



Frederik Andersen (Photo credit: The Athletic)

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in contention for a playoff spot as the month of November ends. That's good. Frederik Andersen has been playing much better as of late and that's good too. The Leafs were on a 6 game win streak earlier this month, which is awesome.

But there is one thing that has not been good for the Leafs, something that has been their Achilles heels of late. For whatever reason, the team has struggled mightily at the start of each game the last few weeks. What was initially passed off as just part of the ups and downs of the regular season has now become unbearable to watch and could really hurt the team down the road if they don't improve their play in the first period.

Friday night's game against the Hurricanes was the latest in what seems like an endless supply of evidence where the Leafs get badly outplayed in the opening frame. They were outworked, outmuscled, outplayed, and, most notably, outshot in every aspect of the game. Carolina, on the strength of some great puck movement and two power-play chances, had a 14-4 SOG advantage over there Leafs at the end of the first, and the game could have gone predictably bad had it not been for the heroics of Andersen.

When the game ended, the Leafs left the ice outshot 47-25 (!!!) and surprisingly with a 5-4 win. Had it not been for the great play of Andersen, it's highly likely the result would have been far different.

Closeup of Frederik Andersen's massive save on Viktor Rask pic.twitter.com/nrjKnFbgAD — Jeff Veillette (@JeffVeillette) November 25, 2017

As previously mentioned, Andersen has really improved his play after a subpar showing in the opening month of the season. Since November 1, he has a 7-2-1 record, a .938 save percentage, along with two shutouts. And in the past six games prior to Friday, Andersen had allowed only two goals or less, which led him to being named the second star of the past week by the NHL.

The play of Andersen is a huge reason why the Leafs remain one of the top teams in the league, no doubt about it. As great as he's been, I bet he would still like to see the team in front of him make his life a little easier, especially since he has had to face the most shots of any starting goaltender so far this season (721).

#Leafs have allowed an NHL-worst 281 shots on goal in the 1st period this season. — Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 25, 2017

A team with offensive stars like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, James van Riemsdyk, and Nazem Kadri shouldn't be struggling to get a shot on net in the first 20-minutes of a game. Yes, the team is the second highest scoring team in the league currently, but they have been outshot in nine of the last ten games. That's not a good look for them to be the most outshot team in the NHL as of November 25 (825).

Based on what I've been seeing, the problem the Leafs have had in the first period is they appear out of sync. The team just seems slow and unprepared for competition, allowing the opponent to dominate them early in terms of puck possession. As a result, Andersen has had to be relied on heavily to keep the Leafs in the game, which is the exact same game strategy as the 2013 season.

Because they are running around in their own end, it has prevented the team from having quality chances in the offensive zone to put shots on net. The scrambly defensive play has also led to penalty kills with the same two defensemen, Ron Hainsey (who averages the most ice-time on the PK in the NHL) and Nikita Zaitsev, getting overworked seemingly every game. In turn, Andersen has been getting overworked weathering the barrage of shots, which isn't going to do the team any favours should it continue.

Babcock on slow starts: "We're going to talk about it & fix it, because the players aren't happy, I'm not happy ... now, sometimes on the road especially you have to weather the storm early, but that wasn't weathering that was getting beat to the puck" — Mark Masters (@markhmasters) November 25, 2017

Andersen: "Last few games we haven’t been prepared. Every guy has got to be ready to play & take it upon himself to focus for the 1st shift. The first 10 mins can be huge & we’re lucky we didn’t get behind. We know we have the skills to score & we’ve just got to be ready to play" — Mark Masters (@markhmasters) November 25, 2017

Coach Mike Babcock has mentioned that it's his responsibility to have his players start on time each night. It has been nearly a month with the team exhibiting the same problems and it doesn't seem like the problem will go away anytime soon.

Mixing up the lines, trying a new gameplan, and shuffling players in and out of the starting roster has yet to improve the Leafs' opening period starts of late. Friday night's game was perhaps the worst start yet and a drastic change to the game strategy needs to be made fast.

The Leafs got extremely lucky to have the two points Friday because this type of effort at the start of a game will more often than not put the team in trouble early. The Leafs may have a knack for scoring their way out of problems, but it doesn't work all the time.

So before fans start tossing jerseys onto the ice, the Leafs need to start playing on time for goodness sakes! Give the goalies a break and start dominating the opposition for once instead of relying solely on miraculous performances in net every game.

Otherwise, we may want to make sure Babcock didn't take the keys to the 18-wheeler off of Randy Carlyle.