The Toronto Maple Leafs Should Fire Marc Savard

The Toronto Maple Leafs are a top-five team in the NHL this year, despite their power-play being at the bottom-half of the league.

Throughout the Auston Matthews Era, the Toronto Maple Leafs have always been near the top of the NHL in power-play percentage, but as of right now, they're 18th in that category, which is unacceptable because the players haven't changed. The only thing that has changed has been the coaching staff, but we can't put blame on Craig Berube.

Berube is obviously the newly appointed head coach of the Leafs, but he's not the one who runs the power-play. In fact, that job belongs to Marc Savard, who unfortuantely isn't doing his best this season.

When you have the likes of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander, Matthews Knies, Nick Robertson and others as legitimate offensive options, you need to be at the top of the league. The fact that the Utah Hockey Club and Montreal Canadiens ahead of the Leafs in power-play is just not good enough.

However, should we really be surprised by Savard's actions thus far? During his last season running the Calgary Flames power-play, his team finished seventh worst in the NHL with a 17.9 power-play %. You could at least blame the talent in Calgary for Savard's woes, whereas in Toronto he has no one to blame except himself.

Leafs Need a Power-Play Change

When you look at the Leafs power-play, it's boring. They spend way too many seconds passing the puck backwards in their own zone after a face-off win and have standstill forwards at the blue-line during a break-in, which just doesn't work. It's so easy for the other team's defense to stop the Leafs from their break-in, when half the team isn't moving, so it's not shocking that they don't look good.

They need to get way better at getting the puck in the zone and then once they're in the zone, they need movement. I've loved John Tavares' play this year, but maybe we switch it up and put Matthew Knies in front of the net and pair him with Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly?

The Leafs core-four doesn't have to be stacked on the first power-play, but could instead benefit from a shorter 45 second shift that's full of energy, as I think that could really help their issues.

We're halfway through the season so there's plenty of time for them to improve, but maybe the Leafs should fire Savard before the season's over because when the playoffs start, your power-play needs to be your best weapon and Savard just isn't cutting it yet.