The Leafs need to hire Bruce Boudreau as PP advisor: Alberga’s Take

The Leafs have 40 games to figure out their dreadful power play.

At this rate, indisputably, if the dysfunction with the man advantage keeps up, there’s a good chance that it will end up negatively impacting Toronto’s aspirations of doing something substantial this spring.

Plain and simple.

With that in mind, Brad Treliving and company need to be proactive with their solution process.

For the record, as easy as it is to play the blame game, believe it or not, I don’t think this is a Marc Savard problem. It’s bigger than that. In fact, there was a multitude of others before Savard who also couldn’t figure out how to get all the star power to jive in sequence.

Simply put, this Leafs team is way too good not to try and do something about their Achilles heel.

It’s time to give Bruce Boudreau a call. And according to sources close to TheLeafsNation (TLN), the 69-year-old would be open to the idea.

For my money, it would make too much sense to slap an ‘Advisor’ tag on Boudreau and give him a look under the hood. Afterall, there’s no salary cap when it comes to coaching staff/team personnel.

For years, Boudreau, a life-long fan, former player and draft pick of the Leafs, has been dying to return to the organization in any capacity. Like many others, the dream of bringing the Stanley Cup back to Toronto still burns deep inside of him.

To this day, Boudreau rarely misses a game. He’s dialled in.

Since 2007, he’s been a staple of the NHL coaching fraternity, and without a shadow of a doubt, he’s been known for having some of the best offensive teams over the past two decades —including a killer power play.

In Vancouver – his last coaching stop – the Canucks PP had a succession rate of 24.8%, a huge jump from the 19.7% under their previous coach Travis Green. Additionally, Boudreau’s Washington Capitals back in the day operated at just over 25% in back-to-back seasons. In 15 seasons as a head coach in the NHL, Boudreau has owned a power play that’s operated at 20% or over 10 times.

Through 42 contests, the Leafs power play (20.7%) sits 18th of 32. Considering all that fire power, that’s just not good enough. In the end, it could cost them greatly come playoff time —unless they try and do something about it.

On a recent episode of Leafs Morning Take, Boudreau admitted he had plenty of ideas on how he would try to fix Toronto’s ailing power play. In short, he thinks they need to shoot the puck more.

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