Living in Australia, it is hard to be an NHL fan. Regular TV coverage on Foxtel is terrible, but thankfully Gamcenter from the NHL has made it very easy to watch every game live. I am taking this opportunity to introduce my six year old to the Leafs and more importantly hockey in general. Unforunately, he was subjected to Florida Panthers trap on the weekend.
The little fella did really well, he sat through two full periods. As the Leafs/Panthers were a few minutes in front of the Habs/Rangers game, it let me flip back and also introduce him to Don Cherry and in the second intermission the Hot Stove. He took it all in, pretty much sat still the entire time and is gaining a better understanding of the finer details of the game, like offsides and icing - things the PA Announcer in hockey mad Miami has to tell the crows about.
Then a moment of sheer brilliance happened - mid-way through the second period he said to me, "Why are Florida all standing around in the middle?" Even to a six year old with almost no understanding of the game he could spot the trap and what a nightmare it is. I tried explaining the defensive strategy behind it and his response was simple, "Florida look slow."
Which turns us over to the Leafs. They used their team speed to get around the trap fairly effectively. They used their team speed to create plenty of time on the puck in the offensive zone. They didn't use either of those things to create good scoring chances. To me, it all boils down to their unwillingness to drive to the goal and contentment to fire shots from the perimeter with nobody screening the goalie or available to pick up rebounds. Their best moment of the game came when Colton Orr moved to the slot, took a shot and Jeff Finger broke to the goal and bounced the rebound off the post.
The biggest area of embarrassment for the Leafs though has to be specialty teams. The umbrella shooting is ridiculous because nobody is creating traffic in front of the goalie and Tomas Kaberle must be paying for his own sticks because he appears fearful of shooting and breaking one. The Leafs consistently passed themselves into lower percentage shooting spots on their powerplay. Even Bill Lindsay doing colour commentary for the Panthers asked why they were making low percentage cross ice passes instead of firing it from the point and using their numbers advantage down low. Phil Kessel is more or less useless out on the hashmarks - he's never going to score from out there. They've got to get back to basics - two point men staying out high to spread the defenders, one man screening the goalie and two wingers buzzing in and out as appropriate to try and pull a penalty killer out of position to create a higher pecentage shot. This is coaching - draw it on the whiteboard before practice and spend fifteen minutes working on it and it will improve.
Moving on to the penalty kill and again, Lindsay nailed it - the Leafs may end up being the worst penalty killing team in the history of the NHL since they began keeping these type of statistics. Again it is coaching. Blind Freddy can see that the Leafs forwards are playing too deep - they are giving up plenty of point shots and goals are coming off either the players running round or rebounds. Cory Stillman's goal was the classic example, the point shot was easy as the player had nobody on him, three Leafs were inside the hashmarks and not one took the man standing at the top of the crease who tapped in a shot that banked off the end boards. Simple stuff, make the powerplay team play outside the box and take low percentage shots OR force them into risky passes across the ice to find the open man.
I think part of the problem is the Leafs terrible powerplay must practice against their terrible penalty kill. They seem to be just getting worse and worse. Ron Wilson MUST get involved and sort this out - just go back to basics, do the easy stuff right before focussing on the complex.
Which leads us to personnel. I can honestly say, I've never seen a player out of position as much as Francois Beauchamin was against Florida, and for that matter, just about every time I watch the Leafs. He pinches at the wrong time, he wanders around aimlessly in his own end and he's prone to stupid passes up the middle. He is proof positive that Scott Neidermeyer is a Hall of Famer - anyone who can make Beauchamin look that good deserves a spot in the Hall.
Here's a stunning thought - Komisarek and Kaberle are the two best defensemen on the Leafs. The way Luke Schenn has played the last couple of games, he seems to have gotten the simplicity back in his game and is looking good, so he's number three for me. That means that at best Beauchamin is your number four and over the course of the year, Ian White has been arguably the best defenseman on the club, so does that not put him ahead on the depth chart meaning Beauchamin is the fifth best defenseman on the third worst team in the league. Oh dear, Brian Burke - not good at all.
Speaking of Ian White, he was terrible against Florida and teaming him with Luke Schenn is a disaster for the young Schenn. Ian White gave the puck away on bad passes out of his own end at least a half dozen times. Then because of his smaller stature, he's unable to physically make up for his mistake by rubbing someone out. On more than one occasion Schenn had to recover the situation for White, but with a young guy like that, struggling for confidence, making him do extra is a bad recipe. I've watched White the last few games and his play has been average.
One thing that surprises me is how ordinary many of these Leaf pending free agents have played. Ponikarovsky just doesn't go to the net like a big man should. When he does, he tends to score, but watch him in front of goal, he never screens properly, he stays slightly off to the side so that he doesn't get hit with a shot. Goalies on streaks like Vokoun is in right now eat that up. There's talk the Leafs will move Stajan and Ponikarovsky pre-deadline, I'd move Ian White too, I think long term he's more of a question than an answer. I'd re-sign Gustavsson because he's shown glimpses, although his lateral movement on the second goal was brutal, he had two chances to move sideways before the shot came and didn't get over fast enough, but on the three on one he stoned them - he's worth another season with a seasoned backup behind him who could step in if he fails.
Overall, my six year old is getting the same treatment from the Leafs that I got as a kid in the 80's. The team was so awful that any sign of hope, no matter how small, made the day a bit brighter. Hopefully the next game he watches doesn't involve Florida and their horrible trap.
