The Toronto Maple Leafs have made significant strides under Craig Berube in one specific area, which is vital for the long-term success of the team.
Last season, one of the biggest knocks on the Leafs was their inability to find any real consistency on special teams — most notably on the penalty kill. Granted, the pre-season is very different from the regular season, but there is certainly reason for some optimism after the performance Berube’s team put together through 6 exhibition games.
Per Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun, the Maple Leafs finished the pre-season having killed off 24 of 25 penalties, boasting a 96% success rate. This was the best in the entire NHL during the entire exhibition schedule.
While the Maple Leafs didn’t make any significant changes to the core group, the introduction of a new coaching staff, with new systems and new ideas, appears to have resonated well with the Leafs.
Lane Lambert, the team’s new associate coach, has gone well beyond using just the usual suspects, like Mitch Marner and David Kampf, in a penalty killing role. He has given players such as John Tavares, Ryan Reaves and Nick Robertson looks on the PK as well, and it has yielded some terrific results for the team.
As we know, hockey is a team sport and it takes contributions from everyone to win games. This coaching staff may just succeed where previous regimes have failed if they remember that and continue to use all of the players at their disposal.
