Keefe isn't gonna be able to fix this mess he's burdened the team with. Then again I'm not a coach.

Just a fan with a big mouth and access to the internet.

 

[TheRumble]

It's definitely a personnel issue.

The Leafs have played one of the most structured systems in the NHL the last few years but it's a style of play that demands defensively responsible players. If you've watched the Marlies over the years you'll probably notice a trend: They tend to produce defensively responsible forwards that can immediately contribute to the PK and limit defensive zone time but they tend to be jack of all trades when it comes to offensive skillsets and don't excel at any particular offensive skill. Moore, Engvall, Brown, Hyman, Johnsson, Kapanen were all products of this pipeline. Robertson was being developed as a two way forward as well, he played a lot of PK while on the Marlies. It's further reinforced by the players the team has signed or traded for over the years: Mikeyhev, Kerfoot, Kampf, Jarnkrok, Kase. All of them were imperfect players who were pretty good defensively which is why the team has been in the top 7-ish of defensive stats over the years. Outside of Tavares, this past off-season was the first one in a long time where the team added forwards explicitly for the purpose of generating offense.

 

[Evilhomer]

It's definitely a personnel issue.

The Leafs have played one of the most structured systems in the NHL the last few years but it's a style of play that demands defensively responsible players. If you've watched the Marlies over the years you'll probably notice a trend: They tend to produce defensively responsible forwards that can immediately contribute to the PK and limit defensive zone time but they tend to be jack of all trades when it comes to offensive skillsets and don't excel at any particular offensive skill. Moore, Engvall, Brown, Hyman, Johnsson, Kapanen were all products of this pipeline. Robertson was being developed as a two way forward as well, he played a lot of PK while on the Marlies. It's further reinforced by the players the team has signed or traded for over the years: Mikeyhev, Kerfoot, Kampf, Jarnkrok, Kase. All of them were imperfect players who were pretty good defensively which is why the team has been in the top 7-ish of defensive stats over the years. Outside of Tavares, this past off-season was the first one in a long time where the team added forwards explicitly for the purpose of generating offense.

I think this is accurate. It's why i think we will see two new defensemen and at least one new forward, in particular a penalty killing forward, acquired. The good thing is that these are generally not expensive or difficult players to acquire.

I also think they will need to upgrade the third line centre spot. Domi is fine for the regular season, but I'd rather see a guy like Cizikas in that spot.