Jim Hiller publicly calls out Maple Leafs forwards

Jim Hiller won't get a lot of support from fans for calling out the Maple Leafs forwards after they 'left their defense' out to dry on their recent road trip.

Things haven't exactly gone according to plan for head coach Jim Hiller. A slow start to the Maple Leafs season and the recent benching of Gavin McKenna have drawn the ire of Leafs Nation, as they wonder why the coach has made such puzzling decisions recently.

He's getting a lot of flak right now, and the Maple Leafs fanbase is not going to let up, especially when his comments about the recent road trip have come to light. Hiller spoke openly about how the team could have been better and called the stretch simply 'fine.'

Hiller points to the forward group as Toronto's road-trip downfall

But it's who Hiller is targeting that could draw backlash as he called out the Maple Leafs forwards for letting his defense down over the past few games, and felt that a stronger effort overall would have led to more success:

But what I was disappointed about a little bit on the trip is I thought we hung our defensemen out to dry just a little bit as a group of forwards, with some turnovers, with some tracking.

Prior to going out, I thought we really were supporting our defense, getting back hard, not giving up odd-man rushes. Then that was a little bit of the opposite on that road trip.

You've got to help your defense. I don't care who's in. That, to me, is a little bit more on our forwards.

Strong words from Hiller, and he may feel some resentment towards his forward's performance considering he really has no one to fall back on defensively, despite saying the loss of Chris Tanev doesn't affect things (it absolutely does). But you're also asking guys who already help out the defense to do more - when they shouldn't.

Hiller's pointing the finger at the wrong people

You can't blame Nick Paul or Colton Sissons for being unable to exit the zone when the blue line is incapable of controlling the puck. The forwards did so much, and trapping them all in the zone to help out is going to negate odd-man rushes.

Do forwards need to help? Yes, of course. But we've also seen a vast improvement with William Nylander when it comes to back-checking, and the overall defensive growth has been beneficial - the team is #1 on the PK and has given up only one goal so far.

But when you have Morgan Rielly getting blown away, Oliver Ekman-Larsson looking worse than he has during his time here, and asking guys like Nick Blankenburg and Marshall Rifai to shut things down - heck, he put Troy Stecher on the second-pair - he's a great asset but not a top-four D.

You're asking the forwards to compensate for the blue line's ineffectiveness at shutting down opponents, and we saw how that worked last year.

For Hiller, the blame lies on the forward group for not helping his defense out. But he should be asking the real question: How is Toronto going to make things better?

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