Columnist image

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

| Archive

The Maple Leafs held a noon practice at Ford Performance Centre.


Maple Leafs’ head coach Sheldon Keefe knows that many of the accolades his team has garnered on its current 10-game point streak fall on top players like William Nylander, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and John Tavares. But the real story of Toronto’s success goes beyond its first two forward lines.

“A lot of attention gets put on our guys who produce a lot and at a high rate, and we certainly need those guys to produce,” said Keefe after the Leafs’ practice on Sunday. “But you also need balance; you need the other guys to contribute at different times. Even our fourth line. Sometimes they don't get to produce in terms of the puck going in the net…but they’ve kept the puck in the offensive zone and allowed some of our best guys to come over the boards fresh to get scoring chances so that's part of the balance too is just getting those types of contributions that assist the difference-makers to do their thing.”

It would be hard to decipher, based on the last 10 games, which of Toronto’s units is truly its top one anyway, setting up a 1A-1B situation between Matthews’ and Tavares’ groups.

The Leafs don’t mind that though and appreciate how it enhances their attack, while giving everyone plenty of chances to rack up points. Over the last 10 games, Matthews has produced 17 points (nine goals, eight assists), Marner has 16 (six goals, 10 assists), Nylander has 15 (eight goals, seven assists) and Tavares has 11 (three goals, eight assists).

“I think it’s been great,” Matthews said of the offence coming together. “I feel like all four lines are contributing and obviously depending on the night, one line is maybe contributing more than others, but when we’re balanced and everyone is involved, it’s pretty hard to contain.”

Recently the Leafs have also benefited from timely secondary scoring, from a go-ahead goal by Travis Dermott in Winnipeg on Thursday to a sensational set-up from Kasperi Kapanen to Pierre Engvall against the New York Islanders on Saturday. Knowing that offence can come from anywhere these days takes some of the pressure off the Leafs top point-getters, allowing them to play the game more freely.

“When you’ve got all four lines that can create offence, you just become that much harder to defend,” Tavares said. “You’re very confident that you're going to find your opportunities and find ways to break through so you're able to stay patient. You’re able to control the game and have good possession and defend well, knowing you don't have to press or count on one or two lines.”

That’s the problem that Toronto’s opponent on Monday, the Edmonton Oilers, have had this season. While Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are tied for the NHL lead in points with 65 apiece, the Oilers have struggled to get secondary support for their output, particularly at 5-on-5. 

Edmonton is tied for the third-fewest goals scored at even strength (23) in the NHL since Dec. 1, while Toronto has scored the second-most goals at 5-on-5 in that stretch (43). But Edmonton does have the best power play in the NHL (29.6 per cent), accounting for nearly a third of the total goals they’ve produced this season.

"That's kind of the way we're built right now,” said Oilers’ head coach Dave Tippett. “Those two guys are key cogs of the offence. They're high-end players; they play on the power play together all the time. They get lots of opportunity to get those points but they get those opportunities because they're guys that can make a difference with those opportunities. So that's where we are.”

------

Keefe is a big believer in spotlighting his players at important moments, like by putting Adam Brooks and Justin Holl in the starting lineup against their hometown Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild respectively. But Keefe hopes when McDavid makes a once-yearly appearance at his own hometown Leafs, it’s a decidedly less enjoyable experience.

"We’re certainly hoping to not make it as warm a welcome as we would like for our own guys [in their hometowns],” Keefe joked. “But he's an elite player; it's a great chance for our fans to watch him up close. But we hope that we can do a good job against him and that's going to be a challenge as we know.”

Toronto was up to the task in Edmonton last month, holding McDavid and Draisaitl to a combined one assist. Keefe admitted he doesn’t remember all the details of how the Leafs excelled in that 4-1 victory – that’s what Sunday afternoon’s review session was for – but one detail in particular stuck out.

“We had the puck a lot, which really helped us,” he said. “So that's going to be an important factor and just as every team in the league does, try to get it out of [their] hands early and try not to let them get the puck with speed. So those are the challenges and I thought we did a pretty good job of that, from what I recall.”

Tavares remembers a similar formula for success, and is confident the Leafs can execute it well a second time.

“The neutral zone is a key part of the game, especially with McDavid and Draisaitl and some of the other shooters that they have,” Tavares said. “So you don't want to give them anything easy. Have a good gap, don’t give them space to generate the speed they can and then obviously they can make plays at a very high speed and very quickly and create opportunities out of nothing, so being able to control the neutral zone [is key] and obviously, when we have the puck it best suits us.”

No matter what the plan is, though, when McDavid is out for a shift, Toronto knows he’s fully capable of surprising, and they’ll have to be prepared for that, too.

“He’s too good not to get his looks in, get his chances,” explained Matthews. “And when he sees an inch of space, he’ll take it and make the most of it, so just try to limit his time and space and try to know where he is at all times when he’s on the ice.”

------

Now 20 games into his coaching tenure with the Leafs, Keefe can see a noticeable difference between the team he took over in those first 10 games, compared to where the group is at today.

"Where we've really seen the growth is just in our ability to play with purpose,” Keefe said. “Whether it's playing from behind, or finding a way to come back and figuring out what works for us to be able to do that. Playing with the lead and closing out third periods, finding your way through times where we gave up a lot of scoring chances and a lot of people getting behind us to believing that’s not so much an issue and making those adjustments. I just find that we've established a pretty good foundation of who we are, while being able to on the fly make adjustments and tweaks that are helping us play a more purposeful and complete game.”

There’s also the matter of how much Toronto has been winning over the last month, a salve that can make any bumps in the road more manageable.

“When you're getting good results and our game is coming together [things are easier],” Tavares said. “I think the identity of the team and the way we're playing is continuing to get stronger. I think there's a good resolve and good resiliency that way, a good composure to understand our game plan and what we have to do and just be able to stay with it and trust that it's going to come, which we did and with the team we have, more often than not that it will.”

-----

Maple Leafs lines at practice:

Hyman-Matthews-Marner

Kerfoot-Tavares-Nylander

Engvall-Spezza-Kapanen

Marchment-Gauthier-Timashov

Moore (concussion), Johnsson (leg), Brooks

 

Rielly-Barrie

Marincin-Holl

Dermott-Ceci

 

Andersen

Hutchinson