William Nylander needs to shoot more on the power play: Monday Morning Leafs Report

It probably wasnt the Toronto Maple Leafs worst loss of the season, but it was up there.

Shut out at home by a team playing on the second night of a back-to-back that hadnt won in regulation since before Christmas and didnt arrive in town until hours before game time because of travel trouble? Bad.

Advertisement The Leafs have now been shut out three times in 44 games.

In the previous five seasons, the Leafs were shut out three times combined.

One sneaky little part of that problem: shots.

The Leafs often arent getting enough of them.

They managed a mere 20 shots in that 3-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday (with 22 getting blocked).

It was already the fifth time theyve come up with 20 or fewer shots in a game this season.

That happened just once for the Leafs last season.

Philippe Myers led the group with seven shot attempts against Vancouver, which is good for Myers but not good for everyone else.

As a group, weve been talking about trying to shoot more, Morgan Rielly said.

I think our attempts earlier in the year were higher than they are right now.

We want to get back to having a shooting mentality.

Overall, the Leafs are averaging around 28 shots per game this season, right around the middle of the pack but down from nearly 33 a game last season, the seventh-best mark in the league.

And, as Rielly noted, the shots and attempts have been trending downward.

This team is spending about 41.8 percent of its time in the offensive zone, down from last season (42.3) and below the league average of 42.2 percent.

Too many shifts are ending with few shots or no shots at all.

A lot of one and done, Auston Matthews said after the loss to Vancouver.

The Leafs offensive approach under Craig Berube depends on a hard and heavy forecheck, point shots and bodies around the net.

We gotta find a way to generate shots and get them through and have more traffic there, Berube said over the weekend.

I didnt think we won any of the rebound battles.

Dumping the puck a lot too often means not getting back.

Not helping matters is a power play thats often too choosy in shooting the puck or not organized enough to get shots, period.

Advertisement Last season, the Leafs power play generated almost 62 shots (fifth best) on 119 attempts per 60 minutes (fourth), both top-five marks league-wide.

This season, the Leafs are generating only 50 shots (21st) on around 102 attempts per 60 (17th), a serious drop-off.

The Leafs landed only two shots on goal with three mostly momentum-sapping chances on the power play against Vancouver.

Meanwhile, the Leafs get almost nothing in terms of shots from their fourth-liners: Connor Dewar , David Kampf , Steven Lorentz , Pontus Holmberg and Ryan Reaves all average less than a shot per game.

Third-liners like Max Domi (1.4) and Nick Robertson (1.5) dont get much more.

A number of key individuals are also hitting the net less than they did last season, from Matthews to William Nylander to Rielly.

This team needs to pump up the volume.

Points 1.

One big, related issue for the Leafs struggling power play: Nylander isnt shooting the puck enough.

Nylanders production on the power play is basically equal to last season, which is positive.

But his involvement as a shooter is way, way down, which is not so positive and definitely not a sustainable path to future success.

Thats 10 fewer shots per 60 minutes on 13 fewer attempts.

Nylander is landing fewer shots on goal per 60 than Mitch Marner (8.6).

Hes barely inside the top 100 forwards in that department this season (min.

100 minutes).

Last season, he ranked 11th.

And its gotten even worse in recent weeks: Nylander, despite leading the team in ice time, has five shots total on the power play in the last 20 games or 4.4 shots per 60 minutes, barely more than Rielly (4.3).

Its all an indictment of a power play that has looked out of sync most of the year.

2.

Would splitting the stars into two separate units again help? It didnt take the first time when Nylander and John Tavares played on one unit while Matthews and Marner played on another.

But it might be worth another look; maybe this time Matthews and Nylander play together on unit 1A and Marner and Tavares hang together on 1B.

3.

Dennis Hildeby gave up a wobbly goal in the first minute on Saturday.

Its become a trend for Hildeby.

In four of his five starts this season, hes been hit early: Oct.

22 vs.

Columbus : Two goals in the first 6:21.

Dec.

