Toronto Maple Leafs Exposed With Major Weakness Brad Treliving Must Address Immediately
Brad Treliving prided himself on adding defense and grit to his blueline however stats show he needs to make a change because the Leafs have been non-existent.
A lot of talk and speculation surrounded the moves that Brad Treliving made in the offseason.
Adding Anthony Stolarz, Chris Tanev, Max Pacioretty and several others; he's transformed the team in just a few months to work harder and play grittier.
But for all the praise the defense has gotten, there is a glaring sore spot that needs to be addressed: The Maple Leafs defense is terrible offensively.
Toronto's Defensive Change Is A Blessing And Curse
It's a very bad look for the team, and though they had to get better defensively, there's almost no hope for them offensively. Morgan Rielly has been downright awful this season, not playing offense or defense and looking like a very bad contract the more games get played.
Rielly leads the charge with a whopping four goals meanwhile the rest of the defense has only managed three, those coming from Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Timmins.
The team can pile on the assists but often times they aren't the central cause of a Maple Leafs goal.
While they have improved dramatically in terms of shutting down their opponents (barring their recent rough stretch) the once stalwart offense has dried up.
Compare it to last season where they had 23 goals and were surprisingly led by Jake McCabe with eight.
While not a great number it's league's above the pace the team is on now.
Known primarily as an assist machine, Rielly does have the capability to score and put in an astounding 20-goal season in 2018-19 showing clearly he has the skills to score. Whether it's trying him in a different position on the powerplay, or ensuring he has a proper partner beside him; something needs to change.
Brad Treliving needs to make a deal soon, especially if the team is going to continue to be so inconsistent.
For all the positives so far this season when it comes to the Maple Leafs defense, their blueline offense is going to determine how successful they'll end up.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 29 | 1494 ANSWERS Toronto Maple Leafs Exposed With Major Weakness Brad Treliving Must Address Immediately Does Brad Treliving need to address his scoring issues on defense? | ||
| Yes | 1096 | 73.4 % |
| No | 398 | 26.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
