Red Wings @ Leafs - Dec. 23rd, 7:30pm - SN, Fan 590

[CarltonTheBear]

@

15-13-5, 35 points | 23-10-2, 48 points

Projected Lines

Nyquist-Larkin-Abdelkader Athanasiou-Nielsen-Vanek Bertuzzi-Glendening-Rasmussen Ehn-De La Rose-Frk Cholowski-Daley Kronwall-Jensen Ericsson-Hronek Bernier ​

Johnsson-Tavares-Marner Marleau-Matthews-Kapanen Brown-Kadri-Nylander Lindholm-Gauthier-Marlie Rielly-Hainsey Gardiner-Zaitsev Dermott-Ozhiganov Sparks​

Scratches

Wade Megan ​

Martin Marincin Justin Holl​

Game Notes

DET
?Bernier (5-9-1, 3.38 GAA, .898 Sv%) will likely start for the Red Wings
?The Wings are coming off a 2-1 loss to Florida on Saturday night that saw the team outshoot the Panthers 34-23. Howard was in net for that one so the former Leaf will get the start here
?The Wings will be the 5th straight team Toronto has faced that sits outside of the playoff picture in the East
?Nyquist and Larkin are doing their gosh-darn best to keep Detroit relevant. Both players have 13 points in 12 games in the month of December
?Detroit's current defence group has 44 points between them all this season

TOR
?Sparks (4-1-1, 2.84 GAA, .913 Sv%) will likely start for the Leafs
?Tyler Ennis is going to be out for awhile after breaking his ankle against the Rangers. We're waiting to hear which Marlie will be called up but I mean it's going to be Trevor Moore
?Morgan Rielly has 42 points this season

Injuries

?Mike Green - Ankle - Injured Reserve ?Athony Mantha - Hand - Injured Reserve ?Danny DeKeyser - Hand - Injured Reserve ?Darren Helm - Shoulder - Injured Reserve​

?Tyler Ennis - Ankle - Injured Reserve ?Zach Hyman - Ankle - Injured Reserve​

Stream Options

https://www.reddit.com/r/NHLstreams
​

 

[Zee]

Who is this young Marlie you speak of? Perhaps I should get his jersey

 

[Kin]

Detroit's 4th line has some pretty great names.

 

[Zee]

$200 Frk..."I'd like to buy a vowel Pat, I'd like an e"

"Oooh, sorry no e's"

 

[Guru Tugginmypuddah]

$200 Frk..."I'd like to buy a vowel Pat, I'd like an e"

"Oooh, sorry no e's"

"What the Frk?"

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/jonassiegel/status/1076861789143367680

It?shappening.gif

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/theoakleafs/status/1076855356813303810

Nylander is in the first 5 game pointless streak (and first pointless streak spanning more than 3 games) since March 24-31, 2016.

 

[herman]

Consider this: Matthews is still trying to get his legs and wind back from his month off from injury. You just don?t notice as much because he?s still being fed tasty passes on the power play. He had the benefit of a full training camp and month of game play.

Nylander has none of those things working for him.

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/scottcwheeler/status/1076879331169841153

 

[ZBBM]

Detroit's 4th line has some pretty great names.

Exactly what I was thinking.

 

[ZBBM]

Consider this: Matthews is still trying to get his legs and wind back from his month off from injury. You just don?t notice as much because he?s still being fed tasty passes on the power play. He had the benefit of a full training camp and month of game play.

Nylander has none of those things working for him.

I guess there's no possible way to criticize Nylander without being countercriticized as knee-jerky but not only hasn't he looked even intermittently dangerous most of the time he's not doing anything.  He's been in enough games now to have had the equivalent of a training camp.  If he doesn't start playing better real soon after this next break then he'll be out of excuses IMO.

I'm a big fan of his and I hope he gets it going tonight.  But then again, I expected him to start feasting on these weaker teams the last couple of games.

 

[Zee]

Consider this: Matthews is still trying to get his legs and wind back from his month off from injury. You just don?t notice as much because he?s still being fed tasty passes on the power play. He had the benefit of a full training camp and month of game play.

Nylander has none of those things working for him.

I still want to see if Nylander can be as good as Marner as lots of people think, cause Marner is on a crazy 110 point pace right now. If we could have 2 wingers like that....

 

[herman]

Consider this: Matthews is still trying to get his legs and wind back from his month off from injury. You just don?t notice as much because he?s still being fed tasty passes on the power play. He had the benefit of a full training camp and month of game play.

Nylander has none of those things working for him.

