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It would appear that the Toronto Maple “Tails… showed up to play last night and, for all intents and purposes, dominated the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 5-2 tally.
I say the Maple “tails… team showed up because like me, I am sure you’ve come to the realization that the Toronto Maple Leafs can either offer a good on ice product, or bad…it’s almost gotten to the point where you might as well flip a coin with these guys on any given game.
Last night, the Leafs played a good, strong team game. They started off a little rough allowing a goal early in the game, but they soon turned things around and started to control the play. There were instances where it appeared that the team would slowly move back to a style of game which has only offered failure, but they held it together.
What was nice to see last night was that Toronto was able to work on the things that they've needed to improve upon for nearly two full seasons now. As I mentioned a few blogs ago, I would much rather see this team lose a few games where they did the little things right, than to win games where they didn’t necessarily deserve to win (if that makes sense). What I’m essentially saying is that while the Leafs won 5-2 last night, they were also successful in areas which they previous would falter, such as total shots against and giveaways.
It’s actually impressive, but the Leafs managed to keep the Blue Jackets to only 20 total shots for the night, and would offer 32 of their own. I can’t personally recall when the last time Toronto only allowed 20 shots against was, it was nice to watch I have to say. In terms of the rest of their defensive stats last night, what I found interesting is that their hit totals were lower than usual and yet they still seemed to control a fair amount of the game and physicality.
You know why that is? THEY HAD THE PUCK.
Crazy thought eh? You don’t need to hit the other team as much and expend so much energy trying to retrieve the puck when you already have it! All this time we thought the Leafs were playing the right way with 35+ hits every night and a large number of takeaways, when in reality it was due to them playing from behind and trying to chase the puck carries around.
As mentioned, this team is has been coined for being two faced, if you will. Last night was some good hockey as the team skated well, they had their chances, they protected their lead (if you noticed they played two guys deep in the offensive end and one guy trailed quite high with the defenders), and they were fun to watch. I wouldn’t be surprised if their next game offered 35+ shots and we saw them chasing the play again, but for once in a few years I was surprised to watch a “system… in both ends of the ice that I could actually say – Hey, these guys are playing a….system!
I’ve said it many times over the past two years that I found it hard to determine what type of defensive of offensive system Randy Carlyle was running. While Horachek’s first game was still a little confusing and didn’t exactly seem prepared, last night offered a much more organized and systemic game which I thoroughly enjoyed in terms of trying to analyze their play.
Moving forward, it will be interesting to see whether or not Toronto can maintain a level of unity among their lines and plays. It has been interesting to see some different guys play together, and while I didn’t initially care for the first line of Winnik and Kessel, they seem to complement each other as that top line has been sorely missing a guy to grind the puck out of the corners.
The Leafs will take to the ice against the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night and with two days in between games, Horachek should have time to continue to assess and break down what he’d like these guys to do throughout their upcoming stretch of games.
January is a critical time of the year and the Leafs have managed to find themselves out of playoff spot with their lackadaisical effort over their previous 10 or so games played. If they can find any consistency in January, it will surely help cushion their chances of securing a spot in the playoffs and earning the respect of their fan base…to a degree.
Eklund has been mentioning that the Leafs are chatting with the Yotes and Avs with respect to Yandle and O’Reilly. What do you think of these two guys and do you think Toronto will actually make a bold move in the upcoming weeks?
Thanks for reading!