Hot goalies or not, stars need to score
Leafs have generated plenty of chances, and expect floodgates to open
It’s not like anyone is panicking, but eight goals over four games is not exactly meeting the expectations of a Maple Leafs lineup that is packed with offensive stars.
Goals are going in at a fairly ample pace around the division. The Atlantic-leading Florida Panthers have 14 in three games, Detroit has 13, Buffalo 12.
The Leafs, meanwhile, keep dealing with repeated cases of hot-goalie-itis. They have generated a lot of scoring chances, but have come up empty. And coach Sheldon Keefe is preaching patience.
“Stay with it, be confident in the chances that you’ve generated,” Keefe said. “And if you continue to generate them, your skill set will allow you to convert on those.
“At the same time, we’re continuing to look at ways that we can get better. How can we make it harder on the goaltender? What can we do offensively to generate even more of those chances? We don’t want to just sit here and throw up our hands and say, ‘Hey, you know, we did what we could but the goalie had a great game.’ I don’t coach the opposing goalie, I coach the team here. So it’s my job to find ways to get us more opportunities, more looks and ways to convert.
“Some of it is tactical and some of it is the players feeling good and getting their touches and being confident.”
They Leafs are outshooting and making more attempts than their opponents by wide margins. They’re the best faceoff team in the league, having won more than 62 per cent of their draws.
“We did expect a bit of an uptick in that,” Keefe said. “Obviously, getting Auston back helps even more (and) the addition of David Kampf, we thought it would help us in that regard.
“We’re doing a good job even on the faceoffs we’ve lost. We’re really emphasizing guys being on (their) toes and jumping in and we’re getting a number of pucks back very quickly, even when we lose the draw. We’re getting on top of it.”
If games were decided by “expected goals” — an analytic based on high-danger scoring chances created and allowed — the Leafs might be undefeated.
But what were the odds that, after four games, the Leafs would have zero goals from John Tavares, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews?
“We’re four games in, so you don’t want to overreact to anything,” forward Jason Spezza said. “I think we know we can put the puck in the net. But it’s good to go through games where we created a lot, you don’t score, you’re a little frustrated, then you go back and you rewatch the tape. You see that we needed some more traffic on a goalie when he’s having a good night and want to make things a little harder on the goalies.
“But our process was good. Our good players were getting good looks and, if that happens most nights, it’s going to end up in our favour.”
Still, the Leafs are 2-1-1 heading into Friday’s 6 p.m. game against the San Jose Sharks, the wins coming on the back of goalie Jack Campbell and a defence that has been stingier than most around the league. The Leafs have allowed only seven goals against over four games — 1.75 a game, the thirdbest mark in the league heading into Thursday’s games.
As hot as Campbell has been, it will be Michael Hutchinson making his first start of the season Friday. The Leafs are betting they’ll be well rested, having last played on Monday, while the Sharks will be a bit tired, having played Thursday night in Ottawa. Campbell will be fresh for Saturday’s game in Pittsburgh.
“We’re trying to put Hutchinson in a position to succeed. And we thought coming off of a practice day right into the game is a good opportunity for him to do that,” Keefe said. “We just thought it made sense for both goaltenders and makes sense for our team.”