Really depends on which team you work in. Sometimes it seems that managers as people think absolute opposite of what their manager roles do. It is hard to understand then what is the real situation and what are just the "manager talks".
Some kind of family connection lacks in many teams between Management/team leaders and team members, so you can't be sure, that team leader will protect you from higher management when something happens. He can just throw everything on you and get rid of his part in the whole situation so he shouldn't be punished from the higher management.