This is why I brought up the Yzerman comparison. You know the lore that surrounds the transformation of Yzerman from perennial 40 - 65 goal scorer, to a dude who gave all that up to become a Stanley cup champion after a single conversation with Scotty Bowman..
2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion
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This is why I brought up the Yzerman comparison. You know the lore that surrounds the transformation of Yzerman from perennial 40 - 65 goal scorer, to a dude who gave all that up to become a Stanley cup champion after a single conversation with Scotty Bowman..
Kopitar and Toews were literally the two NHLers that Matthews was compared to the most as a prospect so it's not like this stuff is new or came out of nowhere.
herman
Well-known member
Yes. And then he scored 4 goals in his debut and it wasn’t exactly a fluke.
Well he's never done it again, so I mean, technically...
You know who has never scored 4 goals in a game at all?
I think Scott Laughton did it with Philly
Gordie Howe never did it
herman
Well-known member
The Maple Leafs' playoff prospects depend on solving these five-on-five structural problems
Given the Maple Leafs’ underwhelming possession metrics over 100 games into his coaching tenure, it’s interesting to revisit Craig Berube’s comments about puck possession when he was first hired in Toronto: Berube: “In St. Louis, we were one of the highest puck-possession teams in the league. We...
mapleleafshotstove.com
The premise is sound, but the execution remains elusive, probably because the underlying tactics are not helping.
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The Maple Leafs' playoff prospects depend on solving these five-on-five structural problems
Given the Maple Leafs’ underwhelming possession metrics over 100 games into his coaching tenure, it’s interesting to revisit Craig Berube’s comments about puck possession when he was first hired in Toronto: Berube: “In St. Louis, we were one of the highest puck-possession teams in the league. We...
The premise is sound, but the execution remains elusive, probably because the underlying tactics are not helping.
Well that team also had a defence that was made up of:
Alex Pietrangelo
Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn
Jay Bouwmeester
Joel Edmundson
Robert Bortuzzo
And extras of:
Carl Gunnarsson
Michael Del Zotto
Although Del Zotto did not play in the playoffs. But he was there man. He was there.
I didn't spend a lot of time evaluating the article in detail. I thought it was a decent one. It reminded me of discussions on here of Pat Quinn's teams and how much the forwards poor defensive play were impacting the team defense while the defensemen were shouldering the brunt of the criticism. The article reinforces that is also true today. I'd been watching why McMann's speed wasn't generating more turnovers. Part of that was basically explained in the article about the play of the other forwards leaving easy outs. The talent on this roster should be higher in the standings. The article describes some of the reasons it isn't.The Maple Leafs' playoff prospects depend on solving these five-on-five structural problems
Given the Maple Leafs’ underwhelming possession metrics over 100 games into his coaching tenure, it’s interesting to revisit Craig Berube’s comments about puck possession when he was first hired in Toronto: Berube: “In St. Louis, we were one of the highest puck-possession teams in the league. We...
The premise is sound, but the execution remains elusive, probably because the underlying tactics are not helping.
People like to heap criticism on the Leaf defenders for being ineffective puck movers, but I find myself wondering how much of that is a result of the system as opposed to the players. Sure, there is no Cale Makar back there. But the Leaf defenders are given very little in the way of time/space (because no one interferes with oncoming forecheckers) and passing options (forwards blow the zone, guy on boards gets stuffed, etc). I bet they'd look a lot better if the system was tweaked to give them more of both. I think back to how many times Tanev was absolutely hammered (often by Verhaeghe) in that Florida series last year, while Leaf forwards were prevented from doing the same. That takes a toll through the course of a game/series and I wonder if Tanev's drop off this year is a lingering result.
The resulting long stretches of in-zone defending have a ripple effect as players dump pucks in and rush to change, allowing the opponent to easily reload for another attacking sequence.
When they do have possession and fresh legs, there are still too many pointless dump-ins that are essentially give-aways. The article mentioned F3 often being too high, this is something that is really obvious with Matthews. He almost always peels off to "defend" rather than engaging in forechecking/puck battles. I know it is a fine line to walk, but it would be interesting to see what happens if he were to become more aggressive in that way.
The resulting long stretches of in-zone defending have a ripple effect as players dump pucks in and rush to change, allowing the opponent to easily reload for another attacking sequence.
When they do have possession and fresh legs, there are still too many pointless dump-ins that are essentially give-aways. The article mentioned F3 often being too high, this is something that is really obvious with Matthews. He almost always peels off to "defend" rather than engaging in forechecking/puck battles. I know it is a fine line to walk, but it would be interesting to see what happens if he were to become more aggressive in that way.