The thing is the Leafs have been struggling to score for a month. They had 20 goals in Carlyle's last 9 games with the team. They have 7 in Horachek's first 4 games. So cheating rush hockey would have given them a whopping two more goals on the trip.
The flip side is that their shots against are way down. Bernier has an .875 SV%. He really hasn't been good in the last 4 games. Not a guy who I would lay all of the blame on, but certainly not a guy who has stepped up his game and been a brick wall for the team.
This, however, is exactly what I wanted to see. Can the team play defense AND offense. If not you blow the roster up in the offseason, but you are setting up the guys who can adapt to be part of whatever moves forward next year. If Gardiner still looks bad, you trade him. If Kessel struggles, maybe you move him, etc. That's not an evaluation for 4 games. It's an evaluation for the rest of the year (or at least until the trade deadline, especially with our UFAs).