Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Ron Wilson reacts as he watches his team trail 4-0 to Carolina Hurricanes towards the end of the second period NHL action in Toronto on Tuesday, March 2, 2010.CHRIS YOUNG
Call it the Toronto Maple Leafs' version of the chicken-or-egg question - is their penalty killing better because they changed their personnel or changed their approach?
Head coach Ron Wilson insists it's the people. "It's all personnel," Wilson said firmly after practice Tuesday as the Leafs prepared to leave for Pittsburgh and meet the Penguins in the first of two road games.
Strictly speaking, that is correct except for some of the defencemen, such as François Beauchemin and Luke Schenn. The top two units have all different forwards, as players such as Matt Stajan, John Mitchell, Alexei Ponikarovsky and Niklas Hagman have given way to Fredrik Sjostrom and Tim Brent, plus Kris Versteeg and Colby Armstrong. Only Sjostrom and defenceman Dion Phaneuf, who plays with Beauchemin on the unit, put in any time killing penalties for the Leafs last season and that was after they arrived in the big Jan. 31 trade with the Calgary Flames.
However, the season's first two games, in which the Leafs were a perfect 7-for-7 in killing penalties, showed there has been a change in tactics. Coaches like to say you need active sticks while killing penalties and the Leafs are now as active as anyone.
They keep their sticks moving a lot more into the passing and shooting lanes, looking to block or disrupt passes and shots. A year ago, the Leafs were much more passive, standing back with both hands on their sticks and keeping them close to their bodies.
Last month, Leafs assistant coach Rob Zettler told Elliotte Friedman of CBC's Hockey Night in Canada that after watching video of the unit all summer he decided the penalty killers needed more freedom in using their sticks.
Zettler's preference remains the two-handed method because he thinks this means fewer penalties than a player swinging his stick around with one hand. But Zettler told Friedman that for this to work, the players also have to use their bodies by turning their skates sideways to the puck carriers to create more obstacles for passes and shots.
The trouble was, too often the Leafs defenders would stand with their skates parallel, facing the puck carrier, which meant the lanes were much more open for the attackers. The Leafs' 30th-place ranking in killing penalties last season, with an embarrassing success rate of 74.6 per cent, was proof of that.
Neither Zettler nor Keith Acton, the Leafs assistant coaches who look after the penalty killers, wanted to elaborate on this after practice. But Wilson did grudgingly allow there was a change. However, he said that was only because he was able to change the personnel.
"We've always wanted people to be active with their sticks," he said. "We just weren't capable of doing it. We haven't really changed our philosophy much.
"We can be aggressive because we've got guys who have done a lot of penalty killing and understand exactly what we want."
One of those guys is Sjostrom, who said the main objective of this season's penalty killers, aside from keeping the sticks moving, is putting pressure on whoever has the puck. The idea is to force him to move the puck before he is ready to make a decision.
"[An active stick]can help you a lot," Sjostrom said. "That is 1 1/2 metres around your body that you can use to cut off passes."
The Leafs were especially vulnerable to lateral passes through the slot last season. Sjostrom said the more aggressive approach aims to eliminate those passes and the game Wednesday against the Penguins will be the first big test of this. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin love to put those passes between players' skates and just beyond their sticks.
"You don't want to let a pass through you," Sjostrom said. "That is what they thrive on, to pass through you and make that side-to-side play which is so difficult for the goalie."