Leafs Weekend Of Defensive Incompetence

The Toronto Maple Leafs play twice at home on Hockey Hall of Fame weekend, and after a 5-3 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday night, the club followed an inconsistent performance that saw Anthony Stolarz pulled with a completely unforgivable effort in a 5-4 loss to Carolina on Sunday that had head coach Craig Berube searching for answers. 

The Leafs were outworked and outplayed, but that does not describe the half of it. The club’s defensive ineptitude was so blatant during the second period that it appeared that Craig Berube was going to have a coronary, chewing out his squad for making some brain-dead miscues. Toronto somehow led the game midway through the second. Carolina outshot the Leafs 9-0 in the second and hit three posts behind backup Dennis Hildeby, but Auston Matthews extended the lead to 4-2 with his club-leading ninth goal of the season. 

Sean Walker’s goal late in the middle frame narrowed the lead to one, and in the third, the domination on the part of the Canes was complete and bordering on embarrassing. Carolina outshot Toronto 22-2 in the third and scored a pair of goals for the comeback victory. 

“If you want to be a good defensive team, you’ve got to check, you’ve got to have good sticks, you’ve got to be hard, you’ve got to win battles, and you’ve got to have good structure, and right now – it’s a mindset for me. We don’t have any of that right now.” Berube said after the game. We’re scoring enough goals every game to win games. We’re letting in too many goals. So, pretty much the season is we don’t value the defensive side of the puck enough. And there’s a number of things that go into that.”

The weekend sweep is recoverable for the Leafs, but their main issue is that they do not resemble at all the club that finished in the top 10 in goals allowed last season. The difference is not simply the fault of Anthony Stolarz or Cayden Primeau, although Stolarz’s performance has faltered after being overused because he is not capable of carrying a full time starter’s workload. The difference is not all on the defense, although the absence of Chris Tanev has not helped.

Simon Benoit has been a liability for over a year and at this point, is likely better suited to be a seventh defenseman rather than playing every night, but his job is temporarily safe, since Philippe Myers is worse. 

Up front, it is not simply that the Leafs miss Mitch Marner as a two-way player. They miss his five-on-five defensive ability and penalty killing, but the reason for Toronto having allowed 19 more goals through 16 games compared to last season has been a general lack of commitment to playing responsibly and making smart decisions.  

“We’re scoring goals, but we just went right off the rails the last two games defensively. And it’s caused by (bad) puck play for sure, costly turnovers, and just the urgency that’s needed to defend.”

The Leafs will have their chance at revenge on Tuesday, as they face the Bruins at TD Garden.