Strangelove
New member
Brutal by Hainsey on the tying goal and Marner on the winning goal. The Leafs have no offensive spark and no confidence.
Blues @ Leafs - Jan. 16th, 7:00pm - TSN4, Fan 590
- Thread starter CarltonTheBear
- Start date
barney_rebel
Active member
We stink btw.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Strangelove
New member
When do we get to start calling Marleau washed up?
Ok, NOW can we try to blow up the lines?
JVR-Matthews-Nylander
Hyman-Kadri-Brown
Marleau-Bozak-Marner
Martin-Gauthier-Komarov
Puts Marleau in a more sheltered offensive role where he's better suited to succeed.
Re-invents the shutdown unit which has really struggled lately.
Gives an extra offensive pop to Matthews, who hasn't played poorly lately exactly but clearly we all know there's another level he could be playing at.
JVR-Matthews-Nylander
Hyman-Kadri-Brown
Marleau-Bozak-Marner
Martin-Gauthier-Komarov
Puts Marleau in a more sheltered offensive role where he's better suited to succeed.
Re-invents the shutdown unit which has really struggled lately.
Gives an extra offensive pop to Matthews, who hasn't played poorly lately exactly but clearly we all know there's another level he could be playing at.
ZBBM
Active member
CarltonTheBear said:
I think Nylander has, on the whole, been more dangerous than Matthews this year. I know stats won't back that up.
And I still wonder whether Matthews is fully recovered from his concussion. His marvelous talent is still obvious, but yeah, he's not playing at his peak.
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
I know you questioned his play in OT but aside from that I thought this was his best game since returning from the concussion. Hopefully the bye week was able to shake off any leftover effects from that.
Some ice-time observations:
Dermott with just 11 minutes tonight, in case anybody actually thought that Babcock was going to use him every night.
Komarov led all forwards in ice-time with almost 20 minutes, in case anybody thought that Babcock learned his lesson about overplaying him.
Carrick played 22 minutes at 5-on-5 tonight, while Polak was at just 11.5 at 5-on-5.
Polak did play all the minutes short-handed though. And I mean ALL the minutes. The Leafs had 4 minutes of PK time and Polak and Hainsey played the full 2 minutes on both kills. I'm not sure I've ever heard of a team use defencemen like that on the kill before.
Dermott with just 11 minutes tonight, in case anybody actually thought that Babcock was going to use him every night.
Komarov led all forwards in ice-time with almost 20 minutes, in case anybody thought that Babcock learned his lesson about overplaying him.
Carrick played 22 minutes at 5-on-5 tonight, while Polak was at just 11.5 at 5-on-5.
Polak did play all the minutes short-handed though. And I mean ALL the minutes. The Leafs had 4 minutes of PK time and Polak and Hainsey played the full 2 minutes on both kills. I'm not sure I've ever heard of a team use defencemen like that on the kill before.
Boston Leaf
New member
Conor Brown needs more ice time period. Give him 18 minutes a night. Get Leo to 4th line....or something
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
I thought he had a pretty good game but his stamina does seem to be off. Maybe he hasn't recovered yet from all the downtime or has a nagging injury. The bigger problem with that line continues to be the offensive black hole that Hyman represents. I know, I know - he's fast, gets into the corners and sometimes recovers the puck. But...he is not an offensive option when Matthews or Nylander have the puck, and that allows other teams to focus on them. They're playing 2 on 3.
Nylander seems off too in a strange way. I noticed a couple of times tonight when he made some of his trademark moves to get away from a defender, then kind of lazily threw the puck along the boards to no one in particular. Almost like he gave up on the play. I don't remember seeing that last year.
Whole team has seemed off for a while now. How can a team that is so good at penalty killing be so susceptible to last minute goals when the other team pulls the goalie...
herman
Well-known member
A note about deployment: Babcock doesn't control the exact timing of every player; he calls the play and organizes the planning of which groups go out for what situation, and manages the occasional mixes required, but deployment largely falls to the assistants. Ferraro mentioned DJ Smith's role tonight. Deployment adjustments in-game are, at most, figuring out who has got their game going and should receive priority. Real adjustments are made after a stretch of games.
When Babcock said he didn't realize how many minutes Komarov played in a game, he was not being facetious. He starts with a plan and on the fly decisions are made accordingly; he's not checking the clock everytime he has to pick a line as that just leads to overthinking. So sometimes the matchup pushes Komarov's ice time up (he played well). They've taken him off the PP since that crazy 24-ish minute game he had a couple of weeks ago.
Interestingly enough, the thing that has actually overruled Babcock's famous stubbornness is Bettle's sports science department. Injuries are getting extra rest time, practices are short, days off are taken even when they aren't mandated by the league, and the ice time in general has been very balanced for the top 6/top 4. Having to keep some of that stuff in mind is probably one of the additional reasons Babcock really leans on his 'safe' guys -- no need to add decision overhead about how to shelter them on his go-to lines. All the sheltered ones are sort of piled together.
Polak getting dialled back tonight is as much about sheltering Dermott as it is about recognizing that Polak has lost a step (and is being targeted by most opposing coaches). Bye week probably meant a lot of time for the video guys to put some targeted stuff together for the coaches to actually digest.
When Babcock said he didn't realize how many minutes Komarov played in a game, he was not being facetious. He starts with a plan and on the fly decisions are made accordingly; he's not checking the clock everytime he has to pick a line as that just leads to overthinking. So sometimes the matchup pushes Komarov's ice time up (he played well). They've taken him off the PP since that crazy 24-ish minute game he had a couple of weeks ago.
Interestingly enough, the thing that has actually overruled Babcock's famous stubbornness is Bettle's sports science department. Injuries are getting extra rest time, practices are short, days off are taken even when they aren't mandated by the league, and the ice time in general has been very balanced for the top 6/top 4. Having to keep some of that stuff in mind is probably one of the additional reasons Babcock really leans on his 'safe' guys -- no need to add decision overhead about how to shelter them on his go-to lines. All the sheltered ones are sort of piled together.
Polak getting dialled back tonight is as much about sheltering Dermott as it is about recognizing that Polak has lost a step (and is being targeted by most opposing coaches). Bye week probably meant a lot of time for the video guys to put some targeted stuff together for the coaches to actually digest.