Tyler Bertuzzi demoted and Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe explains why
Last night, the Leafs battled back against their archrivals, the Boston Bruins, erasing a 2-goal deficit to force overtime and an eventual shootout. There were plenty of ups and downs for the Leafs in this one, including the play of Ilya Samsonov, who was excellent, the injury to Timothy Liljegren, which compounds the problem on an already banged-up Leafs' blueline, and Tyler Bertuzzi's rough game, which earned him a temporary benching and a stint on the 4th line.
Bertuzzi played just 11:32 against Boston, which was a season-low by a country mile. He managed to fire 4 pucks on net, but finished with no points, was a -1 on the night and saw several plays die on his stick.
The first-year Leaf has had his struggles this season, there's no question about it. He was given the golden ticket, playing in a top line role with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner for much of the season thus far, and when he did move off that top line, he still found himself playing with John Tavares and William Nylander, so not much of a slide in terms of quality of linemates there. Still, even with playing alongside such talented linemates, Bertuzzi has managed just 3 points in 10 games thus far.
Last night, Sheldon Keefe had seen enough, first benching Bertuzzi for a few shifts and then rolling him out on the 4th line, next to David Kampf and Ryan Reaves. Following the game, Keefe explained his motivation behind the decision.
I will admit - it's a bit of a laugh to hear Keefe talk about Bertuzzi needing to simplify his game, while also allowing the team's top players a lot of grace and freedom to over-pass and over-complicate plays. However, in saying that, Bertuzzi has always been at his best playing straight line hockey and doing his best to agitate the opposition and creating chaos in front of the net. We have yet to see that sort of emotion and commitment from Bertuzzi through 10 games.
Even though Bertuzzi, in his own right, is a talented player, this could simply be a case of a skilled guy not fitting with the other skilled guys from a chemistry perspective. There's obviously a skill-gap between Bertuzzi and the Matthews' and Marner's of the world, so instead of trying to keep up with them, or with Nylander for that matter, maybe he'd simply be better off just finding some open ice or crashing the net and being a bit less of a roamer. Get open in the slot, push your way to the paint, find loose pucks and try to bang them in, and for the love of God, disrupt the opposition a bit. Facewash some guys after the whistle, take an extra whack at the goalie to cause a stir. Do SOMETHING to earn your paycheck, because through 10 games, it hasn't been great.
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 3 | 535 ANSWERS Tyler Bertuzzi demoted and Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe explains why Do you think the Leafs made a mistake in signing Tyler Bertuzzi to a 1-year, $5.5M deal? | ||
| Yes | 307 | 57.4 % |
| No | 95 | 17.8 % |
| He'll turn it around. He's fine | 133 | 24.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
