The Maple Leafs have seemingly bought into Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube's structure through three games. It may not be pretty, but it has been effective.
The Maple Leafs have seemingly bought into Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube's structure through three games. It may not be pretty, but it has been effective.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have scored just eight goals through their first three games. Superstar Auston Matthews doesn't have a point in that span. Yet they have been playing some solid defensive hockey under new head coach Craig Berube.
It certainly hasn't been the most entertaining hockey to watch, but it has been effective and the club seems to have bought into Berube's identity of being a hard team to play against in the early going.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB_7dh4AA4k[/embed]
"It's still a work in progress for sure. It's going to be. I thought training camp guys really bought into camp and what we were trying to accomplish and achieve in camp. And it's carried over to these games so far," Berube acknowledged following the club's 4-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins in their home opener. "But we're still — we got to keep improving and keep getting better."
The Leafs have allowed just five goals in their first three games. To put that into perspective, the Leafs allowed five goals in their season-opening 6-5 shootout victory against the Montreal Canadiens last season.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNi7lVemHbI[/embed]
All camp, Berube preached playing a north-south game, winning battles and being difficult to play against. He established that early by having battle drills as part of the club's first on-ice sessions at camp in September. It's not leading to the offensive explosions we've been seeing from Leafs teams of the past, but the offense will come.
"It's always been in here you know I think we have the energy and the players to play the way," Matthew Knies said. "He (Berube) wants us to you know physical fast, north hockey you know I think we brought that today and I think that's what made us win this game"
The top line of Matthews alongside Matthew Knies and Mitch Marner had a 5-on-5 expected goals rating of 98.6 percent in 11:31 of ice time against the Penguins.
Knies and Marner both scored goals in Saturday's victory. They provided a template that there is room to show off pure skill while making sure the commitment defensively is there.
"He kind of explains to us what he wants and it's a pretty simple system and the guys have to go out there and execute," Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz said. "You know, you look at it, pulling guys out of position, you know, you're kind of screwing everyone else, so, you know, there's a lot of accountability, but I think the guys have bought in extremely well so far."
It's not an exciting style, but the Leafs' first three games have represented a defensive battle commonly seen by playoff teams that go deep in the playoffs. There are some obvious problems with special teams. They are 0-for-9 on the power play and have been shorthanded 14 times in the same span. Better numbers on those fronts would have probably equated to a 3-0-0 start.
But at even strength, the Leafs are among the best in the league from an underlying analytics standpoint with 65 percent of the team's expected goals share, according to MoneyPuck.com. And it passes the eye test, too.
It may be a little boring. But as they say, defense wins championships.
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