The Toronto Maple Leafs spent the most of the offseason fixing their blue line.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will have a solid blue-line when the new season begins, but despite their best efforts, they lack an exceptional defenseman in the Makar/Fox/Heiskanen range and will be lucky to have a top 5-10 blue-line.
While doing so, they neglected their most serious problem. Their “Fatal Flaw,” if you will.
They never score enough points when the game counts.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Continue Ignoring Their Fatal Flaw.
For years, the Leafs have treated their roster as if they already have all of the offense they’ll ever need, and all they need to do is get tougher, more grindery, harder to play against, and better defensively.
This has been an issue for Lou Lamoriell, Kyle Dubas, and Brad Treliving.
Instead of doing the most apparent and simple thing to do, which is to focus on what you’re currently excellent at, the Leafs rebuild their roster every March in order to play “Playoff Hockey.”
It never works because it changes the team’s thinking and forces them to abandon what works in favor of a new style of play.
Last March, they shot themselves in the foot by limiting their blue line’s ability to make breakout passes by loading up on defensemen who couldn’t move the puck. After Rielly, Timothy Liljegren, an average to good puck mover, was their sole puck mover.
They only scored more than three goals once in seven games before losing, as expected.
They took steps this summer to improve their blue line’s puck movement, but their forwards are worse than they were at the end of the season.
Tyler Bertuzzi is gone, and Nick Robertson is most likely gone. Easton Cowan is the lone notable incoming player, and he may or may not make an impact next season.
That means the Leafs are worse at scoring than they were when they failed to score against Boston.
The Leafs’ current bottom six looks like this today, assuming Max Domi plays on the first line: McMann- Holmberg- Jarkrok, followed by Dewar- Kampf-Reaves.
That is complete crap. That bottom six will not be able to score enough to help the Leafs win.
Sure, they could move Marner to centre and bring back Robertson, or they could go for Patrik Laine – I’m not sure what will happen. The only thing I know is that if they start the season in the bottom six, they will lose.
