Maple Leafs Appear to be Making Changes to Power Play Units Amid Early Struggles
The Maple Leafs have yet to record a single power play goal this season, which appears to have led to some changes to the power play, and Max Pacioretty appears to be the primary beneficiary.
Coming into tonight's game against the Los Angeles Kings, the Maple Leafs are 0-9 on their first 9 power play attempts on the season, despite replacing Guy Boucher with Marc Savard as the power play coach this summer.
Savard had originally opted to leave the top power play unit in Toronto untouched following Boucher's departure, even though the success rate was abysmal at best during the playoffs. Now, through 3 games of the same type of struggle, the Leafs appear to be implementing at least one change, and possibly two.
During Tuesday's practice, Oliver Ekman-Larsson was shifted up from PP2 to Morgan Rielly's usual spot on PP1. Not only that, but Max Pacioretty was also elevated to the top unit.
There is some belief that Pacioretty is only in that spot due to William Nylander's absence as a result of the Swedish winger experiencing some flu-like symptoms on Tuesday, as the Leafs' locker room appears to have a bit of a flu bug going around. The same flu bug held former captain John Tavares out of the home opener.
While Nylander has not yet been officially listed as a scratch for tonight's meeting with the Kings, it's looking increasingly likely that Pacioretty will receive his biggest opportunity of the season so far, saddling up with the big dogs on PP1, and there are certainly some reasons why it could work out if the Leafs run the top unit as listed above.
Like Auston Matthews, Pacioretty has always been a shoot-first player. When you add another one of those into the equation, it just makes the power play more dangerous. Ekman-Larsson is also more of a shooting threat than Morgan Rielly, meaning that the puck could rocket towards the net from any number of possible locations at any given time. The top unit with Nylander and Rielly on it seemed more inclined to over-pass in hopes of finding the perfect shooting opportunity, which may not have opened up on some occasions. Now, having several shooting threats on that unit means that the Leafs may direct more pucks at the net, increasing the chances of producing goals on the man advantage.
Some have been very vocal about wanting the Maple Leafs to better balance their two power play units in the past. This could be a great way to experiment with some different guys on that top unit and shit a star or two down to unit 2 to give the team two effective units as opposed to just loading up on one.
The hope here is that the Leafs can get the monkey off their backs and notch at least one power play marker tonight, if not more. If Pacioretty is the one who gets it, it could create some more interesting conversations in Toronto once Nylander returns from his illness. Two strong units may very well end up being the new game plan if the team can find some success on the man advantage tonight.
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