| Tuesday, October 24
By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell
Special to ESPN.com |
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Don't be fooled by the Maple Leafs' four-game winless streak (0-3-1). When all is said and done in the Eastern Conference this season, Toronto will be at the top of the heap.
|  | | Pat Quinn has the Leafs thinking defense as well as offense. |
Why? In a year when the Eastern Conference standings likely will be rearranged on a nightly basis, the Leafs are loaded offensively, extremely well coached and have depth that few other teams can boast. They also have goaltender Curtis Joseph.
And, oh yeah, there's that new commitment to defense.
To review, the Leafs scored 268 goals last year (3.27 average per game), the most in the league by a healthy margin. And as offensively gifted as they were, they didn't even have a player in the NHL's top 10 in scoring. The best they had was forward Mats Sundin, who wound up tied for 11th with Pittsburgh's Martin Straka with 83 points.
On the flip side of that prolific scoring was some serious defensive liability. The Maple Leafs gave up 231 goals last season (an average of 2.82 per game), which is the most of any team that made the playoffs.
Toronto has turned it around this year. Through 18 games, the Leafs have tallied 53 goals (2.94 average), down from last season. But they have surrendered only 37 (a 2.06 average), significantly down from last year.
General manager/coach Pat Quinn has been preaching a commitment to defense and less of the run-and-gun approach of last year. It's a delicate balance with the makeup of his gifted squad, but Quinn contends: So far, so good.
"We've been trying to become more defensively responsible and still be a team that can create good offense," explained Quinn. "In the early going, we were good but lately we've been not as good at that. That's maybe part of the growing thing that happens. We're kind of in a static stage right now but we wanted to as a team become more defensively responsible as a team and we've been pretty good in that area. We thought maybe it might take away from the offense somewhat but not totally. Our goal was to become closer to a team that had a good transition to defense or offense. We were good going one way but we weren't good going the other way. I think we're a little closer but we've got lots of work to do."
One player they've added recently who perhaps illustrates Quinn's point best is forward Dmitri Khristich. Khristich was made a free agent by Boston when the club walked away from his arbitration award. Against Boston Thursday night, Khristich scored a goal but also made a blatant turnover in overtime that led to a Bruins' overtime goal and a Toronto loss.
Good in some areas, needs work in other areas.
Quinn said he thinks Khristich will be a valuable asset to the team.
"He's very diligent," said Quinn. "He's been what we've expected and what we've seen out of him for awhile. He's a good two way player. He's got an offensive knack that hasn't really come to the forefront at this point but we've been playing him with a young center (Nik Antropov) whom we hope he'll help come along. I think the missing of training camp is showing up a little bit, too. It has with some of our other players who missed camp and it is with him."
The Maple Leafs beat Philadelphia in six games in the first round of the playoffs last season and then dispatched Pittsburgh before running into a red-hot Buffalo team. By then, the Leafs had dried up themselves.
Center Yanic Perreault, dealt to Toronto from Los Angeles at the trade deadline last March, said he thinks this edition of the Leafs is a better club than the one that went to the conference championship last year.
"I think we're a better team this year than last year," he said. "We have some young players who are a little older and who have gained some experience. Curtis Joseph and Mats Sundin are our two big players. Everyone has played pretty well. We still have to play better and Pat wants us to work on that. We have to play more defensively when we have the lead or at the beginning of periods."
That doesn't mean Quinn has put a stranglehold on the Leafs' creative sensibilities. This won't ever be a neutral zone trap team that the league has way too many of.
"Pat is a coach who lets his players play and lets them do what they do best," said Perreault, who went into the weekend as Toronto's leading scorer with 13 points in 18 games. "He just wants us to be a little stronger defensively and we can do that. We've got some good players and if we do the things we did last year ... Our hopes are higher this year.
"I only got here in March but the expectations are real high this year because they know the season that we had last year and the playoffs. We know we can do well and at the same time, we want to win a Stanley Cup. We believe we have a good team in here. Last year, we made it to the semifinals but this year, we'll try to work hard through the season and in the playoffs."
Veteran forward Steve Thomas, 36, said he believes the addition of Khristich, who had 29 goals for the Bruins last season, will help propel the Maple Leafs into success down the road.
"It just makes us a better team," said Thomas. "He's a skillful player. He knows the game obviously. He's pretty quiet. Up to now, he's spoken volumes on the ice. He's shown us that he has the determination that we need. He fills a spot on the team where he can be really helpful."
Thomas shares Perreault's view that this is a club that could make a great deal of noise in both the Eastern Conference and in the postseason this year -- if all things fall right.
"I am optimistic," he said. "I think we're a better team than we were last year ... If we can maintain our consistent level of play, I think we have the players in our room who could maybe make that next step."
Thomas said the missing piece of the puzzle could be the club's commitment to keeping the puck out of their own net as consistently as they put it in the other team's.
"We've been working on (a more defensive scheme) an awful lot in practice," he said. "We're a team that allowed too many goals last year and this year we're way below pace we were on last year in terms of goals against. It's starting to pay off I think. It's going to be something that's going to pay benefits in the long run."
Nancy Marrapese-Burrell of the Boston Globe writes a weekly national NHL column that appears on Fridays.
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