The Maple Leafs have a problem on the blueline that cannot be ignored any longer

The Toronto Maple Leafs' defense has come under fire this season and for good reason. They look like they've lost a step or two from last year and the injuries have certainly picked up in recent weeks.

The Leafs have had to reconfigure their defensive pairings quite often, and while they've stuck with the same duos for the last several games, a recent trend has emerged from their third pairing that should force the coaching staff to make some changes imminently.

The duo of Simon Benoit and Philippe Myers never inspired much confidence, but they're somehow playing way worse than ever imagined. Over the last 3 games alone, they've been out-chanced by a gap of 39 and out-shot by 15 among other things, which begs the question of why they're still together.

While it can be a bit unfair since they're a pairing that would primarily start their shifts in the defensive zone, it still doesn't excuse the fact that they're being downright dominated on a shift-by-shift basis for the stretch of these last 3 games.

Unfortunately, breaking them up might not be in the cards, unless Craig Berube and the rest of the coaching staff want to balance out the pairings and have Benoit or Myers playing more important shifts with the likes of Morgan Rielly or Jake McCabe.

An example of what the Leafs might be trying to do is limiting their ice-time and focusing more on the top-4 as we witnessed last night against Montreal. McCabe played 25:30, Rielly saw 19:30, Troy Stecher played 23:24, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson played 23:58. Whereas Myers saw just 12:02 and Benoit played a bit more at 15:04.

While it might be something that can work out in the short-term, playing the other 4 defensemen way more than a typical amount can create burnout and is not a recipe for success.

Moreover, it still puts them in a tough spot for the 10-12 minutes that both Myers and Benoit are on the ice together for, which doesn't solve one of their biggest issues at the moment.

Changes should be made as soon as possible and their next opportunity will come tomorrow night in the form of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Leafs' defense left goaltender Dennis Hildeby on an island to fend for himself last night, so it will be interesting to see if the pairings remain the same in practice tomorrow morning.