Photo Credit: Michael Miller, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Best Defense Is A Good Offense
There was an article on Sportsnet by Justin Bourne a few days ago regarding the Toronto Maple Leafs "defense" and their style of play.
Essentially the Toronto Maple Leafs defensive strategy is to hem the opposition in their own zone, playing what I call an "all offense all the time" philosophy.
The trick is to keep pressure on the other team by constantly being on the attack.
When they do have to fall back the Leafs don't play a tight gap, instead preferring to allow the opposition to enter the defensive zone, with the intention of forcing the puck carrier into taking bad angle shots from the perimeter.
The reason they do this is because they want the other team to give up possession so the Leafs can scoop the puck back up again and rush it up ice.
The intention is to bury the opposition under as many pucks as possible.
It All Starts With The Breakout
The Toronto Maple Leafs focus on short outlet passes for the breakout. They exit the defensive zone with possession and rush the puck up ice to set up in the other teams zone as quickly as possible.
There are multiple studies that confirm this is the most effective method of breaking out of your own zone and leads to more than double the success rate that dumping the puck out does.
They don't generate a ton of chances off the rush as they are looking for high scoring opportunities in front of the net by way of cross seam passes in the slot.
They relentlessly push the puck forward at all times.
When they run out of room they dump it in. They aren't as concerned with entering the offensive zone with possession so much as exiting their own zone with possession.
The Leafs are a good puck retrieval team so they are ambivalent on how they enter the other teams zone and will dump and chase on the zone entry, but not the zone exit which gives the opposition more time to regain possession.
Multiple studies have confirmed that entering the opposition's zone with possession isn't as important as exiting your own zone with possession is.
The Leafs don't spend a lot of time in their own zone and tend to dominate other teams by hemming them in their own zones. It's pretty hard to score from your own end, and that is exactly what the team philosophy for "defense" is.
That's why their defensive stats are good and their goals for are so high every year.
An Offensive Juggernaut
This team's strength has always been offense, and that is easily seen by the fact that the last five years they have consistently placed near the top in goals scored.
They are ninth in goals scored this year, only four behind Tampa for fifth.
Starting with the 2021-2022 season and working backwards in time, with the most recent years first, the Leafs finished 2nd, 6th, 3rd, 4th, and 3rd in goals scored.
While the Leafs "all offense all the time" strategy of burying their opponents under as many goals as possible is a great regular season strategy, it has yet to prove itself in the playoffs when the checking becomes tighter and more aggressive.
Columbus and Montreal trapped them to death and even Tampa was running one in last year's playoffs.
When they do choose to play one, the Leafs are good at trapping. They mainly play a 1-1-3 when they want to trap, and will execute one for line changes so as to prevent the other team from executing a stretch pass, a common tactic in the NHL these days.
At the beginning of the year when they had injuries to both goaltenders and the defense was decimated the Leafs were running a trap in the third period to protect leads, but now that everyone is healthy they are back to trying to bury their opponents under picks again.
I would like to see the team focus more on a proper defensive structure and start executing a trap themselves as it is an effective strategy when done correctly.
Once the playoffs start, teams aren't going to allow the Leafs the same opportunity they are given during the regular season, and without adjusting their game strategy, they are looking at another one and done postseason.
History has not been kind to this team when when it comes to winning playoffs series.
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