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Although the Toronto Maple Leafs finished dead last in Mike Babcock’s first year behind the bench, there was more to the season than meets the eye.

The Leafs were able to ‘pump and dump’ Dion Phaneuf and his expensive, long-term contract. That alone is a massive feat. The Marlies had a regular season for the ages, even if they did not go as far in the playoffs as many had envisioned. Most importantly, they were able to draft Auston Matthews first overall.

Positive steps were taken on the ice as well, despite the lacklustre overall results. A long-time possession bottom feeder, the team moved to the middle of the pack in terms of controlling play (13th in corsi-for percentage, 17th in fenwick-for percentage). I previously outlined Babcock’s breakout systems to help identify and explain the mechanics of their improvement (links open in new window):

Today, I am going to take a deeper look at the Leafs’ neutral zone play.

Overall, Toronto was a solid possession team in 2015-2016 — even considering their roster. Arguably, a large part of it is due to the most important zone on the ice — the neutral zone. First, let’s look at some statistics that paint an overall picture:

StatisticTeam Rank
Goals for28th
Goals against28th
Shots for15th
Shots against27th
Fenwick17th
Corsi13th

It should be noted that not all of these statistics are a result of “just” neutral zone play. It is the hardest zone to quantify and analyze because of the play shifting so quickly and dramatically within it. That said, it is important to recognize and remember the work of Eric Tulsky in looking at zone entries when discussing the neutral zone. Now an analyst with the Carolina Hurricanes, he again touched on their importance just a few weeks ago:

“A lot of the difference in how many offensive opportunities a team got came down to that neutral zone decision of whether to carry it in or dump it in,” said Tulsky, who can instantly elaborate on the topic. “When you’re focusing on offense, I think people naturally focus on the offensive zone play, and what that published work suggested was that a lot of the generation of offense occurs through the neutral zone rather than in the offensive zone.”

It is easy to understand why Toronto would not score many goals and allow so many – They lacked talent and goaltending. The rest of their numbers are league average, and that speaks to the structure in place.

Let’s take a look at some of the things the Leafs are doing to defend the neutral zone and attack through it.

 

Here’s a one-man pressure after a pretty common situation – the puck getting flipped out to the neutral zone. Zach Hyman goes right to Johhny Boychuk, which is strictly his job. The interesting thing is what William Nylander does. He’s not protecting the middle of the ice or taking away the d-to-d outlet; he’s taking away the quick-up read for Boychuk. Most teams in the neutral zone will emphasize throwing the puck right back up the ice to hem opponents in their zone and prevent them from changing lines. In this case, we can see Nylander turn his head, look for the outlet option, jump the route, and gain the zone. Instead of dumping it in, Nylander curls to try to set up — partly a team emphasis, partly Nylander being a good player. He makes a play and Hyman scores.

 

Conversely, here’s a sequence from the same game in the second period where the Leafs get no pressure through the neutral zone on a bad line change. Nick Leddy weaves right through the Toronto players, who are so busy taking away passing options that nobody touches the Islanders defenseman before he scores a goal. It’s a breakdown in communication on the line change — someone has to stick with Leddy and force him to pass (either Soshnikov doesn’t follow Leddy down and changes immediately, he forces the pass and then changes, or someone else pressures Leddy while he changes). These are the kind of details and mistakes a young team will have to work through (while also hoping to get a save or two to bail them out). The other piece of it is just knowing the league and the competition – Leddy is one of the fastest defensemen in the league, and Zach Hyman has no chance of catching him hopping off the bench when he’s in full stride.

 

This is another look at the Leafs‘ one-man pressure in the neutral zone. F1 (the first forward in to pressure) goes right at the defenseman. When Calgary circles back and swings it d-to-d, Boyes comes across to take away the return pass to the D partner, forcing the play up ice. Meanwhile, we can see F2 take away the boards and F3 take away the middle. The formation works and Calgary turns it over. On Calgary’s second attempt, the Leafs are in the same formation. F1 is in on the pressure, F2 takes away the wall, and F3 takes away the middle. We can see Rich Clune turns the wrong way on the play and Froese swaps in to pressure while they try to shift their F2 and F3, but Marincin steps up and cuts off the play up ice. Later on this shift, the Leafs drew a penalty.

 

Here’s another example from that same Calgary game wherein Toronto now has possession. On the regroup, Kadri swings low and wants the puck. Grabner sends it across the ice to Polak. At the bottom of the screen, we can see Kadri banging his stick to call for the puck. When he doesn’t get it on the d-to-d, he does the right thing and circles back to the play, where Gardiner now finds him. Although the pass was off, Toronto has numbers, and Kadri collects the puck and takes it down the wall. At this point, we see another curl as the offense gets set up. Toronto made a line change in the process, and once Kadri passes the puck he peels off for a change as well. From there, Toronto proceeds to create pressure and scoring chances. The themes with the Leafs are generally pretty consistent – The centers swing low to try to pick the puck up in the middle of the ice before gaining the zone.

 

When we watch these clips and highlight certain plays, it’s not to look at them literally as the team’s system. What we are looking for are themes and philosophies. In this clip, we see a broken Toronto breakout. When the puck goes up the wall and gets jammed up, they push the puck back down to regroup. When that fails, they go high off the glass to the neutral zone to their forwards. This is something we see Toronto do a lot. When they do recover the puck eventually, there are a lot of bodies around Matthias, but he resists the urge to dump it in and instead moves it up to Winnik. We see another theme with Toronto at this point – Winnik gains the line and then chips it in. The difference is subtle, but it allows Spaling to gain the zone with speed and get right on top of the forecheck because he doesn’t have to worry about going offside. Toronto has their forecheck set up like we’ve already discussed as the Flyers try to move up ice (first man in, man on wall, man in the middle). The Leafs force a turnover and score.

 

This is a good all-in-one example of the different themes. Toronto has the one-man pressure, their F2 and F3 are set up more towards the middle this time, and in turn Carrick pinches up on the pass to center ice. When Nylander gets the puck, there are bodies everywhere. He could dump it in; he circles back instead, and the Leafs skate into the zone, put a puck on net, and gain an offensive zone faceoff out of it. These are simple things that result in tilting the ice in your favour.

The purpose of analyzing systems is to create a guide to help explain how the team is trying to accomplish their on-ice goals. Ultimately, as the Leafs’ youth develops, the team will improve by becoming more talented. At the end of the day, it is important to remember what Mike Babcock said at the World Cup in September:

Sometimes we get way too caught up talking about structure and systems and all that, and it’s just that the players are better. I had that same structure on my team and we finished dead last last year and I was the worst coach in the National Hockey League, if you remember correct. So let’s put things in perspective – it’s called players, really good players. And when you’re fortunate that they let you coach really good players, you look like a pretty good coach sometimes.