The question is, how big would the nets have to be?
For the Maple Leafs to become a decent scoring team this season, that is.
Down the line, the club is hoping to gradually add offensive flair through the draft. Right now, however, they just don’t have it despite the presence of some veterans with good offensive track records. Maybe that’s what motivated head coach Mike Babcock to muse aloud this week about the possibility of increasing the size of nets to juice scoring.
Against Detroit on Friday night, the Leafs directed 69 shots at the Red Wings net, with 33 actually reaching goalie Petr Mrazek. Of the rest, 17 were blocked, 19 missed the net entirely.
And just one of those volleys resulted in a Toronto goal.
It’s that kind of miserable shooting percentage, among a few other things, that has dragged the Leafs down to the very bottom of the NHL standings in the first week of November despite the fact that in any number of areas, this is a team that has improved and is continuing to do so.
“I think our guys think we’re playing right,” said Babcock, still looking for his third victory of the season after a 2-1 overtime loss to the Wings.
“But we’ve got to find a way to win games.”
It was the second meeting of the season between Babcock and his old team, but this one was a lot closer than the first — a 4-0 Detroit triumph. It was also a game that lacked physical play and overt passion and seemed almost a contest of logic, like two teams hurling mathematical equations at one another rather than emotion and bodychecks
Statistically, the Leafs were decisively the better team, particularly at even strength. The game was really a reflection of not only the change in Toronto under the newly named Team Canada coach, but a rather shocking change in the Wings under the guidance of new head coach Jeff Blashill.
Perenially a strong possession team under Babcock, the Wings have fallen nearly to the bottom of the league in that category this season, a deficiency overshadowed by a 7-5-1 record produced largely by a very good team shooting percentage and excellent save percentages from both Mrazek and Jimmy Howard.
Whether that’s sustainable over a long season, well, we could debate that all night long.
Friday night was another example of this new style of Detroit hockey. The Leafs outshot the Wings 33-24 and had a solid territorial advantage, but the Wings put two of those 24 shots past James Reimer, including a horrible goal from 65 feet that gave the brilliant Henrik Zetterberg 300 for his career.
“I was just trying to use the defenceman as a screen and get the puck on net. Actually, I don’t think I even got it on net,” said Zetterberg.
Reimer reached for the long wrist shot with his blocker and watched it bounce the wrong way and over the Toronto goal line.
For 42 minutes, the Leafs methodically churned away to try and even the game, and finally tied it with 62 seconds left in regulation when Dion Phaneuf chopped the puck up and over Mrazek. Otherwise, Mrazek was perfect and improved to a .928 save percentage on the season.
Jakub Kindl walked in midway through overtime and won the game for the Wings.
So again, a good shooting eye and save percentage obscured a mediocre possession night for the Wings, something clearly to watch as the season progresses in the Motor City.
“They probably spent more time in our end than we spent in theirs,” admitted Zetterberg.
That the Leafs would be improved possession-wise under Babcock is no surprise. That the Wings would be so much weaker under Blashill is, however, and the reasons why aren’t clear. It could be that, like many rookie coaches, Blashill isn’t yet getting his message across or that he’s tweaked the Detroit system enough that a few leaks have sprung.
What we know for sure is that the Wings’ defence isn’t as active this season – 30th in shots from defencemen going into Friday’s game – and the absence of Pavel Datsyuk all season, plus Mike Green and Dan Dekeyser at different times, has hurt.
If the Leafs had been able to hurt Detroit on the power play – Nazem Kadri drew three more penalties – the result might have been different. When it came to three-on-three in OT, the Leafs had an opportunity to change all their players but only got one off the ice, and then Kindl was allowed to waltz down Main Street and snap home the winner.
“You look at three-on-three, and it’s almost like a shootout. It could go either way,” said Phaneuf. “We’ve done it to solve more games before the shootout, and I agree with that.”
The Leafs have now scored only 27 goals in 13 games, and it’s rather shocking that four teams – Buffalo, Carolina, Anaheim and Philadelphia – are actually scoring even less.
The turnaround in the ways Toronto and Detroit are playing the game now compared to a year ago, meanwhile, is quite startling.
The Leafs were an awful possession team last fall that was nonetheless in possession of a playoff spot due to very efficient shooting and goaltending when Randy Carlyle was fired. Now they own strong possession numbers but can’t score and aren’t getting enough saves, although it should be noted Reimer stopped 95 of 101 shots (.941%) this week in a win over Dallas, a regulation loss to Winnipeg and an OT defeat to Detroit.
If they can get their six per cent team shooting percentage closer to double figures – a big IF – they could have more weeks like this. Then again, with a game in Washington against the first place Capitals on Saturday, Toronto’s week isn’t yet over.
The Wings, by contrast, are now the team relying on a strong PDO — which some see as the “good luck” metric — to keep their record above .500 in the early going, masking some surprising deficiencies as the club takes aim at making the Stanley Cup playoffs for a 25th consecutive season.
What a difference a year, and a coaching shuffle, has already made.
