Sharks vs. Maple Leafs - Mar. 27th, 10:30pm - SN, TSN 1050

[Bill_Berg]

We need a new Gary Roberts.

 

[cw]

I dunno, but when you look at the "Core Four" and their 82-game average based on their playoff numbers... man, those regular season numbers take a HUGE nosedive:

Marner- 14g 70p per 82 game avg 1216 TOI in 57 games
Matthews- 34g 72p per 82 game avg 1155 TOI in 55 games
Nylander- 30g 65p per 82 game avg 958 TOI in 54 games
Tavares- 26g 52p per 82 game avg 723 TOI in 38 games

Now obviously the style of play in the playoffs, particularly conerning the calibre of opponents the Leafs have played, are both factors in limiting some of the offense, but that top line is seeing some serious drop offs, despite playing so many minutes and with only each other. Nylander has seen a fair bit less ice time, and that also includes being saddled with Connor Brown, Marleau, Galchenyuk, Foligno and Kerfoot for large portions of that time, so his numbers imo are fairly impressive. If Marner and Matthews are, again, stuck to the hip this playoff run, they have to find another gear. They certainly are paid to play that way, anyway.

ppg typically dips in the playoffs but not typically as much as some of those.
When a team lacks secondary scoring ("saddled with Connor Brown, Marleau, Galchenyuk, Foligno and Kerfoot for large portions of that time"), the opponent can focus on defending the fewer players that have scoring ability which certainly explains a hunk of the dip in ppg.
If they do not present other scoring threats - like the 3rd line we've talked about all season, it will continue to be hard for them to find another gear in ppg unless they take more risks which will result in higher GAA.
The notion that the core 4 don't care or aren't man enough or whatever is BS (I'm not suggesting you said that - others have floated it). Steve Yzerman, after years of playoff futility that had Detroit fans and media questioning his ability and leadership, can tell you all about that. It is a team sport.

 

[L K]

I get that money is always going to be an issue but lets compare bottom 6's of other "contending" teams:

Toronto - Domi, Robertson, Laughton, Kampf, Jarnkrok, Lorentz = 11.4M

Tampa - Bjorkstrand, Gourde, Goncalves, Glendenning, Chaffee, Girgensons = 10.85M
Florida - Lundell, Boqvist, Greer, Sturm, Rodrigues, Luostarinen = 14.625M
Winnipeg - Niederreiter, Namestnikov, Perfetti, Gustafsson, Tanev, Barron = 14.9M
Washington - Mangiapane, Raddysh, Eller, Duhaime, Dowd, Beavillier = 13.7M
Colorado - Wood, Coyle, Colton, Kelly, Drury, O'Connor = 15.35M
Dallas - Benn, Johnston, Dadanov, Back, Steel, Bourque = 15.5M (9M from Benn)
Carolina - Martinook, Staal, Stankoven, Robinson, Jankowski, Svechnikov = 16.24M (7.75M from Svechnikov)

Leafs are definitely on the low side but I still think the Leafs have struggled to allocate the limited budget well enough to target players with a role. The Leafs bottom 6 is always just a collection of guys. They never go all in on roles. It's just get some random guys and stick them together.

Kampf is a good penalty killer and an ok defensive player but he's not a shutdown centerman. He's not going head to head with McDavid. Domi has a lot of positives to his game but he's an atrocious defensive player and his offense is unreliable. Laughton/Jarnkrok...are guys. They don't really have a purpose with any of their bottom 6 lines. Go all in on defense only...fine. They don't do that. Go all in on smash and bang hockey...they don't do that. Go all in on all-offense....they don't do that.

 

[Chris]

Leafs are definitely on the low side but I still think the Leafs have struggled to allocate the limited budget well enough to target players with a role. The Leafs bottom 6 is always just a collection of guys. They never go all in on roles. It's just get some random guys and stick them together.

Yep, 100% agree and have said it before but I do like the term "just a collection of guys" (I think I've used "leftovers" but same idea). They never have seemed to decide exactly what those 2 lines should do/be and as a result they don't really do anything very well. Scoring line and shut down line? Scoring line and crash/bang line? Two shut down lines? Go out and get those players and make it happen. Maybe Berube needed to go through a whole season with this crew before he could really decide what he had and what he needs to add but I don't know, I'm not seeing a lot of evidence of creative thinking from him.

 

[Frank E]

We need a new Gary Roberts.

Grebenkin has 2g and 4 points in 5 games for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms since his trade to Philly.