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2017-18 Toronto Maple Leafs - General Discussion

herman said:
Basically, trying to watch the game through "Babcock's eyes" is helping me have fewer cardiac events this season. I appreciate a coach that never gets too high on the wins and never too low on the losses. He sounds like he's old school and archaic about the way he sees the game, but it demonstrates a strong understanding of PDO effects.
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I appreciate what you're doing, but that certainly doesn't make him immune to deserving criticism. Without doubt, there's a method to his apparent madness. However, I personally don't see it as entirely consistent with some of his previous messages, particularly the ones about merit-based ice time.
 
All we need is a 7 game win streak and all this will be in the rear view mirror, the fact that so many gaffes have been made in the last 5 games and we still came up with at least 1 point is a testament to what this team is capable of.
 
Bullfrog said:
herman said:
Basically, trying to watch the game through "Babcock's eyes" is helping me have fewer cardiac events this season. I appreciate a coach that never gets too high on the wins and never too low on the losses. He sounds like he's old school and archaic about the way he sees the game, but it demonstrates a strong understanding of PDO effects.
Click to expand...

I appreciate what you're doing, but that certainly doesn't make him immune to deserving criticism. Without doubt, there's a method to his apparent madness. However, I personally don't see it as entirely consistent with some of his previous messages, particularly the ones about merit-based ice time.
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That?s sort of my point. It depends on what warrants merit in his eyes.

At a certain point, the training wheels need to come off and I think we?ll be better for it when Marner and Nylander and Dermott are the go-tos.
 
Gauthier has really been playing well lately.  It's amazing to see him take Dominic Moore's job.  I wonder if Moore could be any type of trade piece.  He's good depth I guess.  But the Leafs still have Kapanen waiting in the wings.

I was extremely happy to see the team pull off a late win last night.  It seemed fitting after all the blown leads lately.  Hopefully this is the start of something great.
 
From my limited vantage point, the two biggest needs of the Leafs are a traditional power forward- someone who can do what Hyman does, but a whole lot better, including a scoring touch. Also, a top pairing defenseman.

How are the Leafs going to get these players? I don't know. I'm working for free here. Nice win last night, though.
 
skrackle said:
From my limited vantage point, the two biggest needs of the Leafs are a traditional power forward- someone who can do what Hyman does, but a whole lot better, including a scoring touch. Also, a top pairing defenseman.

How are the Leafs going to get these players? I don't know. I'm working for free here. Nice win last night, though.
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I think Hyman should be one of the last players the Leafs should replace.  I really like him.  He forechecks well and he works extremely hard.

What the Leafs need is *defense*.  I'm not quite sure why they are playing Polak.  I guess they want protection in the lineup for Matthews.
 
sickbeast said:
skrackle said:
From my limited vantage point, the two biggest needs of the Leafs are a traditional power forward- someone who can do what Hyman does, but a whole lot better, including a scoring touch. Also, a top pairing defenseman.

How are the Leafs going to get these players? I don't know. I'm working for free here. Nice win last night, though.
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I think Hyman should be one of the last players the Leafs should replace.  I really like him.  He forechecks well and he works extremely hard.

What the Leafs need is *defense*.  I'm not quite sure why they are playing Polak.  I guess they want protection in the lineup for Matthews.
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I like Hyman. I just think he's more of a 2nd/3rd liner.

I'd love for the Leafs to find a young Bertuzzi/Lucic. Or hey, how about the next Brendan Shanahan or Wendel Clark? A player who could be the real missing piece on a Leafs top line. A disruptive physical force who can take over a game almost by himself.

And yes, defense too, obviously a big need. But, there are some players coming in the system. It's really easy to get impatient. I will say it's easier to be a Leafs fan these days than it was a few years ago, even if the team isn't where you want it to be.
 
skrackle said:
sickbeast said:
skrackle said:
From my limited vantage point, the two biggest needs of the Leafs are a traditional power forward- someone who can do what Hyman does, but a whole lot better, including a scoring touch. Also, a top pairing defenseman.

How are the Leafs going to get these players? I don't know. I'm working for free here. Nice win last night, though.
Click to expand...
I think Hyman should be one of the last players the Leafs should replace.  I really like him.  He forechecks well and he works extremely hard.

What the Leafs need is *defense*.  I'm not quite sure why they are playing Polak.  I guess they want protection in the lineup for Matthews.
Click to expand...

I like Hyman. I just think he's more of a 2nd/3rd liner.

I'd love for the Leafs to find a young Bertuzzi/Lucic. Or hey, how about the next Brendan Shanahan or Wendel Clark? A player who could be the real missing piece on a Leafs top line. A disruptive physical force who can take over a game almost by himself.

