The Toronto Maple Leafs are off to a slow start with a 9-9-2 record, having lost their last five games of their past six games before their 3-2 overtime win on Tuesday night against the St. Louis Blues. Earlier on Tuesday, Maple Leafs General Manager Brad Treliving met with the media for an impromptu ‘State of the Union’ as the team reached the quarter mark of the season.
Even before a single question was asked, Treliving owned the slow start after making some significant changes to the roster this past offseason.
“I’d open it by saying, obviously, as we sit here today, we’re not where we want to be, or we’re where we envision to be obviously, we’ve underperformed to this point, and I take full responsibility. I’m in charge of the hockey department,” Treliving told the media in attendance. “I’ve put the people in place, on the ice, off the ice. So the responsibility lies with myself, and we start today and every day trying to get ourselves back up and going and improve where we are.”
Remember, the Treliving moved on from Mitch Marner in the summer. It appeared Marner in his mind already was moving on from the Maple Leafs two summers ago, but wanted to give it one more run and did not want to waive his no-trade clause until the deal with the Vegas Golden Knights came about.
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Treliving tried to get Mikko Rantanen last year, which further changed the team’s dynamic, but nothing could be worked out. So with Marner gone, he brought in Nicolas Roy, Matias Maccelli, Scott Laughton (trade deadline), Brandon Carlo (deadline), and Dakota Joshua.
The Leafs also moved on from a quality player in David Kampf, who, for some reason, the Maple Leafs didn’t have use for this season. However, he was effective in Craig Berube‘s system last year.
While Brad Treliving re-signed and won negotiations with Anthony Stolarz, John Tavares, and Matthew Knies, the team is still underperforming on the ice. He once again challenged the players to be better on the ice, knowing they are capable of more.
Similar to how John Tortorella challenged the highly skilled players he coached. He knew their potential, and when they underperformed, he was disappointed because Tortorella knew those players had more to give.
This seems to be a trend for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Head coach Craig Berube called out his players for their effort on the ice. In addition, goaltender Anthony Stolarz also called out the team for their effort after an overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken.
Once again, the general manager is talking about committing to playing the right way and driving home that message every day. Just because it was done last year doesn’t mean it will happen this year.
“To me, it’s just a commitment to doing the work, right? That’s really what it comes down to is a plan is not a different plan, Treliving said. You have to just because you did it, like I said last year, you have to commit to the work. And to me, that’s a big part of it. The style that we want to play is a hard style, but unless you commit to the work, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. And that’s where I see a little bit of the fall-off: doing it together. You doing your job so that I can do my job, and then committing to the hard parts of the game. And that’s where we’ve fallen off right now.”
When it comes down to it, the Maple Leafs are just too one-dimensional right now, or as Treliving noted, they are ‘vanilla.’ He can count on one hand how many complete games the team has played this season. And that is the big key to success: playing defence the right way, the way head coach Craig Berube wants them to play. It guided them to Game 7 of Round 2 against the Florida Panthers last year.
But again, Brad Treliving changed the identity of the team, similar to what Florida Panthers GM Bill Zito did with the Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar for Matthew Tkachuk. It took the players some time to adjust to Paul Maurice’s system. And in year two, with an identity change and new players brought in, the team is struggling.
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But the Toronto Maple Leafs are not going to make a move just to make a move. At the same time, they are looking to improve all areas of their team, but, as reported, Brad Treliving is looking to make roster moves. But they are not out there.
And a coaching change is out of the question. Multiple times, Brad Treliving gave his head coach, Craig Berube, a vote of confidence.
“We’ve got all the faith in our coach right now, so I don’t look at that as an issue, Treliving said. Craig didn’t become a bad coach overnight. I think when you go through difficult times, the easy thing is — and it’s the natural thing — you’re going to pick off the coach, the manager, whoever. But Craig and his staff are working hard at it, and I support and have all the faith in the world.”
While it was interesting timing for Brad Treliving to hold this press conference, the message was clear: it’s up to the players to figure out how to play a more connected game. Not just the core of the team that has been there and failed in the playoffs, but also the new guys who have come in.
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