It was instructive to watch how both teams played D. Toronto had 23 blocks, most because they kept a tight diamond of D men in front of the goalies. We have certainly lost whatever defense structure we had early in the year, with D men far on the perimeters in loose formation while Taveres and Matthews are skating down the middle. If we had the firepower of TOR, we could probably have won more in Bones' system. I don't want to go back to that, but we need to perhaps glide back to the middle of the D/O balance.
While Otter is clearly off his hot streak, and down to a mid pack goalie at the moment (he will return at some point to his top form) I still place most of the recent goals against responsibility on our D. Vs. Toronto, the 3 goals against him probably totaled from 30-40 feet of distance, or an average of 10-12 feet out, and he got beat by two elite scorers from in tight, similar to the goals given up against MN. Goalies are gonna get beat from there. Yes, a few came from his lack of rebound control and those mad scrambles, but even then, earlier in the year our D (including forwards) were getting to and clearing those pucks more often than they are currently.
