Of all the things I learned during my time with the Toronto Marlies, my biggest gains in knowledge came in the field of defending. As a player, you’re a bit of a specialist. I was a winger, so it’s not like I put a lot of time into understanding the butterfly, or why and when goaltenders should drop into a reverse VH (hell, when I played that probably wasn’t even a thing yet).



And similarly, the only reason I knew anything at all about how to defend a 2-on-1 was because I wanted to know how to better exploit defenders.



But with the Marlies, I was privileged enough to have some in-depth discussions about it with assistant coach Gord Dineen, who looked after the D-corps. Dineen had a great NHL career as a stay-at-home defender, and impressed me with the amount of detail that actually goes into playing 2-on-1s against. And while not all coaches want them played exactly the same, most have pretty common theories.



So with the Toronto Maple Leafs...