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Capitals @ Leafs - Nov. 25th. 7:00pm - CBC, TSN 1050

Leafs a couple times in the Capitals end were way too soft on the puck at the blue line. At times backing off. Man you got to do whatever you can to keep the puck in.
 
I mean, I just voted for Gardiner/Marner in the MotM thread but upon thinking some more Matthews was probably the best forward.  But that's pretty much a foregone conclusion.
 
Chris said:
L K said:
The Leafs have looked like crap far too often this year.  This should be a fast team and they look painfully slow.  Who is responsible for that problem?
Their speed is overrated. Other than Nylander, Marner and Hyman, which forwards would you consider fast? And Nylander has looked like he's skating in mud lately, Marner is always falling down, Hyman is fast but doesn't handle the puck well.

Marleau's one of the best skaters in the league.
 
Bullfrog said:
Chris said:
L K said:
The Leafs have looked like crap far too often this year.  This should be a fast team and they look painfully slow.  Who is responsible for that problem?
Their speed is overrated. Other than Nylander, Marner and Hyman, which forwards would you consider fast? And Nylander has looked like he's skating in mud lately, Marner is always falling down, Hyman is fast but doesn't handle the puck well.

Marleau's one of the best skaters in the league.

He's a good skater especially for his age, probably a bit above average but certainly not a speed blazer out there.

All the teams we've been playing lately look faster than the Leafs for the most part. Probably system-related but we're not as fast as many claim. We do have a lot of offensive skill though, so we are good at capitalizing on opportunities.
 
Bullfrog said:
Chris said:
L K said:
The Leafs have looked like crap far too often this year.  This should be a fast team and they look painfully slow.  Who is responsible for that problem?
Their speed is overrated. Other than Nylander, Marner and Hyman, which forwards would you consider fast? And Nylander has looked like he's skating in mud lately, Marner is always falling down, Hyman is fast but doesn't handle the puck well.

Marleau's one of the best skaters in the league.

Matthews is pretty quick for a big guy too...and Martin, and Rielly, and Gardiner, and Dom Moore. 

I don't think the Kadri line is what I'd call quick, but the rest of the lines have plenty of speed.

I think this team not having enough speed is incorrect, and is a red herring.
 
They have plenty of foot speed, but it doesn?t matter if they don?t have the puck on their stick. Their passes getting stuffed by defenders gapping up on them is what makes them look slow. Taking too long to decide what to do is what makes them look slow.
 
herman said:
They have plenty of foot speed, but it doesn?t matter if they don?t have the puck on their stick. Their passes getting stuffed by defenders gapping up on them is what makes them look slow. Taking too long to decide what to do is what makes them look slow.

That is what I meant with speed.  This is a quick team when they play their game.  The problem is they are playing the exact same style despite the neutral zone getting clogged for nearly 20 games.  The coaching staff needs to come up with something different because the team is just not performing to their ability.
 
L K said:
herman said:
They have plenty of foot speed, but it doesn?t matter if they don?t have the puck on their stick. Their passes getting stuffed by defenders gapping up on them is what makes them look slow. Taking too long to decide what to do is what makes them look slow.

That is what I meant with speed.  This is a quick team when they play their game.  The problem is they are playing the exact same style despite the neutral zone getting clogged for nearly 20 games.  The coaching staff needs to come up with something different because the team is just not performing to their ability.

Or the players need to recognize when option A is suboptimal and go with an alternate. For coaches, they have to figure out if it?s a matter of system flaw, execution failure, or the other team did something special to earn it.
 
Chris said:
Bullfrog said:
Marleau's one of the best skaters in the league.

He's a good skater especially for his age, probably a bit above average but certainly not a speed blazer out there.

All the teams we've been playing lately look faster than the Leafs for the most part. Probably system-related but we're not as fast as many claim. We do have a lot of offensive skill though, so we are good at capitalizing on opportunities.

We must be talking about two different Marleau's here.
 
Frank E said:
Bullfrog said:
Chris said:
L K said:
The Leafs have looked like crap far too often this year.  This should be a fast team and they look painfully slow.  Who is responsible for that problem?
Their speed is overrated. Other than Nylander, Marner and Hyman, which forwards would you consider fast? And Nylander has looked like he's skating in mud lately, Marner is always falling down, Hyman is fast but doesn't handle the puck well.

Marleau's one of the best skaters in the league.

Matthews is pretty quick for a big guy too...and Martin, and Rielly, and Gardiner, and Dom Moore. 

I don't think the Kadri line is what I'd call quick, but the rest of the lines have plenty of speed.

I think this team not having enough speed is incorrect, and is a red herring.

I don't think the statement was that the team doesn't have enough speed, but it was that they are not as fast as people make them out to be. Just watch the games. As I said, some of it is undoubtedly system-related but on a regular basis, other teams beat us to pucks all game long. I'd say overall we are an above-average team when it comes to skating, but not the fastest by a long shot.

Matthews is a good skater but come on, he's not fast! He does everything else well, though, so it doesn't matter.
 
L K said:
herman said:
They have plenty of foot speed, but it doesn?t matter if they don?t have the puck on their stick. Their passes getting stuffed by defenders gapping up on them is what makes them look slow. Taking too long to decide what to do is what makes them look slow.

That is what I meant with speed.  This is a quick team when they play their game.  The problem is they are playing the exact same style despite the neutral zone getting clogged for nearly 20 games.  The coaching staff needs to come up with something different because the team is just not performing to their ability.

Last night's game was a great example of this. The Leafs didn't look fast in the first two periods. But in the 3rd they dominated because they didn't stop skating and were giving the Caps a fit with their speed.
 

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