OldTimeHockey
Active member
Nik said:
Bingo. I had to read it three or four times.
2021-22 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion
- Thread starter herman
- Start date
Bingo. I had to read it three or four times.
Heroic Shrimp
New member
https://twitter.com/PR_NHL/status/1516597213874606080
Heroic Shrimp
New member
I?d kind of rather face Tampa in the first round but I guess I?ll take what I get.caveman said:Boston moving close to Tampa... :
https://twitter.com/jonassiegel/status/1516600568625643532
Is this good?
Is this good?
bustaheims
Active member
CarltonTheBear said:
Not when the Panthers are winning 11 straight. It's obvious that the Leafs are a clownshoes organization in comparison.
Redleaf
Active member
CarltonTheBear said:
I know there?s a lot of people saying that if the Leafs don?t get past the first round this year Dubas?s job should be on the line.
I don?t think Dubas gets enough credit for the job he does tbh. Every year he?s been GM this teams gotten better and better. His club gets better each draft, better each summer and better after each trade deadline. Just like the Matthews and Marners on this team, his ability to improve this team upon past seasons is remarkable.
I don?t see any reason, regardless of what happens in the playoffs to let Dubas walk and have this process start anew with someone else. At least not anytime soon. He?s learning and improving by leaps and bounds right now, just like his young players.
Bill_Berg
Active member
RedLeaf said:
The NHL playoffs have become a coin flip. Firing Dubas because he lost that coin flip too often is silly. If there is a push to change the makeup of the team, then perhaps a new GM is needed, but Dubas had plan that everyone must have agreed to, and he's done well implementing it. If they want to change that plan, unless Dubas refuses or something, then why can't he be in charge of implementing it?
herman said:
At Herman, I thought you would love this. Evidence of how tough Nylander can be in those physical battles.
(Nylander IS tough along the boards. The problem is that he typically wins the puck and uses his strength to fend off defensemen rather than losing the puck and hitting a guy as he passes it out of the zone
RedLeaf said:
I agree. While there are always things to complain about, I?d prefer Dubas over most other GMs. A team?s record in the playoffs just isn?t under all that tight control by a GM. There is too much luck: Kadri suspension, Kadri suspension, Tavares injury?any one of those change and the leafs are winning rounds.
Bunting - Matthews - Marner
Engvall - Kerfoot - Nylander
Mikheyev - Tavares - Kase
Simmons/Spezza - Kampf - Blackwell
Any chance we see that in the playoffs? It really does help to have Kase ? need that one extra guy with speed, puck possession and a bit of finish to have enough players for the 3rd and 4th lines.
Engvall - Kerfoot - Nylander
Mikheyev - Tavares - Kase
Simmons/Spezza - Kampf - Blackwell
Any chance we see that in the playoffs? It really does help to have Kase ? need that one extra guy with speed, puck possession and a bit of finish to have enough players for the 3rd and 4th lines.
herman
Well-known member
princedpw said:
It's funny, what you've described is one of those quirks of stats being only trackable-tangible results and you really have to eye-test the hell out of the games to see, instead of reading spreadsheets and watching highlights. Stats only give you what happened. Watching the plays show you how it happened. Digging into the player's skills/assets and coaching explain/steer the why it happens. Usually fans just moralize about whatever they remember, which is pretty limited.
Hanging onto the puck through traffic generally doesn't show up on the stat sheet except in a more macro/multi-game view as there is generally a shot generated after. And there are many ways in which a player can drive play (CF%, xGF%), but puck holding and generally executing more successful chains of offense are why the Leafs are successful in those stats (and game results) in the Keefe era.
The other plays that people generally ascribe as toughness (finishing a check after a breakout pass) show up as hits or blocking a shot -- i.e. he didn't have the puck. That being said, there is value still in having players skilled in hitting to separate pucks from players and blocking shots in the right spots (blueline turnovers). Again, that's stuff that needs to be eye tested out instead of just lauding a high hit/block total.
herman
Well-known member
princedpw said:
I think Blackwell gives a reasonable approximation of Kase, just as Giordano gives us what we lost with Muzzin losing mobility this season (and then some).
I also think that's sort of the ideal set up on the lineup card and in the general course of play. Then it accordions down to specialist lines as the situation dictates: Engvall-Kampf-Mikheyev for those DZ draws in high leverage, or Nylander peppered into top-6 OZ draws off icings.
