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We all knew to expect that the coaching staff and decisions made by the Leafs brass of late would be questioned the moment they begun to slide.
Toronto is slowly moving down the Eastern Conference standings as they continue to struggle to find wins and other teams begin to heat up. The Leafs have won 3 games in their last ten played and while they blew out the Stanley Cup Champs a few days ago, they have also been unable to beat a thought to be weaker Florida Panthers squad. Should I mention that Toronto has won but three games in regulation over their last 19 games played? Yeah…it really is that bad folks.
While Toronto has suffered through much adversity in terms of injuries and suspensions, the fact of the matter seems apparent – this team is simply not deep enough to compete night in night out. What then can the Toronto Maple Leafs organization offer to its season ticket holders and sponsors? Well, something is going to have to change before this team takes a serious nose dive similar to their 2011-12 NHL campaign...something most fans have a hard time forgetting.
That said, I often wonder what it is exactly that the Leafs should do in terms of seeking change which is evidently needed. The most prevalent option would be to fire head coach Randy Carlyle, so it seems. But is it really the most wise option at this point in time or are fans and media outlets getting ahead of themselves?
Carlyle was brought in to this organization roughly two years ago when former coach Ron Wilson was unable to get the team into the playoffs or at least show improvement each passing year. Carlyle was able to coach the Leafs into the playoffs for the first time in eight years despite only having a half season to play with due to the NHL lockout.
Many critics felt that given their “advanced” stats, that the Leafs would have missed the playoffs if the season was a full 82 game schedule. Well, it is certainly starting to look that way at the moment as Toronto sits 7th in the East with 36 games played and could find themselves on the outside looking in very soon if this keeps up.
“We come home, we should be jumping,” said Jay McClement. “A lot of times it’s our (skating) or we’re not involved in the game physically. That’s our game when we play well. There’s no excuse for that. Everyone has the same schedule, we should be champing at the bit.”
"Everyone is trying to turn it around," centre Jay McClement said. "It seems like we need all of us to step up and take the reins and change things. But it seems like we're waiting too long to do that."
I suppose it stands to reason that we should point out the team’s flaws before assigning blame. For me, their biggest flaw continues to be their defensive play.
Their systems and play in their own end has been terrible. There's really no other way to put it. Not properly covering their assignments, not being able to clear the puck out of their zone, and trying to be too cute has been their Achilles heel this year. Too many times have we seen this group try to make a pass through bodies in their own end which would only end up on the stick of their opponent and in the back of their own net.
In my opinion, the blame here can be passed in two different ways; on one hand you still have a rather young and inexperienced team where most players are either playing together for the first time in their careers or are still trying to learning the game. On the other you have a coach who seems to be reluctant when it comes to changing his game plan to better suit the players he has at his disposal. It's easy to say that the any coach would have a tough time teaching such a new and young group as the Leafs...but that can only go so far. Plan A hasn't been working, just take a look at the stats. It's time for Plan B, coach.
“We either have guys, or half the team or the full team that only show up in parts,” said Reimer. “I don’t know if there’s one specific reason, but we have to find a way to bring it for 60 minutes.”
So where does this leave us? What can or should the Leafs do at this moment?
Perhaps you are one of the fans who maintains that this is just a growing pain and with the overall talent on and off the ice that the Leafs should start turning things around. Call me a pessimist but I tend to disagree. Watching these guys you see the same types of mistakes every night and they appear to be either playing against their own personal strengths, or have no confidence in their ability as a team.
My problem is the coaching. I’ll put it out there. Your team is struggling to compete…they are barely showing up to games and only when they catch a lead or score a goal do they decide to start skating. This team doesn’t fight as a unanimous group; they remain a bunch of individuals. When your captain coughs up the puck, creates a 2-1 break, and he barely skates back to try and defend against it, you have a serious problem.
I may be alone in this observation, but this team simply doesn’t appear to care enough to skate their butts off in order to get back in time to break up odd man rushes or what have you. Whether this is because they’ve grown too reliant on their goaltending or it is because they are all focusing too heavily on their personal offensive numbers, is unknown.
One thing I do know is this – the team is showing the same patterns game after game and there appears to be no sign of change or improvement, at least not to me. What this team needs to do is get back to basics. They are often trying too hard to make that TSN highlight reel pass or goal rather than getting pucks on net. They are trying to make that big hit and get the attention of their coaches and fans, consequently removing themselves from the play and causing an odd man rush.
This team is simply not playing together and as their coach said, they look like a shinny group playing against NHL teams. Perhaps simplifying their game-plan is a step in the right direction for this group, as whatever system it is that they are trying to generate needs to be revised.
As mentioned, either the coach needs to reassess his game-plan to better suit his players, or he needs to remove himself from the situation. I should certainly hope that the former would be the easier solution to their current problem, but we will have to wait and see.
How do you feel about all of this? Does Toronto need a shakeup in terms of their roster? Does the coach need to change and or alter his game plan, perhaps keeping things more simple until the team starts playing together again? Or is it time for the MLSE to step in and make a coaching change?
That’s all for this week, thanks for reading!
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