Following Toronto's loss to the Hurricanes on Sunday, Tavares called the team's play immature.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are among the league leaders in goals for, but they're also near the top in goals against.
Ahead of their Tuesday evening matchup against the Boston Bruins, the Maple Leafs sit in third with 59 goals for — behind only the Anaheim Ducks (62) and Colorado Avalanche (64) — and third in goals against with 60, trailing just the St. Louis Blues (62) and Nashville Predators (65).
The stark reality surrounding this team early in the season is that its defense isn't playing as strongly as it was last season. Neither is their goaltending, which, to begin the year, has mostly been Anthony Stolarz in the crease for Toronto (plus, three games from Cayden Primeau and one from Dennis Hildedy).
You can chalk the goaltending struggles up to workload in Stolarz's case.
With Joseph Woll out (but likely soon to return), Stolarz has appeared in 75 percent of the Maple Leafs' games this season. Head coach Craig Berube gave him the evening off on Sunday — after being pulled midway through the game a day earlier — to get rested up for Tuesday in Boston.
Despite winning two of three games, Primeau had 13 goals against and an .838 save percentage before being (re)claimed by the Carolina Hurricanes. Hildeby has appeared in one and a half games, against the Bruins and Hurricanes this weekend, and saw 67 shots in 91 minutes of action.
‘We Just Went Right Off The Rails’: Maple Leafs Coach Craig Berube Frustrated With Team’s Defensive Mistakes in Back-to-Back Losses
“Craig Berube didn’t hold back after the Maple Leafs’ defensive collapse, calling out his team’s lack of urgency and mindset following back-to-back turnover-filled losses.”
Only once has Toronto allowed less than two goals in a game, and that was in their fifth game of the season against the New York Rangers. They've allowed three or more goals in 13 of their 16 games this year (in six of those games, five or more goals have found the back of the net).
"I think we're just focused a little bit more on offense right now, and I think that's obviously not good," Matthew Knies said on Tuesday morning.
"I think we're just letting up too many chances, too many odd-man rushes. I think we gotta focus on that a little more, communicate a little more, and trust each other that we're going to be in the right spots and then trust our systems."
A good example of what Knies is talking about came on the game-tying goal from the Hurricanes on Sunday. By the time William Nylander flipped the puck to Knies before the Maple Leafs' blue line, all five of Toronto's players were above the hashmarks.
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Taylor Hall ties the game for the Canes 🌪️
They're already thinking about clearing the zone when the puck isn't out yet.
Charles Alexis Legault then fires the puck deep into Toronto's zone, where there are two Hurricanes behind Philippe Myers and Morgan Rielly. Eventually, Taylor Hall finds the puck around the net and slots it past Hildeby.
They'll look to clean up those mistakes in another matchup against the Bruins. It was a close game on Saturday, with former Maple Leaf Fraser Minten scoring the game-winning goal. This'll be a special matchup, though, on Toronto's side, with former Bruin Brandon Carlo returning to Boston for the first time since being traded to the Maple Leafs.
The message from Berube to the forwards, ahead of this crucial game against the Bruins: Don't turn pucks over.
"We got to get back to where we're not giving up odd-man rushes for sure," added Berube. "For me, in zone, it's the same as the (defense), it's about killing plays, being firmer and harder, blocking shots, exiting when you get the puck back, not turning it over, so now we're extending in our own zone. It's wall play for forwards, just things like that."
Despite the defensive lapses and the slower start to the season, Toronto's coach believes the buy-in to play the right way is still there.
"Just the consistency is not there. But also, I feel like we're scoring a lot of goals, and I think sometimes we think about scoring more than we think about our play without the puck, too," Berube said.
"It's just all about getting to our identity and sticking to it. We can't be trying to make all these plays, high-ice turnovers in the offensive zone, turnovers at the blue line — that kills your team. It kills the momentum. It kills everything."
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