Avalanche @ Leafs - Nov. 10th, 7:00pm - TSN4

[Chris]

Nylander is an enigma. He's going to play his hundred foot game regardless of the coach and his team. He's done that since he showed up. Matthews and Marner are into two way hockey. Nylander isn't. When the guy won't make a consistent effort defensively, you have to question his desire to win hockey games. He's a world class, superlative offensive talent who isn't into playing two way hockey. Phil Kessel was like that and he did alright so it isn't the end of the world. Nylander is a hard guy to read regardless.

I'm still kind of hoping the Leafs fire Hiller and bring in Tortorella, just to see how he interacts with Nylander.

 

[rjd]

I'm still kind of hoping the Leafs fire Hiller and bring in Tortorella, just to see how he interacts with Nylander.

Rogers may do that just for the ratings.

 

[cw]

I'm still kind of hoping the Leafs fire Hiller and bring in Tortorella, just to see how he interacts with Nylander.

This tagging thing has their hands tied. Merzlikins and his $4.4M might be back next month so the cap is going to get tighter - harder to have guys on the IR, etc. I fear a trade for the sake of shaking things up out of a position of weakness.

So I was wondering something similar.
If not Tortorella, Bruce Boudreau.
I think they would light a fire among players starting games half asleep.
Both are short wick coaches.
But this is a short term 'No Cup in the cards for you anyway' problem
Chayka has to be feeling some heat ...

Having said that, I don't think Hiller has been terrible. He came in under difficult circumstances. They have not had a lot of practices. But they've got no passion ...

They have to do something fairly soon or the season is over - they'll be in too deep of a hole