Rangers @ Leafs - Feb. 23rd, 7:30 - SNO, TSN 1050

[CarltonTheBear]

@

38-19-2, 78 points | 28-20-11, 67 points

Projected Lines

Vesey-Stepan-Nash Kreider-Zibanejad-Zuccarello Grabner-Hayes-Miller Buchnevich-Lindberg-Fast McDonagh-Girardi Staal-Holden Skjei-Klein Lundqvist ​

Hyman-Matthews-Nylander Komarov-Kadri-Leivo JVR-Bozak-Brown Martin-Gauthier-Soshnikov Rielly-Zaitsev Gardiner-Marchenko Hunwick-Polak Andersen​

Scratches

Matt Puempel Brandon Pirri Adam Clendening ​

Connor Carrick Martin Marincin Mitch Marner​

Game Notes

NYR
?Henrik Lundqvist (27-14-2, 2.63 GAA, .912 Sv%) will likely start for the Rangers

TOR
?Andersen (24-13-10, 2.81 GAA, .913 Sv%) will likely start for the Leafs
?The Leafs will be without Connor Carrick tonight, Alexey Marchenko will make his Leafs debut in his place
?Mitch Marner will miss another game because of his injury

Injuries

​

?Nathan Horton - Back - Out indefinitely ?Joffrey Lupul - ?\_(?)_/? - Out indefinitely ?Stephane Robidas - Old - Out indefinitely ?Mitch Marner - Shoulder - Day to day ?Connor Carrick - Upper Body - Day to day​

Stream Options

https://www.reddit.com/r/NHLstreams
​

 

[Zee]

Tough game tonight, hope they can pull out any kind of win, even a shootout is acceptable.

 

[herman]

Haha, Michael Grabner is +28 this year, and the Leafs said, "Sorry, no thanks" to him in the offseason because they wanted Matt Martin instead.

 

[Zee]

Haha, Michael Grabner is +28 this year, and the Leafs said, "Sorry, no thanks" to him in the offseason because they wanted Matt Martin instead.

Not like anyone could see that coming.  Grabner hadn't had a 20 goal season since 2011-12 season.  He's also shooting 20% this season which is unsustainable based on his history.

 

[herman]

Not like anyone could see that coming.  Grabner hadn't had a 20 goal season since 2011-12 season.  He's also shooting 20% this season which is unsustainable based on his history.

This is more where I was going with it. The goals are just gravy.
Grabner: 1.65M/yr until 2018
Martin: 2.5M/yr until 2020

Also, Grabner plays an effective speed-based aggro PK, whereas Martin tends to cause PKs (albeit not the worst on our team, a la Polak).

 

[dekedastardly]

With Boston & Florida both losing last night, a win would be nice to separate them from those two a little. Go Leafs go

 

[Can8899]

Haha, Michael Grabner is +28 this year, and the Leafs said, "Sorry, no thanks" to him in the offseason because they wanted Matt Martin instead.

Not like anyone could see that coming.  Grabner hadn't had a 20 goal season since 2011-12 season.  He's also shooting 20% this season which is unsustainable based on his history.

Agreed, and to be honest with this group I'd rather have Matt Martin on the team.  He not only fills a role on the ice but off the ice as well it seems. 

His contract is not too expensive in my eyes, just maybe a little long.

 

[Andy007]

Haha, Michael Grabner is +28 this year, and the Leafs said, "Sorry, no thanks" to him in the offseason because they wanted Matt Martin instead.

Not like anyone could see that coming.  Grabner hadn't had a 20 goal season since 2011-12 season.  He's also shooting 20% this season which is unsustainable based on his history.

More to this point, not only didn't Grabner score or produce here, he looked absolutely awful despite given ample ice time and opportunity. Rags really lucked out with him this year.

 

[herman]

Not sure what you mean by awful, Andy. Good aggressive defense leading to multiple breakaways that he happened to whiff on? Ridiculously good PK for a terrible team? Perfect model for the more skilled Kapanen and Hyman and Soshnikov to learn from?

The argument for Martin is that scoring isn't everything and he's a good influence on the youth and he's not that expensive. Grabner is better in pretty much all those categories and he can move up and down the lineup.

 

[Redleaf]

Yeah. This ones a long shot from where I'm standing. I guess that would make a win tonight all that more impressive should they pull off an upset. Go Leafs Go!

 

[Frank E]

Not sure what you mean by awful, Andy. Good aggressive defense leading to multiple breakaways that he happened to whiff on? Ridiculously good PK for a terrible team? Perfect model for the more skilled Kapanen and Hyman and Soshnikov to learn from?

The argument for Martin is that scoring isn't everything and he's a good influence on the youth and he's not that expensive. Grabner is better in pretty much all those categories and he can move up and down the lineup.

Sure, and let's remember that Grabner had a grand total of 9 goals in 80 games last year.  Nobody here shed a tear when he signed with NYR.

