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What are the playoffs teaching us?

Kessel Run said:
93forever said:
Optimus Reimer said:
Keepers - Gunner, Gardiner, Fraser, Franson
??? - Phaneuf
Gone - Liles

If he was not the captain of the team, would he still be a top pairing d-man?
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Give Fraser/Gardiner a bit of time.  I could see those 2 as the top pair.
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Fraser as a 1/2 D!?  :o

I like him, but he just isn't that.
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I figure the Leafs need a responsible stay at home defenseman while Gardiner is rushing up ice.  Fraser fits that mould and can offer some protection to him in case he  gets targeted on the ice. 
 
One element that I would like to see more of on our defence squad is some pure meanness.
I'm talking Yuskevich/Danny Markov mean. 
With some rule enforcement toning down aggression in front of the net we may have been reluctant to focus on this type of d-man.  But it sure would be nice to be flattening some of these Bruins onto their butts in front of Reims. 
Really making them pay for their time around our net and making their lives miserable.
 
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
Nik the Trik said:
"Is he a complete enough player to be a #1?" and "Would he be a good compliment to someone who is?". For me, both answers are no.
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That's right on the money.  Too good for the second pairing, but not a real fit either as the clear #1 or the complementary guy on the first pairing.

He looked like he was skating in sand in the 3rd tonight.  He definitely gets in trouble when he logs big minutes.
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I disagree completely. I can buy the argument that's he maybe shouldn't be the no.1 guy, but barely. He's a well-rounded defensemen who is very good on offense (9th in dman scoring this year, 12th the year before). The argument that he wouldn't be a good complement to a more talented no.1? That's pretty ridiculous in my eyes.
 
That Grabovski is the competitior that I always though he was/is. He's Timex, takes a lickin and keeps on tickin..  Please hockey gods, give him some good bounces.  Imagine if he had pulled off that little puck flip deal in the third.
 
JohnK's Revenge said:
That Grabovski is the competitior that I always though he was/is. He's Timex, takes a lickin and keeps on tickin..  Please hockey gods, give him some good bounces.  Imagine if he had pulled off that little puck flip deal in the third.
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I agree.
 
Bullfrog said:
I disagree completely. I can buy the argument that's he maybe shouldn't be the no.1 guy, but barely. He's a well-rounded defensemen who is very good on offense (9th in dman scoring this year, 12th the year before). The argument that he wouldn't be a good complement to a more talented no.1? That's pretty ridiculous in my eyes.
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I suppose it depends on what you want from your #2. For me, when I look at what the best D pairings have been in recent years, the #2 guys tend to be smart, physical guys without a ton of flair who make really good decisions and can cover for their partners if need be. Seabrook, Suter, Pronger, Kronwall.

Personally, I don't think it's ridiculous to say that decision making is not one of the strengths of Phaneuf's game.
 
mr grieves said:
But if he's neither a true #1 nor a decent complement to an actual #1, what should be done with him? And what chance of a true #1 with the assets the team would be willing to part with?
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It is practically impossible to trade for a defenseman who is significantly better than Phaneuf.  We really just needed to finish 2nd last in the Schenn year vs 2nd last in Seguin/Kessel year.

List the defensemen at the top:  Chara, Doughty, Keith, Suter, Weber, Subban (?), Karlsson.  I'm sure I'm missing some.  But the teams owning those guys are not going to trade them.  You can't make your team better by trading a guy like Doughty.  Moreover, since we aren't getting one of those guys, I don't see a near-term future in which trading Phaneuf makes us a better team.

I think our best recent chance at improving our defense was Bouwmeester.  A defense of:

Bouwmeester -- Phaneuf
Gunnar -- Franson
Gardiner -- Fraser

would be very solid.  There's no one guy as good as good as Chara, but it is pretty deep and fairly well-balanced.  Adding Bouwmeester at the top would really help the defensive side of our game.  Perhaps Bouwmeester and Phaneuf are split on different lines giving us an effective top 4.
 
Sorry for his injury and all...but he has been a give away machine for many games now....lets forget about him and get Ranger to agree to a Leaf contract.
 
The biggest thing I've learnt from the playoffs is Ron Wilson wasn't a very good coach.  This has been a very short season, without many practices, for Carlyle to implement a proper game plan.  The top four players so far in giveaways are Leaf defensemen.  The Leafs are learning it takes smarts to win.  Everyone makes mistakes, everyone loses.  Winners will learn.  The Leafs did, came back and won.  Small victory, but it shows they might be finding their way to success.
 
I've learned that "playoff experience" is one of the most over-used and overrated media-driven terms I've heard.

I've learned that the Matt Frattin from the first 10 games of the season is not a fluke.  He's been playing really well out there.

I've also learned that Ryan O'Byrne should not pull the trigger on that lakeside condo deal.  Stay with the short-term rental.
 
I've learned this team has gone from being defensively jittery, scrambling and all over the place...  to being stable, sound and capable of handling a big tough team in really really critical games.

Whatever happens tonight, IMO this team has taken a massive leap forward.
 
For the first time in a very long time the leafs have an identity. An identity lost in the Ballard years of impulisive changes of course guided by not wanting to pay good players. To Pat Quinn's signing stars past their prime hampered by exchange rate of Canada US dollars. He traded off the future to win now. To Ferguson who virtually decimated the team with bad deals and poor decisions. Then Burkes rebuilding slow and metodically. The amazing thing is that the Leaf team was worse than an expansion team when He started. Out side of maybe over paying for Kessel. Now the team has developed character and an identity no matter what the outcome tonight they can build upon.
 
Hampreacher said:
For the first time in a very long time the leafs have an identity. An identity lost in the Ballard years of impulisive changes of course guided by not wanting to pay good players. To Pat Quinn's signing stars past their prime hampered by exchange rate of Canada US dollars. He traded off the future to win now. To Ferguson who virtually decimated the team with bad deals and poor decisions. Then Burkes rebuilding slow and metodically. The amazing thing is that the Leaf team was worse than an expansion team when He started. Out side of maybe over paying for Kessel. Now the team has developed character and an identity no matter what the outcome tonight they can build upon.
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You forgot the Fletcher team from the early 90s after the Ballard era. They definitely had an identity and a ton of heart on that team that wouldn't quit even when the odds were against them.
 
Hampreacher said:
To Pat Quinn's signing stars past their prime hampered by exchange rate of Canada US dollars. He traded off the future to win now.
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That's a complete oversimplification of Pat Quinn's years with the team. Burke made just as many "win now" moves as Quinn did.
 
The fundamental cruelty of the universe and whatever deity or force you believe governs it?
 
Experience does, in fact, matter when it comes down to crunch time.
Reimer needs to work on his rebound control.
Faceoffs aren't the be-all and end-all, but they matter.
Never take your foot off the gas when you have the other team on the ropes.
 
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