The Maple Leafs looked sharp early on, but in their last three games they looked like a club still adjusting to a new system.
BOSTON — In their first six games of the season, the Toronto Maple Leafs appeared to be adjusting well to the new direction under head coach Craig Berube, embracing his north-south, hard-battling, and defensively tough style of play.
However, over the past three games, the Leafs have struggled in that regard, with opponents showing stronger possession and overall effort.
In Saturday's 4-3 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins, the Leafs showed improvement compared to their earlier flat performances against the Columbus Blue Jackets and St. Louis Blues. Still, it seems it may take some time for the team to fully adapt.
"I thought we got back to checking a lot better tonight and playing. We're hard around our net and hard in the battles," Berube said.
The Leafs now sit at 4-4-1 this season, with power-play struggles continuing to impact their overall game. The inability to capitalize offensively may be drawing more attention to some of the team’s other issues.
"I mean, it's Game 9, right? It takes time sometimes. It's not going to click perfectly right away," Auston Matthews remarked. "I think you just want to take positive steps in the right direction. And I thought tonight was competitively a much better game than we had the previous two. But obviously, we're playing games every other day now. And so you want to just continue to put pieces together and continue to dial in systematic things."
Throughout this three-game winless stretch, the Leafs have made frequent adjustments to the lineup. On Saturday, Morgan Rielly was paired with Oliver Ekman-Larsson, while Chris Tanev moved down to partner with Jake McCabe.
"I think it's going to be an ongoing thing for us. I don't think it's an issue right now," Rielly said about adapting to Berube’s play style. "I think as the year goes on, things are going to change. Lines are going to change. Certain systems are going to change. It's just a matter of being able to adapt. That's all."
While the Leafs showed improvement on Saturday, it’s clear that the way they played in the first six games better reflects the template Berube envisions.
"I think we've shown we have played that way," Mitch Marner noted. "In the second and third, we got back to it that way. We're doing a better job of just up ice pressure, being as a unit on the ice."
"We're just going to make sure we take the positives out of this, make sure we go into Winnipeg against a really good team and, you know, bring our pressure."