Siegel: Marc Savard’s firing was an unusual half-measure by the Maple Leafs

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The Maple Leafs didn’t fire head coach Craig Berube on Monday. They fired one of his assistant coaches, Marc Savard, instead, in an unusual half-measure that doesn’t get at the root of the Leafs’ problems this season.

There were legitimate reasons for Savard’s dismissal, odd as it was coming 35 games into the season.

Savard oversaw the power play and the power play was bad all season long. It has been a significant factor in the team’s troubles: not the factor, but a factor. Each and every stab at a solution — including having Auston Matthews (weirdly) quarterback a five-forward top unit with Easton Cowan — didn’t work. The unit never did feel prepared in the way it had been in previous seasons. There were days when the Leafs didn’t practise it all amid the stumbles, only to show up with a new-look top unit at game time.

The Leafs have scored a league-low 12 power-play goals, including only two goals in December — which stings all the more so when the penalty kill has surrendered just two goals this month.

Savard wasn’t acting alone here, obviously. But Berube is known for empowering his assistants and Savard was tasked with running things on the power play. The hope is that his removal will change the dynamic there and offer a different feel to a unit that’s struggled mightily, an attempt to fix this one area of need all the while endeavouring to fix all the others. However, it will be the same group of coaches scheming together in that mix (for now) and it remains to be seen whether new ideas and a new vision will emerge from all that sameness.

It’s unclear as of yet who will take charge of the unit and whether the team will eventually seek an outside hire.

The bigger story here is what the Leafs didn’t do.

They didn’t replace Berube — not yet, anyway. Which begs the question of how much a move like this actually solves for a team in crisis.

The Leafs’ issues go far beyond the power play, to their ability to control the puck, dictate play, sustain a presence in the offensive zone, defend, manage games and play with passion, energy and intelligence night to night. These were problems in October, they were problems in November, and they have continued to be problems (with only mild improvement) in December.

Berube hasn’t found solutions and has increasingly looked and sounded like a coach with no answers. On an empty three-game road trip last week, his Leafs were thumped in Washington, overmatched in Nashville and outscored in Dallas.

And, for what it’s worth, the power play’s failures also do ultimately fall on the head coach.

The Savard firing screams action! while kicking the bigger can down the road. What if it’s more of the same against Pittsburgh on Tuesday afternoon and in the days after the Christmas break? What if the power play starts to click but the more substantial problems continue to fester? How much more does management need to see before they take more significant, meaningful action?

This half-measure counts on Berube to fix what he’s been unable to fix for three months and somehow get through to a group that hasn’t been responding to his message in ways that matter.

Berube said last week that his message didn’t need changing either; the players simply needed to respond better to it.

So what’s going to give here?

Maybe the power play will get a jolt from the shake-up and (maybe) changing vision, and the Leafs can build some momentum there and win games they’ve lost previously because of it.

There’s just so much else on top of that in need of righting, and it remains to be whether this head coach can get it righted. Firing Savard doesn’t change that.

This news was originally published on this post .

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