The Toronto Maple Leafs fired assistant coach Marc Savard on Dec. 22 after struggles in the first half of the season. This firing comes after a road trip where they lost three straight to the Washington Capitals, Nashville Predators, and Dallas Stars. During that losing streak, they were outscored 14-4.
Related: Maple Leafs Fire Assistant Coach Marc Savard
Toronto currently sits at 16-15-5, with 37 points. That puts them last in the Atlantic Division and second to last in the Eastern Conference. The Maple Leafs shook up their team and have a new identity this season, but that isn’t going well.
The stars are so far disconnected from the head coach, Craig Berube, it’s sad. They needed to shake up something, so they chose to fire Savard. Not only does that make him a scapegoat, but it also shows the Maple Leafs’ incompetence (that’s been a recurring theme over the last decade), as well.
Savard’s Role With the Maple Leafs
Savard came over from the Calgary Flames to take on the role of leading the power play this season, and was unfortunately let go three days before Christmas. Toronto’s power play is the worst in the league; up to the holiday break, they have only 12 power-play goals. For reference, Wyatt Johnston, on the Dallas Stars, has tallied 13 power-play goals so far this season. Jason Robertson has nine power-play goals, which is three-quarters of what the Maple Leafs have as a team. The Stars, as a whole, have 35 power-play goals and lead the league.
Toronto is also last in the league in power-play percentage at 13.3%. If the power play is that bad, it’s fine, and even reasonable, to look at Savard and question what’s really going on here, since it’s run under him. Derek Lalonde runs the penalty kill, and it’s currently sixth best in the league at 83.2%. That’s a big gap, and at that rate, you point to the coaching.
If anything, we have this funny moment of Savard being hyped up for a goal last season at the beginning of the first round series against the Ottawa Senators, and Berube yelling at him. His time in Toronto was greatly appreciated; he’s passionate about the game, and he’ll most likely find a job somewhere else soon.
The Maple Leafs Are Incompetent
The Maple Leafs have proven time and time again that they have no clue what they’re doing. You can’t argue stats, and the fact that Savard was the head of it all, so he got the boot. It’s the timing and the fact that he was the only one to go, and it’s just another instance of the Maple Leafs sitting on their hands and handcuffing themselves.
A decade ago, the Maple Leafs re-signed head coach Randy Carlyle when no one wanted him back. They then waited a month into the season to fire him. The whole Mitch Marner situation was a circus — they had five years to make up their minds on Marner’s no-movement clause (NMC) before it kicked in. The front office did nothing in typical fashion until the last minute, when they fired general manager (GM) Kyle Dubas a few weeks before that decision had to be made. Brendan Shanahan then brought in Brad Treliving to be the next GM, but he was told by Shanahan that the decision was going to be made for him; Shanahan then called Marner and the rest of the core four and told them they were staying in Toronto.
Last season, the Maple Leafs asked Marner if he wanted to be traded. He said no, which is fully within the rights of the clause. They then traded him to the Vegas Golden Knights and got Nicolas Roy in return. That happened because they waited. Now, they’re doing it again with the current coaching staff.
Berube and Company Need to Go
You rarely see only an assistant coach being fired, and that’s the only move the organization made. It happened with Savard. When Savard was fired, everyone thought that more change would be on the way. Only Savard was fired; Berube and Treliving kept their jobs. This just sums up the Maple Leafs’ season so far — they found another rare occurrence.
The bigger problem lies with Berube, though. He couldn’t be further apart from the core players than he is right now. William Nylander said that he’s never felt this way playing hockey before, and no, a four-point night against the Pittsburgh Penguins doesn’t make up for a whole start of a season, especially after the month he’s had. Berube’s systems don’t work, either. Matthew Knies and John Tavares, after having tremendous starts to the season, have slowed down.
Berube’s relationship with Auston Matthews is what’s most alarming. Matthews missed some time due to a lower-body injury. He came back a few games ago and, since then, has been a shell of his former self, who is a 69-goal scorer. After the loss on Dec. 20 against the Predators, where they lost 5-3 (a part of that road losing streak), this is what Matthews had to say about the effort, as reported by David Alter of TSN:
“I think mentally we’re fine. I thought tonight, as s**** as it is losing, I thought the process was better. I thought we had good energy all night. And even though you’re leaving the rink upset, not getting out of any points in tonight’s game, I think just the process that we had throughout is something that we can take and move forward.”
Berube had this to say after the game on the effort, also reported by Alter:
“Yeah, it is. It’s mental, for sure. We’ve got to get through it. We’ve got to get over that. We’ve got to make better decisions throughout the game.”
The most valued player in the franchise and the head coach of the hockey team couldn’t be any further apart. That’s one reason why they’re failing.
Back to Berube’s systems. Matthews’ zone entry is the same. He goes through the middle of the ice and then drops it off to a winger (used to be Marner), and then he’d find an open lane, and the winger would find him and score. Berube has this system where the forwards just go into the corner after the same zone entry Matthews has, and it leads to nothing. The right talent to pull this off isn’t even on his line, as they separate him and Nylander to make the lines deeper.
Berube is the one who brought Savard into the team and vouched for him. He lured him to Toronto from Calgary and put him in charge of the power play. Berube practically gave him the job; this is on him just as much as it’s on Savard. The whole coaching staff had to go, and this was the right time to do it — this whole debacle is just going to go down as another time the Maple Leafs sat around and did nothing. Savard’s firing was only an excuse for a bigger problem Toronto doesn’t want to address.
