Quoting: OldNYIfan
I think that by "soft" maybe
@Trevorchef means the forwards don't come back or otherwise play defense well and the defense lets too many opposing forwards skate right around and sometimes through them, which has always been my observation about the Maple Leafs.
I think that is a grossly unfair assessment. I don't think it was ever that the forwards didn't come back, maybe sometimes but what I saw was this.
This current season under Babs, the strategy was all out pressure all the time everywhere on the ice. Sort of a full court press man to man defence. What I think that often led to in the defensive zone was young players getting caught watching the puck and losing their man who almost always ended up in front of the net with a wide open shot.
Under Keefe the strategy changed to, when defending collapse to the front of the net and protect the middle of the ice. It is more of a zone defence now which the team was still learning but had gotten much better at before the shutdown. I felt that their biggest issue under Keefe was making mistakes in the offensive zone that led to odd man rushes the other way. Players trying to hold the puck a little too long or trying to force a play that wasn't there. They have so much skill that it often works but when it doesn't it really doesn't. That is just an experience thing, they'll learn to better hone in when its smart to try something and when its better to just dump it deep and regroup.
The soft thing is a criticism I hear all the time, "If you hit TO they collapse" no they don't. Having guys that throw huge hits changes a game, no it doesn't. Vancouver throws a tonne of hits but apart from their top line, they get rolled at 5v5. Being a heavy hitting team does nothing if you don't have the talent to do anything when you have the puck. Its a completely overblown thing and a throw back to the dead puck era.
It really shows how uneducated a lot of people are on here when the majority of people who talk about the Leafs say the Bruins Physicality gives the Leafs fits, it certainly didn't. Last year TO outscored them, out chanced them and held the edge in expected goals and possession at 5v5 but was scored on over 50% of their PK's. That and poor coaching, seriously who plays Marleau over Matthews when you are trailing by a goal in the 3rd of game 6. TO even out hit the Bruins in that series and what did that matter? It didn't.