'I'm Sure We'll Experiment At Times': Craig Berube Open to Making Changes on Maple Leafs' Power Play if Production Goes Quiet
Toronto has been one of the league's top power play teams in the regular season but has struggled to produce a similar clip in the playoffs.
Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube is leaving the door open to experimenting with Toronto's top power play unit.
The team iced their usual top unit of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares, and Morgan Rielly ahead of opening preseason up against the Ottawa Senators on Sunday.
It will be a chance for the new assistant coach, and leader of the power play, Marc Savard, to put his stamp on what's been one of the NHL's top power plays throughout the last couple of seasons.
"He was a very good power play guy himself. Obviously, when he played, if you look back with the Bruins and stuff, he did a lot of good things in the power play," Berube said on Sunday of what makes Savard a great power play coach.
"He just has that mindset that skilled power play guys understand, and he has good ideas. He always has some plays and different ideas, but he's got good structure on his power play."
There are always question marks surrounding a power play going into a new season, especially with several new coaches at the helm. Toronto's power play ranked seventh in the NHL with a 20.2 percent success rate on the man-advantage last season.
What made it more fascinating was the Maple Leafs' lack of success on the power play in the postseason against the Boston Bruins, only scoring once in 21 opportunities.
Although that number sticks out to many, including the fans, Berube is in no rush to make concrete changes to the main unit. It appears, though, that the coaching staff will experiment throughout the regular season.
"I know we look back at the playoffs last year, it got dry, but, overall it was pretty effective throughout the season. So we'll look at it," Berube said. "I'm sure we'll experiment at times and we'll experiment at times throughout the season too."
Toronto's second power play unit consisted of Matthew Knies, Max Domi, Max Pacioretty, Nikita Grebenkin (with Easton Cowan rotating), and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. That'll be the other group we see on the man advantage during Sunday's preseason matchup against the Senators.
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