TORONTO — When you need to call a meeting to address the fact that you didn’t summon the proper emotional defence of an injured teammate, that’s a pretty big warning sign.
And when you offer as meek of a response as the Toronto Maple Leafs managed following all of that talk about responding, well, it’s only natural to start wondering about deeper-rooted issues.
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A troubling week in Toronto has considerably cranked up the level of concern in the organization.
The mood was downright sour inside the team offices after Brad Marchand sent Timothy Liljegren to long-term injured reserve with a high-ankle sprain on Thursday night. Not only did the Boston Bruins captain meet zero resistance from anyone wearing blue after sweeping out Liljegren’s feet during a high-speed puck race, but he saw only modest verbal pushback while gliding slowly past the Toronto bench afterward.
The entire scene did not reflect well on the new-look Maple Leafs.
In fact, it cracked open the door to old questions about the team’s character and togetherness.
“I hated everything about it,” said head coach Sheldon Keefe, who joined general manager Brad Treliving in addressing the issue with players ahead of Saturday’s 6-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
Not yet a full month into the regular season, the Leafs are still soul-searching.
Treliving made no secret of his desire to alter the group’s DNA after replacing Kyle Dubas in the spring, prioritizing players who could “add a little bit more snot to our game” in free agency by signing Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi and Ryan Reaves, among others.
The early returns are not encouraging.
The leopard has not yet changed its spots.
Not only have the new additions struggled to carve out their niche and make any meaningful impact whatsoever, but a high-octane start from the offensively gifted core has essentially been negated entirely by the group’s porous defensive play.
The Leafs aren’t defending each other, and they’re not capably defending their own end yet, either.
What made the Marchand incident such a flashpoint is that it felt so familiar. This is a group that once prided itself on forever turning the other cheek, vowing to punish the indiscretions of an opponent by making them pay with a power-play goal against.
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While that remains part of Toronto’s arsenal — Keefe noted that Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner pulled the Leafs out of a 2-0 hole in Boston, saying, “that’s how they respond, they change the game for us” — they’ve also come into this season aiming to play tougher as a team and be more committed to battling for the hotly contested areas of the ice.
“As much as the game’s changed, some things have never changed,” Treliving told reporters in July after his opening wave of free-agent signings. “At the most important times, the rink shrinks. There’s no space. You need courage, and we wanted to add players like that.”
At what cost, it’s fair to wonder.
A 5-4-2 start to the season is actually a little flattering to the team given how inconsistently they’ve played. The Leafs are taking on water at five-on-five — coming out on the wrong side of the battle when measured by shots, chances, high-danger chances and expected goals — and their overall positioning would look even worse if not for a couple games pulled out of the fire with third-period comebacks.
As Keefe searches for some semblance of balance among his forward lines, the pressure is mounting on Bertuzzi and Domi to carve out a role. They’ve bounced all over the place and so far found no comfortable fit.
It probably doesn’t help matters that the Leafs are entering a hectic week of scheduling and facing a Monday meeting with the Tampa Bay Lightning team they dispatched in six games in the opening round of last spring’s playoffs.
Even with that outcome fresh in mind, plus a win last month down in Tampa, the Leafs continue to chase the championship standard set by their Atlantic Division rival. They can even take some pointers from the never-back-down identity the Lightning have established during their run of dominance — a perfect example came during Game 3 of last year’s series when every player on the ice immediately engaged with a member of the Leafs after Morgan Rielly drove Brayden Point into the end boards.
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That ultimately proved to be a clean play by Rielly, but the Lightning players couldn’t have known that in real time. All they saw was one of their team leaders injured on the ice, and that prompted an immediate response.
The circumstances may not be the same as what the Leafs faced in Game 10 of the regular season, but you have to believe the Lightning wouldn’t have let Marchand and the Bruins off so easily had he been involved in a collision that sent, say, Nick Perbix hobbling to the dressing room.
That’s why the Leafs hope the Liljegren incident serves as a learning moment, one that’s brought some uncomfortable old habits to the surface.
“It’s not what we want to be about,” Keefe said. “At times we’ve responded very well in those situations in the past. It’s about consistency, though. We’ve addressed it.”
Added Reaves: “It’ll be changed going forward.”
If it doesn’t, the patience of management will be tested.
More change might be needed for Treliving to build this group into a more committed version of what it’s been.
(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
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