15 vs.

Buffalo : Two goals in the first 2:46.

Jan.

5 vs.

Philadelphia : One goal in the first 3:24.

Jan.

11 vs.

Vancouver: One goal in the first 31 seconds.

Advertisement Hildeby owns an .884 save percentage so far this season.

4.

After a brief flurry of offence in mid-December, which followed a lengthy cold spell, Domi is struggling again.

He hasnt scored in the last 11 games and has produced only four assists.

What the Leafs need from Domi, at minimum, is more energy, enthusiasm and engagement night to night and shift to shift.

Its been there only in spurts, including a two-shift spell on Saturday in which Domi was all over it: pesky on the puck, determined and playing like a frisky little ball of rage.

Domi set up Robertson for a terrific opportunity on the first shift after a long stint in the offensive zone, and then won a puck back with his hustle a shift later to create more after that.

That was it, though.

Domi was quiet the rest of the night.

The Leafs need him to be more engaged.

5.

The Leafs appeared to have found something earlier this season in the combination of Nylander, Tavares and Max Pacioretty .

But for whatever reason a dip from Pacioretty, perhaps its gone now.

The line, which has united only sporadically in the last few weeks, lost its minutes handily on Saturday.

The numbers in their last 31 minutes: Shot attempts: 23-35 Scoring chances: 8-15 Goals: 0-2 Expected goals: 28 percent 6.

Anthony Stolarz is expected to get back on the ice this week as he continues to recover from a knee injury.

Will he return before the 4 Nations Face-Off next month? Right now it seems unlikely, as his return to practice with the team is still TBD.

Its possible Stolarz could be back by the time the Leafs head to western Canada at the end of the month, though perhaps the team holds him out until afterward.

Tuesday will mark four weeks since Stolarz underwent a procedure to remove a loose pebble in his knee, the minimum on the four-to-six-week outlook for his return.

Advertisement Hell miss his 16th straight game on Tuesday.

7.

The Leafs have a team save percentage of .889 since Stolarz went out.

Joseph Woll is at .903 over 10 starts (6-4-0).

Brainstorming The Leafs might want to reconsider reuniting Jake McCake with Simon Benoit when McCabe eventually returns from an apparent concussion.

McCabe and Benoit were, rather improbably, the teams most effective combo on defence last season.

Yet theyve barely played together this year with Berube in charge, just under 80 minutes total scattered throughout games.

There are good reasons for that.

The Leafs added Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson to play in their top four and knocked Benoit back down to the kind of third-pairing duties his skill set is best suited for.

Benoit has had a bumpy season, though some of that is tied to the inconsistent play of his most frequent partner, Conor Timmins .

McCabe has thrived, meanwhile, playing alongside Tanev.

Why give it another go? Balance.

Playing McCabe and Tanev together makes for one mighty strong pairing and two so-so to not-so-attractive combinations.

Reunite McCabe and Benoit and the Leafs might be able to create solid pairs, one of which would include either Rielly or Ekman-Larsson with Tanev.

Ekman-Larsson Tanev Benoit McCabe Rielly Myers The Benoit-McCabe minutes this season have been bad, which isnt especially telling given the small, scattered sample.

Is it a viable long-term strategy? Maybe not.

Ideally, GM Brad Treliving brings in a defenceman to play with Rielly.

But in the short term, its worth a try.

Things I Think I Think Well find out a lot more about this team in the next month.

The schedule gets downright difficult from here.

The Leafs host the Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils (in Sheldon Keefes return to Toronto), both top-tier teams, this week before visiting the suddenly frisky Montreal Canadiens .

Then theyll face Tampa and a Columbus team thats hanging around the playoff race at home before a visit to Ottawa, also frisky.

Minnesota , a top-five team this season, comes to town after that before a swing through western Canada and Seattle.

No gimmes there.

Stats and research courtesy of Natural Stat Trick , Stathead and Hockey Reference (Top photo of William Nylander: Brace Hemmelgarn / Imagn Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.