Barely three weeks into the regular season, the Toronto Maple Leafs are acting like a team in crisis mode.
After another discouraging home performance in a 4-1 loss to Boston on Saturday, the coaching staff and players held a meeting behind closed doors for nearly 20 minutes and comments by Leafs coach Randy Carlyle and numerous players following the game expressed disappointment, frustration and anger after showing little effort against their Atlantic Division rival.
The Leafs demoted rookie defenseman Stuart Percy to the Toronto Marlies of the AHL on the weekend and following a mandatory day off, the club took to the ice at their facility in Etobicoke, ON on Monday with new forward line combinations that could be used in Tuesday’s contest against the Buffalo Sabres at Air Canada Center.
"We're not really happy with our production 5-on-5 or our offensive production the last little while." Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said following practice. "Hopefully it stimulates some more offense from our group."
The top unit of James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak and Phil Kessel has been split up, with Kessel moved on a line with former linemate Joffrey Lupul and Nazem Kadri. David Clarkson lined up with van Riemsdyk and Bozak on the second line, while winger Daniel Winnik moved to the checking line with Mike Santorelli and Leo Komarov. Peter Holland centered the fourth line with wingers Richard Panik, Carter Ashton and Matt Frattin.
The line reshuffle appears to be aimed at getting another line capable of cycling the puck rather than generating offensive chances on the rush, which the top two lines have been doing since the beginning of the season with little success.
"We didn't play with any structure."Carlyle said of Saturday night's effort. "It looks like we didn't have a game plan in place when you got people going all over the place and not staying in position and being on the wrong side of the puck, those were the things that were a most annoying from a coaching perspective."
The club worked on cycling the puck down low in the offensive zone during practice at the MasterCard Center.
Production from the top six has been woefully inconsistent through the first eight games, as Kessel and van Riemsdyk have registered their 13 points in the club’s three wins and no points in their five losses. Kessel being placed with Lupul and Kadri has to be interpreted as a means of getting the star winger to score more frequently, as well as an attempt to jump start the talented but inconsistent pairing, who have combined for only five points this season.
The Sabres are 2-7-0, ranked 29th in the NHL with 4 points and have scored a league-low 11 goals in nine games, but no matter how bad or good they have been throughout the years, Buffalo has played their best against the Leafs.
"I look at the Buffalo Sabres going into San Jose and beating them 2-1." Carlyle said. "We are not in any position to take anybody lightly, that's for sure. We have to use and muster all of the inner strength that we have to put a performance on that we can be proud of."
I wish the Leafs were better.
— Anne Murray (@annemurray1) October 26, 2014Percy's demotion may simply be a bit of cap management and a signal that the Leafs are going back to playing 12 forwards and six defensemen on Tuesday. The rookie blueliner's ice time dropped significantly when the Leafs played with seven D and since he is exempt from waivers, Percy's $863,333 salary can be moved off the cap by his being sent to the AHL.
The argument that the 21-year-old will get more ice time with the Marlies may be the case down the line, but the AHL club is not scheduled to play again until Saturday, when they face the Rochester Americans at Ricoh Coliseum.
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