Canada’s Debate

Continued from yesterday.

The defense has struggled mightily, but the offense at first glance seems to have stabilized, right? Despite being near the top of the goals-scored ledger, Toronto’s offense is still a question mark. Beyond the lofty output of Sundin (anyone who thinks he is unaffected by the team’s struggles need only look at his scoring totals) and Antropov (who is finally rewarding me for my continued campaign of solitary loyalty and support) nobody on the team is producing consistently.

Most alarmingly, the team is struggling horrendously on the power play. Powerplay goals on Saturday and Tuesday are an encouraging sign, but hardly a trend… While some would argue that the Leafs powerplay is broken, anyone who has watched this team over the last few years knows exactly what the problem is: Toronto’s two best PP goalscorers are one-dimensional shooters who are unable to create offense. Put simply, Toronto’s two goalscoring options on the PP are Bryan McCabe and Darcy Tucker, and both rely on a single play for their goals. Teams know this, expect it, and can quite easily modify their PK to respond to it. Neither player can reliably play the puck and create scoring chances for others, so using them on the power-play is a make-or-break dilemma.

Now without those two players on the PP you could expect better results; the only problem is that players like Blake offer little else. As Bill Waters correctly pointed out during tuesday’s broadcast, the team doesn’t have ANYONE who can create something out of nothing, and turn it into a shot. Sundin is capable of doing this, but he is usually behind the net or on the boards, fighting with an opposing player for the puck because the high-percentage areas (in front of the net, high slot, faceoff dot) are occupied by someone floating around aimlessly. He’s too busy creating a scoring chance for ANYONE else to actually make one for himself. Antropov is turning into the team’s best passer and is always in position, but teams collapse on him when he’s anywhere near the net, and with McCabe injured the forward-PK’ers can collapse down-low when he moves away from the net to a strong passing position.

Even strength the team has had better results, but the lack of depth in the offense is extremely disturbing. As mentioned, the offense virtually stops after Sundin and Antropov, and two quality centers does not a playoff team make. As much as it’s nice for Antropov to justify my belief in his ability, I’d be much happier with a balanced attack. I guess I’ll have to wait until Tavares joins the team in 2029.