Scoring for Maple Leafs a group effort: Lamoriello

If he had the answer, the Toronto Maple Leafs would have already broken out of their scoring slump.

Maple Leafs general manager Lou Lamoriello doesn't have the answer, but he thinks he has an idea of why Toronto has scored eight goals in its past seven games (1-5-1) and what it need might need to do to break out of the slump, perhaps starting Saturday against the similarly slumping Montreal Canadiens at Air Canada Centre (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, CBC, TVA Sports).

"We did lose our top scorer (James van Riemsdyk to a left foot injury) and certainly that has a bearing, but no excuse because we have to score by committee," Lamoriello said. "It has to be by a group. We have been getting opportunities to score, and we haven't scored."

The loss of van Riemsdyk shouldn't be undersold in all this considering he was on almost a 30-goal pace (14 goals in 40 games) before going out with a left foot injury. But even van Riemsdyk wasn't scoring before he got hurt. He had one goal in his previous six games.

As a team, however, Lamoriello is right in his assessment that the Maple Leafs have had chances to score.

They're averaging 31.6 shots per game and 3.3 power plays per game in the past seven games. That's right on par with their season averages (31.3 shots per game, 3.1 power plays per game). They were scoring 2.6 goals per game through 38 games. They've scored 1.14 in their past seven.

In addition, the Maple Leafs in the past seven games have won 55.7 percent of their even-strength faceoffs, according to war-on-ice.com, which is second in the NHL since Jan. 7, when their losing streak and scoring slump began. Their offensive zone to defensive zone start differential is also positive (53.5-46.5), according to war-on-ice.com.

All that would suggest they're playing well as a team and should be able to score by committee. So why haven't they scored?

"The coach (Mike Babcock) has done a fantastic job here, but people who are getting the opportunities have to take advantage of them," Lamoriello said. "We're at that point in the stage of development and going forward. We are getting opportunities. We have to take advantage of them."

Follow Dan Rosen on Twitter at: @drosennhl