The Toronto Maple Leafs improving defence isn’t a hot storyline these days. But if you look closely it’s true. There hasn’t been much turnover in personnel on the blue line between last season and this season. That’s still something Kyle Dubas can look at to continue to improve the defence. But despite no big, top pairing name being added to the roster, the team’s overall defence has been improving. And there is still room to grow.
Toronto Maple Leafs Improving Their Team Defence
How The Forwards Help
The Athletic had a great article about how the forwards need to adjust to make it easier for the defencemen to break the puck out of the defensive zone. They can’t hover around in the offensive side of the neutral zone waiting for a stretch pass. They need to come back to make it easier for the defencemen to give them the puck. And the players have commented along those lines as well.
“There have been some adjustments by our opponents. We have to stick to what we do well and can’t get away from it.” John Tavares after losing 4-1 to the St. Louis Blues.
There is a natural tendency when an offence is performing well to focus on scoring goals and forget about team defence. That’s what happened during the two-game mini-slump. Not that the Maple Leafs have been stellar over the past couple of years at team defence. But when the offensive explosion that we saw in the first few games happens, it’s easy to see how players may lose their motivation to stick to a defensive gameplan. The result was players cheating on defence to score. That caught up to them against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Kadri’s Role
“Everyone comes ready to play and has a game plan to execute against us. We’ve just got to give each other more support and help each other out by working harder to get in those areas where you’re available and can be open.” Nazem Kadri
Kadri wasn’t playing his usual shutdown role earlier in the season. Mostly because of a lack of trust by Mike Babcock in his wingers. But Par Lindholm has proved to be capable as a winger for Kadri on a shutdown line. That’s been made possible by the play of the fourth line. Frederik Gauthier has been a welcome surprise holding his own as the fourth line’s center. His ice time is low, but it allowed Lindholm to jump up to the third line. Now Babcock is beginning to deploy Kadri against tougher lines.
How William Nylander Will Help
When William Nylander returns, there will be a ripple effect through the Maple Leafs lineup. To start, he should help improve the Auston Matthews line’s 5-on-5 play, which has not been great so far this season. At least not on the defensive side. Although he’s scored quite a bit, with six even-strength goals in ten games. He’s also been on the ice for seven against. His Corsi-For is 49.6 percent. And that was worse before the Winnipeg Jets game on Wednesday. Getting Nylander back will help the Matthews line continue to improve.
It will be interesting to see what Babcock does with the left side of Matthews’ line, currently held by Patrick Marleau. Marleau has not looked great this season. But he would be a welcome addition to Kadri’s line. If Babcock decides to drop Marleau, he could replace him with Kasperi Kapanen, who on Matthews’ right side is both scoring and showing an ability to forecheck and win puck battles in corners.
Nylander’s return will improve both the Matthews line and the Kadri line, regardless of how it all shakes out in the end.
The Defencemen
I already wrote about individual defensemen. Travis Dermott and Igor Ozhiganov are both doing well, but neither are top-pair capable at the moment. So the team is stuck with Ron Hainsey as Morgan Rielly‘s partner. That may not last long. Hainsey left the game Wednesday with an undisclosed injury. And although he is set to return to the lineup Saturday night, it’s a sign that he may not be dependable by the end of the season. Either due to the decline in play witnessed last year or nagging injuries that don’t heal as well or quick once a player is a little older.
If Hainsey is dropped in the lineup for any reason. The options on the right side aren’t great, but it could be a chance for Dermott to show what he can do with big minutes against top opposition. One thing dropping Hainsey in the line up will do is lead to more control defensive zone exits. Both Dermott and Ozhiganov have looked good in that area of the game. Coupled with the forwards consciously making themselves available for passes from the defensive zone, the Maple Leafs are working towards reducing defensive and neutral zone turnovers. Fewer turnovers lead to fewer high danger shots against.
Having Hainsey see less ice time 5-on-5 will not only reduce dumps out of the defensive zone, but it will help keep him healthy for areas where Hainsey is still valuable. Like the penalty kill where dumps out of the defensive zone are much more useful.
Shots And Goals
The Maple Leafs are improving in shots against. Last year, the Maple Leafs ended the regular season with 33.9 shots against per game. That was good for 28th overall. This season after ten games, they are sitting at 31.8 shots against per game. Good for 18th overall.
The goals against are up from last year. Moving from 2.8 goals against per game to 3.2 goals against per game. But last October Toronto had an average of 3.6 goals against in twelve games. Early October games tend to have high scores until teams start to adjust and perfect the defensive systems they want to deploy. This season was no different. The Maple Leafs improved from October 2017 to October 2018. There’s no reason to think they won’t continue to improve and end the season with fewer goals against than last year.
Last season the Maple Leafs allowed 33.4 shots against per game. The reduction in this October to 31.8 maybe not be a huge improvement, but it’s a start. And it’s a sign that the team is improving defensively.
Goaltending
There is another reason the Maple Leafs look a little better defensively this year and that is Frederik Andersen‘s play. The past two Octobers have seen Andersen put up sub-par numbers. This October, he’s sitting with a save percentage of .916. Previous Octobers have seen him dip below .900 before bouncing back in November and beyond.
Still, Something More Is Needed
The Maple Leafs may still need an improvement on their blue line. But if the current group can be middle of the pack, which it appears they can be. This offence is good enough to carry the team far. However, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say Dubas is focusing a good portion of his time looking for trade opportunities. Just don’t expect a blockbuster. A couple of depth pieces, at defence or forward, might be all this team needs to improve the defence enough to compete with the likes of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs.
