With a power play goal on Sunday, the Maple Leafs move up one spot to 31st in the NHL with a 10-percent success rate.
The Toronto Maple Leafs tried something different on the power play against the Minnesota Wild on Sunday, and it worked.
Going into the second half of their back-to-back, Toronto hadn't scored a power play goal since Auston Matthews had one on Oct. 21 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Since then, the Maple Leafs have attempted everything from switching the quarterbacks to balancing the units.
And still, nothing.
That was until the Maple Leafs put out a five-forward unit — consisting of Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander, and Matthew Knies — during the third period of Sunday's game.
"We've talked about it for a bit here and decided to go with it today," Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said after Toronto's 2-1 overtime loss to the Wild.
The test of the five-forward unit passed and Nylander — off a nice cross-seam pass from Matthews — scored the team's fourth power play goal of the season. (Toronto improves to four goals on 40 opportunities.)
"Yeah, it's good for the confidence, I think, just to see one go in. I thought the last couple games we moved it pretty well, hasn't gone in, execution maybe hasn't been there," Matthews said on Sunday night.
"But it's good to see one go in. We only had a couple tonight, so hopefully that kind of gets us rolling and we continue to make that a big factor in our game."
Toronto's players aren't unfamiliar with the five-forward power play unit. During the 2022-23 season, the Maple Leafs loaded up their top unit with the core four, plus Michael Bunting.
For them to have a unit like that again, and to find the back of the net during the power play, should positively affect Toronto's players.
"Well, confidence, right? It's one, but we've got to keep working at it. And, if you look at that power play, we shot a lot of pucks," Berube said. "There was a little more directness, which was good, and then the seam opened up, and we hit it."
There were some positives in Toronto's overtime loss to the Wild: The Maple Leafs remain a work in progress regarding Berube's style of play, but they're visibly improving. Toronto has strong goaltending with Anthony Stolarz.
Even throughout that, though, the power play getting on the board is still a huge milestone within the team. It'll give them a boost and some confidence going into Tuesday's matchup against the Boston Bruins at home.
"Yeah, it's big. We've been working at it, and we've been struggling. It's not for lack of effort or lack of commitment to the process or anything like that. It just hasn't gone our way," Morgan Rielly, who's been a staple on Toronto's top power play unit, said on Sunday night.
"So to get one to go in tonight, it feels good. Hopefully, that group or our team in general can keep that momentum moving forward because the power play is going to be a big part of our group success as we go here."