The Leafs often look like they're standing in quick sand while other teams skate circles around them. Luckily, we don't have to just rely on our eyes now – we can literally prove that this is the case through NHL EDGE data.
Comparing the Leafs to the Avs, the NHL's fastest team, Toronto has recorded half as many 22+ mph speed bursts (41 to 21) and 20-22 mph speed bursts (565-279). Colorado has already outskated us by nearly 30 total miles this season.
Auston Matthews, who we can all agree is not himself, has maxed out at 21.57 mph. He's reached the mid 22s in each of the past four seasons (or every season for which have tracking).
The team definitely has issues with coaching and motivation but on top of that, these guys are simply just too old and slow. Probably has something to do with the fact that the Leafs have the heaviest average weight (210) in the league as well as the fourth-oldest average age (29.5).
I don't expect anything to change until there's a roster shakeup (and probably a coaching change, but that's another story). The team doesn't need a rebuild per se, but they need to bring in a few younger, faster, hungrier players. The Treliving strategy of big, slow dudes is extremely outdated.
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I’d take a rebuild at this point
The issues are too much and quickly compounding.
Even in this case, speed means more than just being fast. It means having the legs and will to consistently push/pressure opponents even if you’re not the fastest team (Aka the Florida method or the Penguins method back in 2016). This team doesn’t have the will or really the legs to do that. The defence is old and locked up, most of the core is old/getting older.
Mediocre defensive coaching, a regressing goaltending situation, an injured captain and a GM in love with the idea of truculent 30+ veterans are all the teams “biggest” problem at the same time. The biggest issue is that there’s really no help on the way either. Fans want to see a mini tank this season, but that means wasting another year of Matthews/Nylander’s fleeting primes WHILE deferring the first round pick you give to a year where you might not have Matthews anymore. Knies is a top-line talent sure, but Cowan hasn’t looked to be more than a middle-six playmaking winger at his ceiling, while Danford would be *lucky* to turn into an effective version of Brandon Carlo.
Past those three, the Leafs don’t own either of their firsts this year or next, keeping either one means missing the playoffs, burning a year of Matthews/Nylander AND deferring unprotected firsts to later years where Matthews may be gone, JT may be retired, and the defence may be archaic, all for a young impact player that could very well be a superstar in the future, but isnt going to be some Crosby/McDavid/Even Matthews level first year prospect.
Passing is faster than skating but I assume we’re also near the bottom.
According to the stats, they don’t shoot as hard, too.
We have missed our window.
Brad’s vision for the team is simple: pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence!
When team average age is 29.5 what do you expect
The Av’s are the fastest? I would have thought the Habs or Oilers. Not saying the Av’s aren’t fast.. just surprised.
You think Florida and Vegas are fast teams? Ever seen Mark Stone try and skate ?
It’s talent. That simple
The level of pessimism is at an all time high. Yeah the team looks terrible right now – can’t argue that. Do I think an 8-8 start means “tear it down and rebuild”? No shot! We could absolutely get to that point but we’re not there yet. We’re 5 points out of first in the division… it’s not going to turnaround as fast as we’d like but I’m not ready to give up and throw in the towel after 17 games. Let’s hope Woll can get back in the net and provide some relief .. let’s hope Taney and Matthews are back soon and let’s hope the bottom 6 finds a true identify of high tempo , physical play. It’s not time for despair … yet.
Our biggest problem is we went from a top save % team in the league to a bottom one (haven’t looked at exact this season but I imagine bottom 5).
It’s not toughness or anything, it isnt slow, it’s that last year we looked better than we were because of our save % and this year we look worse than we probably are because of below average goaltending
There is a difference between being slow and playing slow. For whatever reason the leafs are doing both. Slow reads and dumb plays suggests the team cant adapt to whatever the system rely on individual plays rather than playing as a team. This is all coaching …Berube, Lalonde, Van Ryn, take your pick.
Quillan, Thrun and Villeneuve all need a shot in this lineup.
We’ve mismanaged our assets (both picks and promising young players) for the last 8-9 years. We’ve gone all in every year and haven’t made it past the second round. At some point management should have decided to break up the core and or used one of these years to retool. Instead they’ve just squandered all of our picks and traded away most of our promising young players (see Minten last year).
If by the trade deadline it’s looking like we’re not anywhere close to getting our shit together they should consider moving a few players and getting some picks / young players back. You have Knies/Nylander locked up for some time, but anyone outside of those two they should seriously consider trade offers for (assuming they will waive/can be traded).
