Explosive defence blurring lines
Blue-line production Babcock trademark in pursuit of goal
It was something you don’t often hear: A compliment thrown in the direction of the Maple Leafs defence corps.
It came from Los Angeles Kings winger Adrian Kempe, speaking after he scored a goal in Toronto’s 3-2 win over the Kings at the Air Canada Centre on Monday night. Kempe, the 21-year-old winger from Sweden, was asked about the chief challenge posed in facing Toronto’s speedy lineup.
“I mean, I think (it’s) their defence — their defence tries to jump up into offence pretty often,” Kempe said. “So they got us a couple times there and that’s something that we’ve got to be aware of.”
The response was notable because Kempe didn’t simply point to the obvious front-line threats like Auston Matthews or William Nylander or the ageless Patrick Marleau. And a day later, as the Maple Leafs enjoyed a Tuesday off day before resuming practice in advance of Thursday’s home game against the Carolina Hurricanes, it was worth pausing on Kempe’s thought. As much as Toronto’s forwards are a much-publicized handful — and a team that can spare Mitch Marner for its fourth line is doing more than OK — it’s Toronto’s less-talked-about threat on the back end that opponents cannot afford to ignore.
Now, we’re only nine games into this season. The sample, as they say, is small. But so far, blue-liners are supplying a remarkable amount of the push behind Toronto’s league-leading offence. Four of Toronto’s defencemen have racked up five or more points apiece, including Morgan Rielly (nine), Ron Hainsey (six), Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev (five apiece). Heading into Tuesday’s games, 23 of the NHL’s 30 other teams had zero or one defenceman at or beyond the five-point mark. Only one other team, Chicago, had as many as three. Yes, it’s early. But no other team in the league can claim comparable offence from its defence.
Sure enough, Toronto defencemen had the primary assist on two of Toronto’s three goals on Monday, Rielly registering his fifth point in the past four games, Roman Polak hitting the scoresheet in his first game after a 61⁄ 2- month recovery from a broken leg suffered in the playoffs.
“They’ve got a lot of mobile defencemen that are getting up in the play a lot,” said L.A. rearguard Derek Forbort.
Kind words for Toronto’s blue-line corps have generally been in short supply during the team’s run to a 7-2-0 start. The lead-up to Monday’s game included a not-so-kind assessment from L.A.’s resident Norris Trophy winner Drew Doughty, who told insider Pierre LeBrun that the Leafs are “not good enough” on the defensive side of the puck to be considered Stanley Cup contenders. As much as Doughty is a Team Canada stalwart with two Stanley Cup rings, that scouting report wasn’t as authoritative as it sounded. Doughty, speaking to reporters after he made that comment, didn’t exactly stand firmly behind it, acknowledging he actually hadn’t watched the Maple Leafs play much this season, save for some highlight-reel clips. And if the initial remarks triggered the age-old discussion about the need for the Leafs to unload some of their surplus forward talent for another defenceman, Doughty pointed out that he wasn’t simply speaking about his Toronto counterparts.
“They can improve defensively, but that’s not just on their defence. It’s on their top forwards playing good defence, too,” Doughty said. “That’s how you create a good defensive team. It’s how we did it here.”
A team’s defensive acumen, Doughty said, comes down to attitude and commitment as much as it’s the sum of the assembled talent.
“Defence just comes down to being willing to compete on both ends, and willing to sacrifice your body to block shots and get in lanes and just hating to get scored on,” Doughty said before Monday’s game. “I just take so much pride in defence. I would rather not be scored on than go out and score a goal. That’s just the way I am.”
On Monday, Babcock said he doesn’t mind his team blocking shots, but that he’d rather be more focused on retrieving the puck and keeping it in their careful possession. In other words, his idea of great defence is a powerful offence that limits turnovers. In Toronto’s worst performances this season, a pair of 6-3 losses to the Senators and Devils, giveaways have been an issue.
But it’s important to remember how far this team has come. A year ago, the opening nine games of the season saw the Leafs bleeding goals. They surrendered five or more in five of their first seven losses. And their offence, back then, wasn’t anywhere near as potent as this one. The Leafs have a league-best 40 goals in these nine games. Going back to 1997-98, only two teams have scored more often in their opening nine games, the 2005-06 Senators and the 2006-07 Sabres.
“I think they lead the league in pretty much every offensive category, and that’s not just the foo-foo stuff on the surface,” said L.A. coach John Stevens. “If you look at the fundamental analytics, they’re number one in just about every category. They’ve got some high-end players that can beat you one-on-one, but structurally as a team they’re as good as any team in the league.”
That sounds like exactly what you’d expect from a Babcock-coached team. As much as the Leafs coach is known for nitpicking defensive miscues, it’s important to remember that he has always loved high-octane offence. Over the span of Babcock’s 10 seasons in Detroit, the Red Wings ranked No. 1 in the NHL in goals per game. And he’s always expected production from the back end. During those 10 seasons, it was Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom who led all NHL defencemen in points per game. Second on that decade-long list is Brian Rafalski, who played a large chunk of that time frame for Babcock.
Now, these Leafs aren’t exactly those Red Wings just yet. Over those 10 years, Babcock’s Red Wings gave up the fourth-fewest goals in the league. This season, heading into Tuesday, the Leafs were surrendering the 11th-most. That’s not great. But that ranking amounts to relative progress. Last season, after a horrendous October in which the Leafs were the second-worst defensive team in the league, they finished the season giving up the ninth-most goals. They’re improving, slowly. And in a league in which the Penguins won the Cup after finishing last season as a bottom-half defensive team, it’s tough to make the case that the Maple Leafs are light years away from possessing sufficient back-end stability.
History suggests teaching defence is a lot easier than coaching offence. And it doesn’t hurt that Toronto’s offence, with no small thanks to their defencemen, is already elite.