Why is Marc Savard the only change the Leafs made?

The Toronto Maple Leafs, deep into a season marked by struggles, finally made a move involving their coaching staff on Monday when they relieved assistant coach Marc Savard of his duties.

Savard ran the team’s power play, which converts at a league-worst 13.3% through the team’s first 35 games, a span in which they’ve started the campaign with a record of 15-15-5, a mark that has them last place in the Eastern Conference.

While the power play has been a massive issue for the Leafs, it’s far from the only thing plaguing the group.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by the host of The Sheet, Jeff Marek, to discuss the move and why it was the only change Toronto opted to make at this time.

Carter Hutton: I’ve got to move on here, Jeff, to a coach fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Marc Savard, the power play specialist. They weren’t getting the results, and now he’s gone in Toronto. What’s your take on that, and what the heck is going on in Leaf Land?

Jeff Marek: I think this is, every now and then the volcano wants a virgin. Every now and then you make a sacrifice to the gods. I think what’s happened here is the Toronto Maple Leafs right now, at least it feels to me, and I think it’s pretty accurate, feel frozen. They’re frozen on the ice. The players are squeezing the sticks. They’re frozen behind the bench. They’re frozen with Marc Savard’s power play. It wasn’t working. I think they’re frozen at the general manager’s level as well. I even think that they’re frozen at ownership level because this is not supposed to be the way that the season went… I don’t think the Toronto Maple Leafs contemplated for even one second that they would be in last place at Christmas.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…