I just see them watch a puck slide away from them, way more often than I see the other teams let that happen. They miscommunicate when skating and then fumble the puck between two leafs players. They let it bounce off their stick out of range. They let opposing players take a puck they could have competed for. They pass just to pass, giving it away or dumping it without steam to chase.
I’m not a player so idk what I’m talking about but I just don’t see other teams struggle with this stuff. Nick Robertson, John Tavares, and Domi seem to be the most willing to strive for the puck rather than waiting for the perfect moment where it goes toward them.
They spent so much time trying to emulating Tampa Bay and Florida that the league has already passed them by.
Are they slow or do they just play slow? We definitely don’t have many burners on the team but the system they’re seemingly trying to play doesn’t lend itself to speed
If we can somehow retool our defence I’d probably try that first, really don’t have enough two way guys, without Tanev playing too it’s a really mediocre group, Reilly is solid offensively but a sieve on defence, most of the other guys are slow and can’t transition pass
This has been an issue since dubas. The team needed to get tougher but they sacrificed so much speed. The leafs have been run poorly for awhile. The core 4 masked a lot even though they got deserved criticism.
Their biggest problem is turnovers which doesn’t have anything to do with speed. Speed is an issue, but their turnovers/60 stat being 3 turnovers higher than last year is the biggest issue I see
Watching the first game of the season I said “Older, slower, and worse,” and man I hate feeling like I’m right.
A lot of fans wanted “le grit” and when they got said grit they are now complaining that the team is slow. You can’t have it both ways
Leafs D was ok last year, I think it got masked because they got really good goaltending last year and Lamberts system is ok. They did get outshot a lot last year. Tanev definitely stabilized the D core but you can absolutely make the assessment that Carlo is not a fit and was never a fit. You can’t have a guy like that getting those kinds of minutes with 0 puck skills. Laughton was not the move to make last deadline on forward, everyone knew this was going to blow up in their face this was a desperate move going “well this is what was available”. It was so near sighted it’s incredible. Not to mention Domi has scored 20 goals total in his leafs tenure. That’s simply not good enough the way he’s deployed, there’s a reason why he’s been through so many teams.
I had worries this summer about the D core being in tact, just because it was so old to begin with and I didn’t think another year older for all of them would do any good. I also thought the D core was way too much about blocking shots and boxing out vs transition. A total opposite of how Dubas built his D core. You toss in Lalonde who can’t manage his way out of a paper bag and all of a sudden the Leafs are now stuck in their end 65% of the game, no wonder they can barely generate anything.
I do think the other core issue with the Leafs is Berubes coaching style, it does work and it’s been proven, but the Leafs top end talent aren’t dump and chase players, they play better loosely making high risk plays. Compare St Louis’ cup roster with both of the Leafs now under Berube. They aren’t the same in the slightest. Is Berubes system in the playoffs for the Leafs actually better than Keefes for the Leafs? Or was it more last year that the Leafs faced an inexperienced Ottawa team in the first round? Not to mention as soon as they faced adversity in the Florida series it took it to 7 games. Everyone already had the obituary written before game 7 started.
So Treliving this summer brought in size, to be fair he wasn’t going to get someone to replace Marner and you can’t blame Tre for Marner leaving. The only way he was staying was if the Leafs won the cup. But the issue is, none of them can skate, and he took risks, bringing in Joshua who had a rough last year, Roy who’s a decent bottom 6 player, and Pazzetta who was never making the team. These are guys who aren’t going to get them the offence needed without Marner. I’ll be honest I had high hopes for Maccelli but it’s been so clear early on he’s not a Berube favourite. I don’t think he’s been all that bad. But fundamentally Tre’s vision is just not going to work out with this team. Even if they save the season and make the playoffs, Pelley really needs to look into this season and see what went wrong. They had tons of cap room, they didn’t need to add these bottom 6 guys right then and used it to form some soft identity. It’s getting old seeing Domi be the only one showing emotion, and he’s probably going to get some shit from coaching because he picks the worst times to do it.
Marner must be smiling ear to ear
their biggest problem is they suck and are bad
Entire D core can be thrown away. Tear it all down and rebuild.
We traded all our speed for meat headedness
You know, I feel like we’re in the same boat. The Nashville Predators are pretty slow to.