Guilt Trip
Active member
How dare you show stats to back up your claim...CarltonTheBear said:
2018-19 Toronto Maple Leafs - General Discussion
- Thread starter herman
- Start date
herman
Well-known member
I'm all for the Matthews burger med br?d line and I do think we'll see it eventually.
I don't think it's a vendetta thing against Nylander, per se, more like stress-testing the depth and combinations before the stretch drive after the deadline. I don't mind Nylander and Matthews figuring out what they can accomplish without each other to develop other aspects of their game: Nylander passing to a shooter who has some of the worst luck and getting over the mental hurdle of doing the work even when the results don't show up; Matthews working with wingers that can't hold the puck and love to shoot to round out his playmaking abilities. Is that exactly what Babcock is trying to accomplish? I can't know that, but while we're here, that's the benefit I see.
There are line combos in the backpocket that we know already work from earlier in the season or previous seasons:
Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
Hyman-Tavares-Marner
Marleau-Kadri-Marner
Johnsson-Kadri-Nylander
Johnsson-Kadri-Kapanen
Brown-Kadri-Nylander
Lindholm-Gauthier-Moore
Right now, I think it's a good time to work on weaknesses. Down the stretch, it'll be better to lean into strengths as benches shorten. If we want to let Marleau play out his contract gracefully, it would be good to take some of his shifts and bump them to Johnsson in certain situations.
I don't think it's a vendetta thing against Nylander, per se, more like stress-testing the depth and combinations before the stretch drive after the deadline. I don't mind Nylander and Matthews figuring out what they can accomplish without each other to develop other aspects of their game: Nylander passing to a shooter who has some of the worst luck and getting over the mental hurdle of doing the work even when the results don't show up; Matthews working with wingers that can't hold the puck and love to shoot to round out his playmaking abilities. Is that exactly what Babcock is trying to accomplish? I can't know that, but while we're here, that's the benefit I see.
There are line combos in the backpocket that we know already work from earlier in the season or previous seasons:
Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
Hyman-Tavares-Marner
Marleau-Kadri-Marner
Johnsson-Kadri-Nylander
Johnsson-Kadri-Kapanen
Brown-Kadri-Nylander
Lindholm-Gauthier-Moore
Right now, I think it's a good time to work on weaknesses. Down the stretch, it'll be better to lean into strengths as benches shorten. If we want to let Marleau play out his contract gracefully, it would be good to take some of his shifts and bump them to Johnsson in certain situations.
Sometimes I like to go through old threads and laugh at posts that haven't aged very well. With the Marleau talk I decided to check the thread from his signing. Get a load of this idiot, very first post in the thread:
Well... the first part obviously still holds up but man has my opinion on Hyman done a 180 in the past 1.5 years. Also imagine that we HAD signed Thornton that summer... might have made signing Tavares impossible due to cap constraints. Thankfully Lou wasn't as good of a recruiter.
CarltonTheBear said:
Well... the first part obviously still holds up but man has my opinion on Hyman done a 180 in the past 1.5 years. Also imagine that we HAD signed Thornton that summer... might have made signing Tavares impossible due to cap constraints. Thankfully Lou wasn't as good of a recruiter.
CarltonTheBear said:
That must have taken some digging. I should do the same.... I am sure we would all think differently if we knew then what we know now.
I do not have to look for a post to remember that I thought Strome was the better pick than Marner. I guess that is why I am not a hockey executive or scout.
Highlander
Active member
Oh Lord, what will it take to get Johnson on a line with Matthews and Kapimanprincedpw said:
hockeyfan1
New member
How to correct this in time for the playoffs? Nothing new that we don't already know bit a nagging one nevertheless...
[tweet]1095414360137191426[/tweet]
[tweet]1095414360137191426[/tweet]
Strangelove
New member
So Babcock has Hainsey back on the top pairing, rather than playing our newly acquired, actual top pairing defencemen there.
Babcock sees this:
It really is another Polak / Komarov situation.
Babcock sees this:
- Morgan Rielly without Ron Hainsey this season: 53.65 CF%
- Morgan Rielly with Ron Hainsey this season: 48.58 CF%
It really is another Polak / Komarov situation.
Guilt Trip
Active member
I think it's more about keeping Rielly on his strong side. I didn't notice that Dermott was on the right side with Gardiner so maybe they're going to get Dermott used to the right side???Strangelove said:
mr grieves
New member
Guilt Trip said:
Yes, that's what it's about:
But... 5 points in six games is pretty much his pace on the season, isn't it? And Strangelove's process stats are what they are. Your best righty is your four/fifth best defenseman. That's just the way it is.
