Vanilla. That’s how Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving described his team’s play after 20 games this season. 13 games and a few more embarrassing losses later, and I’d say Treliving did the flavour of vanilla a disservice. The Leafs have won more than they’ve lost since their GM chatted with the media on November 18th, but they’ve also had some of their worst performances of the season.
A 5-2 drubbing in Montreal, where it looked like the team had swapped bodies with the Leafs team from 20 years prior. Last Saturday was the 6-3 home loss to Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, which culminated in the most embarrassing third period of the season, when a one-goal game turned into a blowout in a matter of minutes. Next was Tuesday night against the Connor Bedard-less Blackhawks; they ended up winning, but only after they were booed at home at the end of two lifeless periods.
But all of that was just the precursor, the appetizer if you will, to what we saw last night. Not for a single second did it feel like the Leafs had a chance to beat the Washington Capitals last night, nor did it seem like they had any interest in doing so. After two periods, despite being on the power play four times, Toronto had mustered just 12 shots. A roster with Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and John Tavares has never looked less likely to put the puck in the net. Rock bottom.
The Capitals played fast hockey, were competent in their own end, and put pressure on the Leafs’ defenders. That simple combination against this iteration of the Toronto Maple Leafs is their kryptonite. They cannot compete.
The Leafs under head coach Craig Berube do not control hockey games; they lack an offensive identity that consistently creates chances, and are committed to dumping the puck in and chasing after it despite being one of the slowest teams in the league (bottom third in NHL in 22+ MPH bursts, 20-22 MPH bursts and 18-20 MPH bursts). Yet, they also spend the least time in the offensive zone in the entire NHL. That’s right, 32nd in offensive zone time according to NHL Edge stats.
They are also 29th in time spent in their defensive zone, if you were wondering. What exactly is the strategy here? And why hasn’t it changed at all? Berube knows all of this, he has to, but either he’s unwilling to change or he doesn’t know how to.
Brad Treliving summed it up quite well in that same press conference I referenced earlier: “Far too often, even in games that we’ve won, we haven’t won the game.” I wonder what he thinks about the games they’ve lost.
Treliving deserves a good chunk of the blame for where the Leafs find themselves. The roster is not good enough to truly compete for a Stanley Cup, and he has already traded away most of the Leafs’ future assets for players who do not significantly improve this team’s outlook or ability to win. But when I say the roster isn’t good enough to compete for a Stanley Cup, that doesn’t mean they should be sitting 14th, one point away from dead last, in the Eastern Conference. This is still a roster that should comfortably make the playoffs, especially given the state of their division right now.
At the very least, this certainly isn’t a roster that should be 26th in expected goals for at five-on-five, it’s not a roster that should have the worst power play in the NHL, and it is not a roster that should be getting outplayed in almost every single game they play. It is very easy to say ‘the players need to play better,’ and of course, they deserve a portion of the blame as well, but Craig Berube and his coaching staff seemingly have no idea how to put their players in positions to succeed. He is out of answers. He said so himself last night.
Admittedly, it is also very easy to say ‘fire the coach’ and act as though you’ve solved the team’s problems, but this is not a slump, nor has the team just been ‘unlucky’; in fact, it’s the opposite. Berube’s squad is sixth in shooting percentage this season, and their goalies have more or less stood on their heads since Anthony Stolarz went down with an injury. Joseph Woll and Dennis Hildeby have a combined save percentage of .923 in the last 21 games.
There was a time this year the Leafs were ravaged by injuries, but they’ve been about as healthy as you can be at this time of year for a while now, and things haven’t improved.
There are a lot of problems with this hockey club, but the only way you can figure out if those problems are so deeply ingrained that they can’t be fixed, no matter who the coach is, is by trying out another coach. Yes, this is the core’s third coach since they’ve been here, but they have never been this bad with any other coach, not even Mike Babcock. They aren’t bad relative to the standard we have come to expect from the Auston Matthews Leafs; they are just flat-out bad relative to the National Hockey League.
That is why, above everything, Craig Berube should be fired. Does the team suck, or does it just suck with him as the head coach? Only when you figure out that question can you start to dissect the rest of the core and the roster.
Last night was about as strong evidence as ever that the players have quit on their coach, and I understand that it is tough for fans to watch grown men pout and give up on a guy who has been with the team for a season and a half. I understand that fans don’t want the core players on this team to be let off the hook again or given everything they want again.
But at this point, I’m not sure Brad Treliving has any other choice.
Unless he really, really wants to pick in the top five of next year’s draft. Who could blame him?
All stats courtesy of Moneypuck.com, Natural Stat Trick and NHL Edge
The Morning Skate 