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Toronto Maple Leafs hoping offensive improvements are good enough

By Catherine Silverman

Sep 24, 2014; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle on the bench against the Ottawa Senators at the Air Canada Centre. Ottawa defeated Toronto 4-3 in an overtime shoot-out. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 24, 2014; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle on the bench against the Ottawa Senators at the Air Canada Centre. Ottawa defeated Toronto 4-3 in an overtime shoot-out. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Maple Leafs hope they’ve made the necessary offensive adjustments this off-season

Jeffrey Lopul, one of the team’s forwards, seems to think that the Maple Leafs need look no further than the ice when trying to make a playoff run for the second time in a decade. Whether Lopul is right, though, the team seems to be doubling up- The Toronto Maple Leafs had one of the most controversial off-seasons this summer, when they led the “advanced stats” revolution.

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In addition to  a number of assistant coaches and other front office positions that were rotated in the team’s minor administration overhaul, notorious stats guy and kid wonder Kyle Dubas was appointed the team’s new assistant GM at the ripe age of 28. Unsurprising, considering Dubas had climbed the ranks in the hockey world at an alarming rate- but surprising, considering the amount of value he placed on advanced analytics as a determinant for how well the team was doing.

The Maple Leafs need all the help they can get, though. The team as a whole had some of the worst puck possession numbers in the league last season, and have failed to make the playoffs more than once in the past decade.

Bringing in Dubas and his stats- and improving on the quality of players skating on all four lines- can only do so much, though, if the team is still unwilling to accept that their head coach, Randy Carlyle, might be single-handedly driving the team into the ground. The team seems to only get worse under Carlyle’s direction, so unless this new and improved fourth line can help carry the team into the post-season, it’s likely that the team will find themselves making even more front office changes even sooner than next summer.

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