TORONTO -- It is fitting, in many ways, that the Toronto Maple Leafs open the post-Randy Carlyle era Wednesday night versus the Washington Capitals.

The Leafs can look no further than the visitors at the Air Canada Centre as an example of a club that learned the hard way that scoring the most goals in the league but not knowing how to defend doesn’t lead to much good.

Carlyle was fired very plainly because no matter what he tried or said or begged from Leafs players, they continued to display the same old repeated trends of being horrible defensively.

Much like Alex Ovechkin, Phil Kessel gets blamed for his team's struggles since he is the highest-paid player on the team. Tom Szczerbowski/USA TODAY Sports

Um, hello, the Caps of the past half-decade, anyone?

Enter Barry Trotz, who gradually is transforming the Caps into a more responsible two-way team without wanting to limit the team’s offensive juices.

"You don’t want to take away anyone’s offensive ability or creativity," Caps forward Troy Brouwer said after Wednesday morning’s skate. "But you also can’t play wide-open hockey, because that doesn’t work either. You have to find good balance. I think Barry has done a really good job with us."

The parallels between the Leafs and Caps were brought up by none other than Bruce Boudreau to me a few weeks ago after his league-leading Anaheim Ducks were beaten by the Maple Leafs in Toronto. He pointed out that the Leafs reminded him of some of his old Caps teams that could score a bunch of goals without needing too many chances, a dangerous team in that regard. What he didn’t say, but we’ll finish the thought for him, is that the inability of the Caps team of that era and the Leafs team of this era to defend means the offense is wasted. It doesn’t work in the playoffs.

Heck, the Leafs would just take making the playoffs.

But the Washington-Toronto comparison is even thicker when you consider the starring attraction. Alex Ovechkin has been the mercurial superstar who has proved difficult to convince to change his ways in order to sacrifice a bit of offense, take shorter shifts in exchange for a team concept that will lead to more victories.

Until now, that is. It appears so far that Trotz has found willingness in Ovechkin; the two are seeing things the same way and the Caps are winning games for it.

Which brings us to Leafs star winger Phil Kessel, a controversial figure in these parts.

Much like Ovechkin, fair or not, Kessel represents to some what ails a terrible defensive Toronto team.

On the surface, you can argue Kessel has done everything that he’s supposed to, scoring 35 goals a year and almost never missing a game.

And what’s clear is that Kessel feels he’s fulfilling his part of the bargain with that.

"I don’t know, you guys have to answer that. I don’t know what you expect from me out there but obviously you expect more," Kessel told a big media gathering Wednesday morning after the Leafs’ skate.

What some people expect is for Kessel to show more hustle on the backcheck and more commitment overall to the defensive side of the puck.

Kessel is not alone; there are a number of Leaf players who need to show better commitment on the other side of the puck, but he’s the highest-paid player on this team, its biggest star. Like Ovechkin, the stars impact the rest of the lineup if it looks like they’ve bought in on both sides of the puck.

Caps blueliner Brooks Orpik is witnessing the same transformation in Washington that he saw years ago as a young NHLer with the Penguins.

But as I suggested to Orpik, it starts with the stars. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were willing to become two-way players and that was the difference, much like Ovechkin is a willing participant now.

"As unfair as it is, you brought up Sidney and Geno; when those guys buy in, everybody else follows. That’s just the way it is," said Orpik, who credited the top players on the Caps for also buying in right now.

"The player has to make the commitment," coach Trotz said Wednesday morning. "That's where it starts. I've been very fortunate that the guys that I've gotten an opportunity to coach here, they're committed to the buy-in and they wanted the change. There's growing pains because you're going to play really well, and even if you're playing well defensively, you might not get the wins. You always get tested how far you're going to come off the rail, if you will, to have balance in your game. We've been tested a few times and you've got to keep pulling it back. To me, I've been very fortunate, I've got some really good leaders in the room, our leadership group is strong. We've had some pointed talks, if you will, when it's gone off the rails a little bit, but they're a group that recognizes that there's a certain way we need to play as a group if we're going to be successful. Every group's different, and I can only speak for my own group, and they've had a good buy-in. It's been really a pleasure to work with our group."

That’s the test that awaits interim head coach Peter Horachek now with the Leafs, and eventually his full-time replacement.

That the Leafs lead the NHL in goals per game is a tainted statistic, flawed because it means other areas of the game are being sacrificed at the expense of scoring.

It’s what the Caps are changing in their ways.

"It’s definitely still a work in progress," said Orpik. "But even from the start of this season when it seemed like we were just trading chances and it feels like you have no control over the game, it’s 50-50. Now you feel like you’re winning more close games and you have more control over the games, too."

It’s about the players. Carlyle is no dummy; his 2007 Cup championship team in Anaheim was a defensive powerhouse. Ron Wilson, whom Carlyle replaced as Leafs coach, is no dummy either.

But you need players who want to commit to what it takes to be successful in this league.

"For sure it’s on us," said Leafs forward Mike Santorelli, a solid two-way player. "We’re the ones that go out there and play. We need to get tighter and support each other. We need to play as a five-man unit. I think the best teams in the league, you look at teams that play like Chicago and Detroit, they play as five-man units, they’re all supporting each other and helping each other out. That’s what we need to do."

But is that message going to ever get through to this Leafs group? It’s been the same thing for three or four years.

What’s clear now is that fans and media are zeroing in their focus on the players more than ever before.

"Obviously we haven’t been winning, we made the playoffs one year here, that’s what happens, they’re going to come after you," said Kessel. "It’s never fun but it’s part of the business and we just handle it."

Kessel said seeing Carlyle pay the price was tough to take.

"You never want anyone to get fired, right? That shows your group didn’t get it done," said Kessel. "I think it’s disappointing for all the guys in here when your coach gets fired. Hopefully in the last 42 games we can get it together, we’re still in this, right? We need to get it back on track."

It all has to start on the other side of the puck. But will these guys ever learn?