The Leafs do not know how to be consistent, it just accidentally happens sometimes…

Man oh man. If you watched the games from the last week there is one thing every Leaf fan will say in unison, “why can’t the Leafs ever put it together when it matters.” And although it is obviously a fallacy of thought it is based on decades of failures and let downs, even when the team has really good talent (such as it does now) they can’t seem to put it together for any substantial stretch. As of today they sit tied for first place in their division. If they win the division there is a very strong chance they can avoid playing either Florida or Tampa Bay in the first, and there is even a chance they could be forced to play each other before playing the Leafs, which would be the absolute best outcome for the Leafs in making a long run in the playoffs. So why is it so hard for them? Well, first thing that stands out is there defensive break downs from the forward group. If we look at the loss from last evening the goals were scored mostly on breakdowns by the Leafs in their own zone. There is a consistent problem that is underlying their play the last five years, and is not solely personnel or coaching based. The style of play that they deploy is a control game. Simply put, they want to keep the puck under control as long as possible and not let they other team have control of it. Here is the issue though, they can only control the puck for so long and when the opposing team applies pressure to that type of play you will invariably have breakdowns. What happens WHEN the breakdown occurs is why the Leafs are so inconsistent. There is an obvious failure to understand the timing of when to retain control, when you cannot retain control, and when that happens, how to mitigate opposing opportunities. Example: Leafs enter zone under control with four players, opposing centre back checks forcing the puck carrier into the a trap with the opposing defenceman. Options are dump it on net, dump it in the corner, or try to make a fancy pass through two opponents to another teammate for a scoring opportunity. Option 3 was chosen, puck was lost, and the opposing team gets a 3 on 1 the other as a result and scores. Now, it is easy to blame so many breakdowns on this play. The defenceman stepping up into the play could be responsible for not manning his position and vacating it providing the offset 3 on 1. A forward could be responsible for not recognizing the need to back fill and protect against potential attack. All of that is context and not wrong, but really it comes down to the player not recognizing the situation in a high speed environment and making the wrong play. This is the only thing that seems consistent with this team. Many players make bone headed plays at the most inopportune times. It goes back to one of my previous posts about IQ. It really is strong proof that the depth of the Leafs is challenged so much with the cap situation that unfortunately you get lower hockey IQ players that make more bad plays at bad times. Until they fix that issue (which may never get fixed) it is going to be more of the same where it is a gamble, and at some point no matter how good a run they have, they are eventually going to lay a stinker and have breakdowns to overcome on a consistent basis. In other words, if the goaltending does not play as solid as it has for most of the season they will have a similar result as previous years. As a fan I hope they put it together, but as a fan that pays attention I am not sure that is being realistic.