Strangelove
New member
Guilt Trip said:
Why can't Muzzin play on the right side with Rielly? Why doesn't the lefty/righty strong side rule apply to Hainsey?
The bottom line is that the Leafs' 5th or 6th best defencemen (a lefty) is being played as a top pairing defencemen. To me that's almost impossible to justify. The same way it was hard to justify Babcock's use of Komarov and Polak throughout the season last year (and to a lesser extent, Babcock's use of Marleau over Johnsson this year).
I'm not saying it'll cause the team to lose, because they're a great team with just about any lineup. But Babcock's player usage could be improved.
OldTimeHockey
Active member
Strangelove said:
Perhaps it's not about that top pairing. Perhaps about protecting Zaitsev?
Really don't think I saw any issues with Rielly on the right side in the games I've watched since the Muzzin trade. Hopefully it's given another shot but that seems unlikely, at least this season.
Guilt Trip
Active member
Well it does force Dermott to play the right side now with Rielly, Muzz and Gardiner there so maybe he'll end up being there.
Highlander
Active member
I love Jake Gardiner, I really do, but Rosen would be a good replacement and perhaps we can trade Jake for #2 or # 3 RHD man which is our main need. There aren't to many RHD men on the Marlies either except for Lillypad and he is still a project, an injured one at that.
ZBBM
Active member
(I posted this in the GDT today but thought I'd put it here too just because I'd love to hear how other folks feel.)
For all the sky-is-falling pushback, does anybody share with me just the teeniest sense of disappointment that, good as the Leafs are, it seemed at the start of the season like they should be closer to the kind of dominance TBL is showing? Yes, I understand TBL is having a fantastic season. But the fact is, there is them, and then there are about 6 teams right at the Leafs point level. Heck, the lowly Islanders are ahead of us in the standings. (Their fans must be having a hell of a lot of fun this morning at our expense.) Anybody laughing at Lou now?
So yeah, I'll just come out and say it: I am a little disappointed. It's not just that they crapped the bed last night; it happens. It's that there are too many nights where they don't bring their "A" game consistently. And given the forward talent, I don't think we should accept that.
The narrative going in to the season was that the Leafs would have 3 lines that would be almost impossible to contain. That they would be dominant. I never thought they would be quite as good as TBL. But they don't give me the sense of being a dominant team.
I'm not naive, this is the best Leafs team in 50 years and I've never enjoyed watching them more than this year. I'm just being honest, was hoping for a little bit more.
For all the sky-is-falling pushback, does anybody share with me just the teeniest sense of disappointment that, good as the Leafs are, it seemed at the start of the season like they should be closer to the kind of dominance TBL is showing? Yes, I understand TBL is having a fantastic season. But the fact is, there is them, and then there are about 6 teams right at the Leafs point level. Heck, the lowly Islanders are ahead of us in the standings. (Their fans must be having a hell of a lot of fun this morning at our expense.) Anybody laughing at Lou now?
So yeah, I'll just come out and say it: I am a little disappointed. It's not just that they crapped the bed last night; it happens. It's that there are too many nights where they don't bring their "A" game consistently. And given the forward talent, I don't think we should accept that.
The narrative going in to the season was that the Leafs would have 3 lines that would be almost impossible to contain. That they would be dominant. I never thought they would be quite as good as TBL. But they don't give me the sense of being a dominant team.
I'm not naive, this is the best Leafs team in 50 years and I've never enjoyed watching them more than this year. I'm just being honest, was hoping for a little bit more.
Highlander
Active member
I totally agree with you ZBBM. The Leafs should be able to dominate most games with their offensive firepower. An engine just missing one spark plug won't work and perhaps a player like Johnsson may have made a difference last night.
What really bothers me is they seem to lack the killer instinct. Hey when you get someone down put your skate on their throat and press hard.
The weird thing is they came out of the gate for the first 6 minutes like gangbusters and then they said this isn't working tonight and seemed to give up. Not good enough.. Oh and where has Marner disappeared to?
What really bothers me is they seem to lack the killer instinct. Hey when you get someone down put your skate on their throat and press hard.
The weird thing is they came out of the gate for the first 6 minutes like gangbusters and then they said this isn't working tonight and seemed to give up. Not good enough.. Oh and where has Marner disappeared to?