And yes, defense too, obviously a big need. But, there are some players coming in the system. It's really easy to get impatient. I will say it's easier to be a Leafs fan these days than it was a few years ago, even if the team isn't where you want it to be.
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Well their defense will get better with time even if they don't make a trade.  They have their first round pick hopefully coming up to the NHL level next season, and Dermott should also improve, he is young.  We'll see.  I kind of hope they do nothing.  The one move I could live with would be to trade JVR for a good young defenseman with years of control left.
 
sickbeast said:
Well their defense will get better with time even if they don't make a trade.  They have their first round pick hopefully coming up to the NHL level next season, and Dermott should also improve, he is young.  We'll see.  I kind of hope they do nothing.  The one move I could live with would be to trade JVR for a good young defenseman with years of control left.
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I certainly agree with a potential JVR trade, assuming of course that the Leafs are able to get a really quality/young defenceman, whose contract might not affect the Leafs plans in the next 2 or 3 years.  Where can they get one?  It is up to Lou to make that assessment I guess.

I just think that JVR is really overrated when it comes to his game.  He doesn't block shots.  (I recall one recent  article indicating that he is one of the poorest shot-blockers in the league but I can't reference it immediately unfortunately).  He is getting slower.  It seems that every time the puck is passed to him on the wing, he is not skating, and all he can do is chip it forward or try to pass it to a faster player.  He has been really invisible some periods.  It was gratifying to see him apparently being benched in the third period of last night's game because he was not skating or hustling well at all, IMHO.

That  new slogan in the Leafs' dressing room about it being a privilege "not a right" to play in the NHL really isn't applicable to Leo or JVR or Polak or Martin because they are playing virtually every game without really producing and not being demoted to the bench or press box.

And with the Shanaplan in place a couple of years ago, and Dubas being hired to augment the stats area of the game, one has to wonder how Babcock's deployment of ice-time is justifiable  (conspiracy analysts notwithstanding) ;).

Finally, a trade for a defenceman should help the Leafs.  But Gudbrandson is not the answer, IMHO.  He was really mediocre with the Panthers.  The fans were not happy with his mistakes in any of the games that I was at.  His agility was so mediocre that a practice that I saw in Florida featured a skating coach a couple of years ago trying to teach him to make a strong turn in skating backwards  (without any appreciable success).  He is not a mobile defenceman and doesn't fit in with the apparent Leafs plans for speed.  (But perhaps there might be a spot for him on a Burke or Noonis team, with their old-school outdated approach).
 
https://theathletic.com/218789/2018/01/22/bourne-and-wilson-a-conversation-on-the-concept-of-luck-in-hockey/

kwilson
To what degree is luck or chance discussed inside of NHL organizations at this point?

jtbourne
That would entirely depend on which room in the building you're in. If you stood in the middle of the dressing room and started walking out in any direction, you'd almost certainly be moving closer to places ?luck? is discussed. The research and development team would talk about it a lot, the front office staff would discuss it ? though maybe not as much ? coaches still discuss it (though even less still), and the players, well, they like to believe their successes and failures are within their control. If you ring one off the inside of the post on an open look, you weren't ?unlucky,? you missed. So when things aren't going well, it's really hard to say to a player ?just keep doing the same thing? ? when that thing isn't working.
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Thank god. I know Gauthier still has some believers around here but aside from that one game the other week he hasn't done anything at this level to suggest he's a NHLer to me. And that includes his play last season too. 38.2% CF in 9 games this season. That's just not going to cut it.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
Thank god. I know Gauthier still has some believers around here but aside from that one game the other week he hasn't done anything at this level to suggest he's a NHLer to me. And that includes his play last season too. 38.2% CF in 9 games this season. That's just not going to cut it.
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Will Kapanen actually play or will Moore just draw in for the goat?
 
CarltonTheBear said:
Thank god. I know Gauthier still has some believers around here but aside from that one game the other week he hasn't done anything at this level to suggest he's a NHLer to me. And that includes his play last season too. 38.2% CF in 9 games this season. That's just not going to cut it.
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I think this Goat is cooked.  I like Fredo a lot, showed a lot of courage coming back from his injury but I have to admit...last night he was terrible. 
 
https://twitter.com/jonassiegel/status/955848912757145600

aVOSkIC.gif
 
These lines are so good. I'd maayybbee swap Brown and Marner just because the Kadri line is going to get hard-matched but I'm willing to give Mitch the challenge here to see if he can rise to the occasion. Kadri can use someone with a bit more offence in his game to try and get him going too.

It's going to suck if we lose tomorrow and never see them again.
 
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