I think you could argue that Leivo, or Kapanen, or leaving Michalek or Laich on the team would have resulted in a more versatile player available vs. Martin...but they wanted a physical policeman in the lineup over any of those options.

 

[louisstamos]

The Leafs have beaten the Rangers once already this year, 4-2 on Jan 13th (on the road even).  Even though we lost the 2nd game, the Rags aren't invincible.  I think we can take 'em!

#optimism

 

[Coco-puffs]

Haha, Michael Grabner is +28 this year, and the Leafs said, "Sorry, no thanks" to him in the offseason because they wanted Matt Martin instead.

Beating a dead horse again eh herman  

Management felt Martin was required so that the team didn't get pushed around- something Babcock felt happened a lot last year.  Grabner would not have helped in that department.  From an analytics standpoint, for sure Martin isn't a great signing, but he certainly isn't Orr or McLaren out there.  The team didn't sign him for that reason though and you've made your point that you don't agree with that philosophy.

DJ Smith begged to bring back Grabner btw.  Management felt he would have taken a spot from a rookie who deserved a spot in the lineup.  It was never a Martin vs Grabner choice.  They felt Martin was required.  They would have liked Grabner back too, but then they don't have room for all the pretty good rookies they felt deserved to be with the Leafs.

 

[Andy007]

Not sure what you mean by awful, Andy. Good aggressive defense leading to multiple breakaways that he happened to whiff on? Ridiculously good PK for a terrible team? Perfect model for the more skilled Kapanen and Hyman and Soshnikov to learn from?

The argument for Martin is that scoring isn't everything and he's a good influence on the youth and he's not that expensive. Grabner is better in pretty much all those categories and he can move up and down the lineup.

Yea it could be that those whiffed breakaways are clouding or skewing my memory a bit.

I can't believe the output though. He's even getting less ice time in NY than he was here.

 

[herman]

Yea it could be that those whiffed breakaways are clouding or skewing my memory a bit.

I can't believe the output though. He's even getting less ice time in NY than he was here.

Yeah, you're not alone in that. Shooting percentage based decisions were one of the first things Dubas and the analytics team taught Shanahan and Co. to watch out for. Regardless of Grabner's terrible whiffs (which he did often cause himself, I freely admitted at that time), he always played himself into position to generate those chances. I'm also glad he did whiff on so many of them because, hey-o, Matthews is a Leaf.

Looking at the Leafs pipeline coming up in the next few seasons, we're looking at a team where the filler will be Grabner-esque players, and it would've been pretty good to have his brain to pick on the bench about the playing aggressive, skilled defense.

Beating a dead horse again eh herman  

Nay, that horse has clearly yet to be slain.

 

[wnc096]

Haha, Michael Grabner is +28 this year, and the Leafs said, "Sorry, no thanks" to him in the offseason because they wanted Matt Martin instead.

Beating a dead horse again eh herman  

Management felt Martin was required so that the team didn't get pushed around- something Babcock felt happened a lot last year.  Grabner would not have helped in that department.  From an analytics standpoint, for sure Martin isn't a great signing, but he certainly isn't Orr or McLaren out there.  The team didn't sign him for that reason though and you've made your point that you don't agree with that philosophy.

DJ Smith begged to bring back Grabner btw.  Management felt he would have taken a spot from a rookie who deserved a spot in the lineup.  It was never a Martin vs Grabner choice.  They felt Martin was required.  They would have liked Grabner back too, but then they don't have room for all the pretty good rookies they felt deserved to be with the Leafs.

Exactly.  Martin was on this team with or without Grabner.  He would be subbing Soshnikov or Connor Brown ice time,  Good for the Rangers... but no chance he pull of his numbers in T.O

 

[Kaberle15]

Go Leafs Go!

 

[disco]

It'sgamedayeahhhhhboyyeeeeee ;D

 

[herman]

https://mapleleafshotstove.com/2017/02/23/mike-babcock-game-60-wanted-chance-chance/

Shocked by what Grabner has done this year?

Babcock: No, not really. Grabby played junior in Spokane. I?ve known Grabby forever. He came in, was real good for us. We wanted him back big time, the coaches did. So did Lou. But we wanted to play our kids, so we chose not to do it. He had a 100 breakaways last year, went 0 for 100. Last time he played us, he went 2 for 4. I don?t know what happened the other time, but I think we should keep his breakaway count under four tonight.

Also this:

What?s been the key to the ability to stock the right side as much as you have this season, and maybe look back to the draft and the organization?s development capabilities?

Babcock: I bug Hunts all the time. He was a right winger. He loves good right wingers. I like center and D, though. We got to get that changed over time. I have no idea why he finds a good right winger all the time. No idea.

 

[disco]

https://twitter.com/markhmasters/status/834887486312689669
https://twitter.com/markhmasters/status/834887273648963584
https://twitter.com/markhmasters/status/834888833145655296