With two days of training camp in the books and pre-season kicking off on Saturday, head coach Jim Hiller revealed his coaching style for the Toronto Maple Leafs this coming year.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are playing their first pre-season games of the campaign on Saturday, one at Scotiabank Arena and the other at the Bell Centre and both against the Montreal Canadiens.
With that, Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller is looking to lock down the team's style of play. His style leans into the strengths of his players. For the past decade, Toronto has been known for its talented forward group, and Hiller recognizes that as a strength.
"Well, I think the first thing you do is you look at the team and the players on the team, and there are some elite offenses, forwards in particular," Hiller said after day two of training camp. "And so maybe you have to let them play to their strengths."
Hiller also sees the importance of the team's play away from the puck. A strong effort away from the puck can lead to the offense that he wants the Maple Leafs to thrive on.
"There's a commitment to play without the puck that everybody has to make," the bench boss said. "It doesn't matter what your talent level is. But when you have the puck, and you have that type of elite offense, we're going to give them some freedom and creativity to use those skills. So I hope we strike a balance. I hope we're hard-toothed to play against without the puck. But I hope when we have it, we see some of that dynamicism that we do have."
The players have picked up on how Hiller likes his team to play. He wants his side to be a group that skates hard and fast, and he wants everyone to contribute with the puck.
Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews shared what he learned about Hiller's coaching style and how the first couple of practices have been with the new bench boss.
"He's, you know, demanding a lot out of the guys, which is great," Matthews said of Hiller. "You know, a lot of skating here in practice, getting up and down the ice. I think that's been a big emphasis that, you know, we want to be a fast, hard-skating team on defense and offense. And I think the more you track, strip pucks on the backcheck, it obviously helps you produce a little bit more offense going the other way."
Matthews' linemate in the first two days of training camp, Matthew Knies, has picked up on a similar theme.
High pace, lots of effort," he said. "I think there's a strategic way to look at it now with a shorter camp and not a lot of practices. So try to have a big focus on systems here. It's been great. I think he's done a great job of getting the guys close together and just working hard and getting ready for the season."
In Hiller's previous tenure with the Los Angeles Kings, his team didn't play that way. In fact, the approach was almost the polar opposite. The Kings weren't very fast and played a defensively sound system, limiting chances for opponents and not seeing many goals on the board in their favor.
What that says about Hiller is that, as he mentioned, he'll look to coach his team to their strengths. And for the Leafs and their top players, offense and playing with the puck are certainly that.
Players such as Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares and Gavin McKenna all thrive with the puck in their hands. As for others, like Matthew Knies, Easton Cowan, Nick Paul, and others, they can be really effective as complementary linemates and at retrieving pucks in efforts away from the play.
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