Auston Matthews Slams Maple Leafs' Power Play Execution After Abysmal Showing vs. Canucks
Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews was not a fan of how the Leafs executed on the power play against Vancouver in 3-0 loss on home ice last night.
Obviously, teams are going to lose games that they should probably have won over the course of an 82-game season. However, last night against the Canucks, the Leafs lost a game they deserved to loset.
The team went 0/3 on the power play, finishing 2 of those power plays without registering a single shot. To be frank -- that's flat out embarrassing for a team with as much firepower on their top unit as the Leafs have.
Following the game, Craig Berube and Auston Matthews were just two team representatives who spoke about the poor execution, but there were many who felt as though the effort just wasn't there.
"There are systems involved in the offensive zone. I felt we weren't very connected. There were times when we moved it around well or maybe got a low-to-high.
I didn't think we had enough traffic at the net, either, on those plays. We were a little disconnected that way. We have an opportunity to practice, work on some things, and get ready for the next game." - Berube on the Leafs' apparent disconnect.
I didn't think we had enough traffic at the net, either, on those plays. We were a little disconnected that way. We have an opportunity to practice, work on some things, and get ready for the next game." - Berube on the Leafs' apparent disconnect.
Berube was also not pleased with the team's effort as a whole, speaking out publicly about their lifeless and lackluster play against the Canucks -- a team who dealt with travel delays and were forced to fly on game day due to inclement weather grounding them in Raleigh, NC the night before.
Matthews, too, believes that for all of their offensive zone time, the team should be getting a lot more pucks on net than they are. Following last night's loss, he had a very blunt assessment of his team's power play.
"There's a lot of movement, a lot of nothing going on, I guess. And I just think we can do a better job of simplifying it.. More shots to the net, and then letting things open up from there.
Surprisingly, Mitch Marner didn't think that his team played all that poorly, regardless of the score. I'm not quite sure Marner's attention to detail is very sharp if he's defending last night's effort.
The Leafs went back to a 4-forward, 1-defenseman power play last night, abandoning the previous 5-forward top power play unit that they had previously been deploying with mixed results. As it turned out, the more traditional 4F/1D top unit produced no results.
The Leafs have had a difficult time producing on the power play dating back to their first round playoff series against Boston last year. They'll need to focus on fixing their execution with the man advantage during the second half of the season to avoid succumbing to a similar fate this Spring.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 12 | 2549 ANSWERS Auston Matthews Slams Maple Leafs' Power Play Execution After Abysmal Showing vs. Canucks Do you think the Leafs should split up the stars and balance two power play units? | ||
| Yes, balance the units | 2102 | 82.5 % |
| No, keep the top unit loaded and just shoot more | 447 | 17.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
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