Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Defensive Mistakes Highlight Poor Offensive Effort

When a team struggles to score goals as the Toronto Maple Leafs have over their western road trip which has seen them play in Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose and Calgary so far, it is very unlikely that hockey team will win a lot of games. This has been the case for the Toronto Maple Leafs including in last night’s game against the much weaker Calgary Flames team. What made the lack of offense stick out even more were the glaring defensive errors the Leafs made when the game was on the line late in the third period and in overtime. If not for more of the usual Ed Belfour heroics, the Leafs would not have even earned the single point they did in the 3-2 overtime loss.

Mats Sundin tied the game midway through the third period giving the Leafs a bit of an energy boost. They got a couple more decent chances to take the lead right after that but they quickly lost their spark of energy and allowed for some tremendous chances to go Calgary’s way. Belfour was forced to make two phenomenal saves on a point blank chance in the slot and a breakaway by Jarome Iginla. The breakaway opportunity was an especially poor play because not only did Tomas Kaberle allow himself to get beaten by his man at the Leaf blueline, he then stopped his pursuit and began pleading for an offside call.

The Leafs lack of any consistent offensive attack is extremely puzzling because, on paper, they look as though they should be able to put out at least two fairly daunting lines. Apart for Mats Sundin and occasionally Alex Mogilny, nobody has been able to establish themselves as a constant threat for the opposing team’s defense. A change that must be made is to get Tom Fitzgerald off the fourth line and up to a line where he can be more effective. Fitzgerald offers too many things including experience, hustle and grinding ability to have it squandered on the fourth line where he only sees five to ten minutes of ice time per game. Putting him back on a line with Gary Roberts and Joe Nieuwendyk which was able to produce earlier in the season could be one option. Playing him with people like Robert Reichel and Owen Nolan or Darcy Tucker could also be another option. These two scenarios would be two much more prudent ways to use him.

The Leafs will finish up their road trip with games this coming Thursday and Saturday against Edmonton and Vancouver, respectively. They must win both of these games to be able to look back on this road trip as a somewhat successful one.


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