I guess there's no possible way to criticize Nylander without being countercriticized as knee-jerky but not only hasn't he looked even intermittently dangerous most of the time he's not doing anything.  He's been in enough games now to have had the equivalent of a training camp.  If he doesn't start playing better real soon after this next break then he'll be out of excuses IMO.

I'm a big fan of his and I hope he gets it going tonight.  But then again, I expected him to start feasting on these weaker teams the last couple of games.

As a mild point of comparison, Johnny Gaudreau missed training camp and played in the World Cup and signed on the night before the season started and was largely garbage until December that year.

 

[Phileas Fogg]

I guess there's no possible way to criticize Nylander without being countercriticized as knee-jerky but not only hasn't he looked even intermittently dangerous most of the time he's not doing anything.  He's been in enough games now to have had the equivalent of a training camp.  If he doesn't start playing better real soon after this next break then he'll be out of excuses IMO.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Clearly his timing has been off, and that's understandable, but I'm less sympathetic to his lack of conditioning, which has been obvious up to this point. I think his fans have been over the top in their excuse making, and his critics equally so in his shortcomings. The truth is somewhere nicely between at a 6.9M player, and it'd be good to start seeing some of that creamy middle in his play over the next few games.

 

[bustaheims]

I guess there's no possible way to criticize Nylander without being countercriticized as knee-jerky but not only hasn't he looked even intermittently dangerous most of the time he's not doing anything.  He's been in enough games now to have had the equivalent of a training camp.  If he doesn't start playing better real soon after this next break then he'll be out of excuses IMO.

I'm a big fan of his and I hope he gets it going tonight.  But then again, I expected him to start feasting on these weaker teams the last couple of games.

Sure, and if everyone else was still playing at the pace they did in the first couple weeks of the season, that would be meaningful - but they're two+ months into the season now, and Nylander is still playing catchup. Everyone else is at mid-season pace, and he's still at beginning of the season pace. It's still going to take him time to get to where everyone else is.

 

[Kin]

I guess there's no possible way to criticize Nylander without being countercriticized as knee-jerky but not only hasn't he looked even intermittently dangerous most of the time he's not doing anything.  He's been in enough games now to have had the equivalent of a training camp. 

That's not really how it works though. Think of it like school. If you miss the first month of classes, you won't be caught up with the rest of the class after a month because the rest of the class will still be a month ahead.

Nylander may be in "just out of training camp" form but everyone else will be in mid-season form. Nylander will be making progress to catch up  and will get there eventually but it's not an exact timetable.

 

[herman]

Nylander is not producing not because he's playing poorly or overly tired, but mostly because he's not in sync with his linemates; he's winning his puck battles and causing turnovers and transporting the puck from DZ to OZ fairly consistently as usual, but there's minimal offensive opportunities because he's on a different wavelength when interacting with other players (pace, game speed, and yes game conditioning). And if those puck plays miss even by just a little, it's going back the other way and then you get gassed defending.

You can see similar things with Matthews at times (especially later in games), as both players are missing that give and go, eyes on the back of the head style of play we're expecting of them (plus they're separated at the moment).

Time and time again though, we've seen players bounce back to their steady state of production once everything is up to speed. Johnsson was borderline AHL level at the start of the season (for whatever the offseason reason was), but now he's going. Kapanen can't really carry Matthews so his numbers have followed Matthews' level of play. February is going to be pretty crazy.

 

[bustaheims]

Also, potential silver lining from Nylander struggling - other RFAs will look at how his numbers aren't reflective of where they want to be and the amount of less that ideal attention he gets from the media, and maybe they'll be more open to settling a little to get a deal done sooner rather the risking missing too much of training camp or the beginning of the season.

 

[Redleaf]

Consider this: Matthews is still trying to get his legs and wind back from his month off from injury. You just don?t notice as much because he?s still being fed tasty passes on the power play. He had the benefit of a full training camp and month of game play.

Nylander has none of those things working for him.

I still want to see if Nylander can be as good as Marner as lots of people think, cause Marner is on a crazy 110 point pace right now. If we could have 2 wingers like that....

I don't see it Zee. I've never been one of those that thought Nylander is on equal ground in skill and/or ability with Marner. They're on 2 different levels. Marner is already one of the best (if not the very best) assist men in the game. I think Nylander is an elite player, but in a direct comparison, it is no contest.

 

[Arn]

Probably not going to be able to catch this one live tonight so I hope the Leafs can give us an early Christmas present and sign off for the break with a win.

And let me take this chance to wish all my Leafs brethren from wherever on the globe you may be a thoroughly happy and enjoyable Christmas break!