New Information on Leafs' Power Play Struggles Tell a Much More Concerning Story
The Maple Leafs' power play has been absolutely dreadful to begin the season, but the numbers dating back to the end of February are adding some salt to the wounds.
A top-five power play for most of the past six seasons, the power play for the Leafs is off to a 3-for-28 start to begin their first season under Craig Berube and Marc Savard. The Leafs hired Savard because of his skillset as a player to help the struggling power play and create a less stagnant system in the hopes that it would turn a struggling group back into a lethal and game-changing unit. Unfortunately, that has not happened... yet.
Dating back to February 27th, after operating at a 50% success rate, the Leafs' power play has scored just 13 goals in 121 opportunities or succeeding at a 10.7% success rate, according to Insider Chris Johnston.
Despite the attrocious start under Berube and Savard, Berube made some puzzling comments following practice on Friday as the team prepared for their meeting with the Boston Bruins Saturday.
Berube's comments Friday raised a lot of eyebrows given that the Leafs went just 1 for 11 over three games last week. On Monday, former Leaf and current host of TSN's 'First Up', Carlo Colaiacovo, said the Leafs needed to be more selfish and have a shoot-first mentality instead of worrying about hurting each other's feelings and being 'too cute'. While the Leafs continue to work out their issues with the man advantage, many believe it is time for the Leafs to break up the top unit and distribute their 'Core Four' across both units in an effort to create a more balanced attack and provide different looks.
After dropping their last two games disgracefully, the Leafs have worked tirelessly on their special teams during practice and are hoping that they can turn the corner in Saturday's first-round rematch against the Bruins.
