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[Toronto Maple Leafs]

Maple Leafs’ adjustments to defensive system is the root cause of their issues

The Toronto Maple Leafs are facing a major crisis with their defensive structure and how they approach plays in an attempt to neutralize the opponent.

Last season saw the Leafs barely give up any quality chances, box out the opposition in tight, and thus make it easier for their netminders to track the puck and make the stop. This season is a different story so far, as they have given up the second-most goals in the NHL with 60 at the time of filing and no indication that the bleeding will stop anytime soon.

The Leafs are allowing far too many rush chances of high quality. Their net-front presence has been vastly weaker than it was the year prior, and the decision-making with the puck is resulting in them getting hemmed in for far longer than they should. It feels as though the players are gung-ho to get back on the offensive side of the puck and abandon their defensive structure. Considering that their team’s defensive play in the prior campaign was good enough to win them the Atlantic Division and reach Game 7 of the second round, the drastic drop-off in overall defensive play is very concerning.

What makes it all the more befuddling is the fact that the Leafs were going into the year with the defensive unit still intact, with the only difference being that they were a year older. A sense of continuity of any kind beyond the nucleus has been a rare sight in this era of the team, so seeing the band brought back together was viewed in a positive light during the offseason. There also weren’t that many alterations to the roster as a whole beyond Mitch Marner leaving and a few new forwards coming in.

The cast of characters on the team is mostly identical to what was used during the 2024-25 campaign, yet the results to this point are vastly different from how things went from a year prior. And the issue lies in a change in philosophy to how the Leafs are approaching the defensive side of the puck.

You may recall that there were some changes behind the bench during the offseason with Lane Lambert departing as associate coach to become head coach of the Seattle Kraken. Former Detroit Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde came in as the replacement, with ample experience working as an assistant with the Tampa Bay Lightning during their Stanley Cup wins in 2020 and 2021.

Parts of Leafs Nation had concerns about the hire because of how poorly the Red Wings played defensively under his watch, but it was offset by evidence of the success he had with the Lightning. It is unclear what area of focus Berube has given Lalonde on the team, but there’s a good chance it was the penalty kill and that’s an area the Leafs are respectable in so far this year.

There was also a point of reference that GM Brad Treliving made during his end-of-year media availability about how he wanted the Leafs’ blueline to perform in 2025-26.

“I like the length of our defence, I like the makeup of our defence but you still have to get up and down the ice. Part of how we play will lend itself to giving up some volume,” he said on May 29th. “We need to get more offence from our defence. Not just goals. We can get some more volume the other way. In terms of personnel, we’ll see. I like the D-core but we can’t be rigid. We fell short. We have to continue to look at ways we can get better.”

Now it is true that offensive production for the Leafs’ backend was a major area of concern last year as they were among the lowest scoring in the NHL as far as goals and points. And whatever changes they made on the offensive side have done wonders for the likes of Morgan Rielly, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Jake McCabe who are all having good starts to the year scoring-wise. But the emphasis on over-correcting for the lack of blueline production has played a major factor in the team’s defensive struggles.

As mentioned earlier, the Leafs as a whole seem to be more preoccupied with generating offence instead of playing within the structure Berube had them in to plenty of success last year. It feels as if they are not getting their timing right on when to make the aggressive push and when to fall back, especially with some of their players not being fleet of foot. Instead of making the same play in regrouping back at 50/50 pucks, they are taking their chances and getting frequently burned for it off the rush.

Even if the goalie makes the save, the Leafs’ supposed offensive mindset has them making inexcusable decisions with the puck in the defensive end that result in them being hemmed in far longer than they should. Rather than recalibrate to assess their options, it feels as if they are trying to make blind and risky passes that get swallowed up by the opposition or can’t get enough mustard on the clearing attempts. And when they do get the puck out, the scoring chances are one-and-done before it goes right back the other way.

“Communication is a big piece,” Auston Matthews said after Sunday’s loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. “I think we tend to wanna play quick and I think there’s opportunities sometimes to get the puck in the middle of the ice some more, and that’s just communication. That’s just knowing where guys are gonna be and being more predictable on breakouts, so we can get the puck, play fast, and get on their end of the ice as quickly as possible.”

Sure, you can ask for your goaltending to make a save from time to time because they haven’t been stellar to this point either. But part of their struggles stems from the lack of support they are getting from the defence as a whole, where more higher quality chances are getting to the net and there is less protection around the crease. That’s not to say the performance of the netminders will immediately improve once the Leafs start being more supportive, but it will go a long way towards making it easier on them to track the puck.

It is clear that the new defensive structure doesn’t seem to mesh well with the personnel the Leafs have at their disposal, and it has resulted in a perfect storm of poor defensive play from the team as a whole to this point. The status quo cannot continue because it has not worked, and it could have major ramifications on the season if changes aren’t enacted.

They need to strike a balance between their lethal offence and their defensive approach in a way that works well for everyone. Instead of their blueliners trying to make aggressive pushes when they aren’t the quickest skaters, they have to exercise caution and fall back to have support for the netminder. The forwards on the defensive side need to be more helpful as well in terms of covering their man and their placement on the ice when attempting to start the breakout. And above all else, their decision-making with the puck in their own end has to be better.

The change in philosophy to the defensive system has not worked, and the Leafs need to find a way to get it back closer to what was used a year ago or else things will only get worse.

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Source: https://theleafsnation.com/news/toronto-maple-leafs-adjustments-defensive-system-root-cause-issues