The Real Reason Behind Maple Leafs' Struggles: Craig Berube Faces Pressure to Make Changes

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Chris Gerics
November 2, 2024 (10:40 PM)

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The Toronto Maple Leafs' powerplay has been downright abysmal this year, so is it time for Craig Berube to make a serious change in order to fix things?

The Toronto Maple Leafs came into their game against the St, Louis Blues on Saturday with the league's worst powerplay at only 8.8%. Given four chances to score against the Blues on the man advantage, Toronto failed to capitalize and are now an atrocious 3-for-38 on the powerplay, a 7.89% rating. It's a worrying sign for the Maple Leafs after so much hype came with the hiring of Marc Savard who was supposed to lead them to success on the PP.

So with another failure given the enormous amount of opportunities for the Maple Leafs, it may be time for Craig Berube to shake things up, and not just by moving a player or two.

The Maple Leafs Are In Desperate Need Of Discipline

Toronto may be one of the best teams on the penalty kill this season but it doesn't excuse the fact they take awful penalties at the most inopportune times. For example, against St. Louis on Saturday, the Maple Leafs got on the powerplay early and could have started hot, but instead, Mitch Marner took a careless high-sticking call, negating the advantage 15 seconds in.

It's a trend that's been an issue this season, as the Maple Leafs have had countless penalties due to reckless play, or a lapse in brainpower. Sticks are flying everywhere, they're getting in opponents' ways too much (and not in a good way) and they look undisciplined at times. It's great to be offensive and try and move quickly, but if you don't slow your body and your brain, it can lead to mistakes. Craig Berube needs to figure out how to better get his team focused on not being so careless with their play or it's going to cost them in the long run.

Berube understands this, talking to media afterward and explaining the terrible situation the Leafs are in:

"For me it's execution, to be honest with you. But the other thing is there's not a directness to it. We're not getting pucks to the net enough. We're on the power play. We need to shoot pucks more. We need to get pucks to the net and create opportunities around the net on broken plays. But we're not. There's not a shot mentality on the power play right now."

Craig Berube Needs To Keep The Core Four Away

It sounds counterintuitive but Toronto needs to keep the big boys away from each other. It's great to have Marner, Matthews, Tavares, Rielly, et al. together however, it isn't working. You have too many passes, too much hesitation, and too many shooters. A powerplay should consist of a dedicated playmaker, a reliable scoring option, a defensive forward able to cycle the puck, and two defensemen who can push the pace.

Toronto has the option to make things quite different, it's just up to them if they want to fix things or keep the status quo. Why not throw Max Domi and Matthews together with Knies, while adding Ekman-Larsson and Tanev on the PP? Matthews can take center, while Domi and Knies anchor the wings as playmakers and defensive forward respectively. Adding the powerplay quarterback in Oliver Ekman-Larsson and the hockey IQ and positioning of Tanev could be a massive improvement; I mean it can't get worse.

That leaves Tavares, Pacioretty, Nylander, Rielly, and McCabe as your 2nd PP unit. Pacioretty is your defense and Tavares is clearly the playmaker and Willy Styles likes to score. Rielly and McCabe played well together last season and giving him another defender instead of a fourth forward could pay off huge as well for Rielly.

That leaves Mitch Marner out of the equation, but it's not a terrible option. With news about Marner's camp unhappy with the amount of time he's been playing and them not wanting him to overexert himself, it's the perfect chance to give Marner a break and try something new.

The Toronto Maple Leafs desperately need to try something different, as not only is it going to cost them games in the regular season, but will definitively lead to a playoff failure. Craig Berube still has time, but it's slowly ticking away.