If a team wants to play nasty against the Maple Leafs, they are more than happy to retaliate with their power play. The problem lately is Toronto has not been making opponents pay.
For those hoping for the Maple Leafs to adopt a tougher, more rugged brand of hockey as the season wears on, don’t hold your breath. It has been made abundantly clear of late that the team is built around speed, skill and quickness and that there is no intention to deviate whatsoever.
“I don’t buy it myself. I know there are a lot of pundits that say you have to have it, but I look at the teams that have had success and I don’t think bringing in one big person is going to change our culture,” Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas said Monday.
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“We want to have skill, we want to be fast and we want to be competitive. I don’t really think the way the league is going that having someone who can come in and fight or anything like that is going to change that. We’ve got a way we want to play and we’re going to carry on with that. In the end, people will judge whether it was effective.”
The general manager has charted his course and is prepared to be graded on that decision. On Dec. 6, Niklas Kronwall shoved Auston Matthews into the boards. Matthews landed awkwardly on his back and shoulder just three games after returning from a 14-game absence with a left shoulder injury.
There was a muted response by the Maple Leafs, surprising to some who might have expected the gloves to drop with such liberties taken against the franchise centerpiece.
The next day, head coach Mike Babcock essentially shrugged when asked if he would have wanted a more passionate physical response.
“You look at our personnel; you look what we’ve got,” Babcock said. “We are what we are, our toughness is our power play. Take all the penalties you want.”
It was around that time, though, that the Maple Leafs' power play went cold. Starting Dec. 4 against the Sabres, Toronto has gone just 1 for 22 on the power play in six games, falling from 29 percent efficiency to 23.1 percent — good for 10th overall in the league. The Leafs are 2-2-2 during that stretch.
If opponents are not going to be afraid of physical retribution (and they should not be), it is incumbent on the Maple Leafs to perform with lethal, ruthless abandon on the man advantage to dissuade teams from taking liberties against them.
So what’s happened in the last six games? John Tavares, who is second on the team with four power-play goals, feels opponents are starting to adjust to Toronto’s approach.
“You see a lot of teams get off to good starts and some pretty high success rates and things always seem to average out over the course of a season,” Tavares told Sporting News on Monday. “Adjustments get made and guys get a little more familiar back in their roles and the rhythm of the season. Penalty kills generally improve as the season goes on. Certainly you still see as well that teams get a look at what we’re doing and making us successful.
"When you do a lot of things that are providing results, you’re going to stick to them but teams are going to make adjustments, too. It’s kind of that balancing act to not get away from what we do but at the same time make some minor adjustments to prepare for what teams are throwing at us differently.”
An 0-for-6 showing during a 4-1 loss to the Lightning on Dec. 13 and another 0-for outing the following game — a 4-3 overtime loss to the Panthers — served to highlight the Maple Leafs' power play struggles.
Against the Panthers, Florida defenders clearly decided not to let Matthews beat them, putting significant pressure on him any time he had the puck at the left circle or preventing him from getting it all together.
“Last game (against the Panthers) probably wasn’t our better games in terms of the way we moved the puck but a couple games ago we did a lot of good things but just didn’t get results,” Tavares said. “In Tampa, I really thought we had a ton of chances and just didn’t score.”
The Maple Leafs' most popular option for success has started with Morgan Rielly at the point finding Matthews at the left circle for a wrist shot. Four of Matthews’ six power-play goals have been produced that way. Somewhat surprisingly, just once has Marner connected with Matthews on the power play with a cross-seam pass through the high slot to his spot at the left circle (Dec. 1 against the Wild).
Tavares twice has been set up by Marner from the right circle with a pass to the top of the goal crease (Oct. 7 against the Blackhawks and Oct. 9 against the Stars). None of Toronto’s other remaining 14 power-play goals have been produced by an identical play.
Rielly said he is not surprised teams are starting to key on Matthews, who had built an office in the left faceoff circle during power plays.
“I would hope so. It was going in a lot early on,” he said when asked if he has noticed teams trying to force the Maple Leafs to a different option. “Teams change what they’re doing so they try to stop that. Auston’s a great shooter, so they try to take that away.”
Against the Lightning, William Nylander tried to force his way through the neutral zone carrying the puck in traffic, only to have it poked off his stick, resulting in a breakaway and a shorthanded goal for Anthony Cirelli. When you’re pressing, those mistakes can happen.
“You take what’s available. You don’t want to force anything to create turnovers,” Rielly said. “You take what you get so it’s important that we work on that in practice so we’re ready for that in games. You don’t have to change a whole lot, you have to know your options, prepare and when it comes time for an opportunity during the game, you have to be ready to bury it.”
Prepare they did at Monday's practice with each power play unit working on moving the puck, operating without penalty killers on the ice. When Babcock sent penalty killers out to join them, they held their sticks upside down making it a little easier for the power play to zip the puck around, perhaps rebuilding some confidence.
One area Tavares thinks could start causing opponents confusion again is if Marner reestablishes himself as a threat to shoot from the right circle. He ended a 13-game goal drought against the Panthers with two even-strength goals, albeit the second one came with the goalie pulled in a 6-on-5 situation. His lone power-play goal this season came back on Oct. 6 against the Senators on a rush from the neutral zone.
“Mitch has to be a threat to shoot I think because as good a passer as he is, I think teams are going to be aware what he’s looking for,” Tavares said. “When he’s a threat to shoot, it keeps everyone on their toes and makes it that much harder to defend everyone else and we know he just needs a small opening to find an open guy.”
No doubt the last stretch has been frustrating, but Tavares said that is nothing but time wasted. The options are there on the power play. The goals will come. Stay the course, he said.
"You can let that creep in but I know for myself as I’ve gone through the League, even 5-on-5, if you’re getting chances and things aren’t going in, you never know when the next opportunity is going to come,” Tavares said. "You want to be ready for that next power play because that’s your chance to get that result you’re looking for and change the outcome, change that feeling you have when you get rewarded and then get that positivity back going again.
"We know with the skill we have and the shooters we have, eventually we’re going to get some results."