Wild @ Leafs - Nov. 12th, 7:00pm - SN

[Guilt Trip]

Nylander leads NHL forwards this season in even strength goals against. If he's not in the mood to backcheck or make an effort, as we have seen with some periodic regularity over the years, they get lit up.

In his defence this season, when he and McKenna are on the same line, you may/probably have the two worst Leafs forwards defensively together. That helped push him to the top of the list. When you have a 100 foot winger, you need to have him playing with a 200 foot center and a 200 foot winger. Someone on the line has to be interested in making the consistent effort to play defence. That is not Nylander and as a string of Leafs coaches have found out, you can't teach an old dog new trick

Problem is, no one has the balls to sit his ass. No matter who he plays with he's the defensive liability. Defence is effort and 88 doesn't give a shit about it 95% of the time. He's not a team player. World class talent and by all accounts a great person for sure, but a terrible teammate. The effort on D would piss a lot of guys off and you can't have that.

88 5v5 goals against with different C's...
Tavares...10
Matthews...5
Paul...5

 

[dappleganger]

The problem is that the decision to trade those picks was made in a season where they thought they would be contenders for a couple of seasons. They underestimated the impact of Marner, and here we are. The picks are gone. They have to make smart decisions from here on out. I don't think the decisions they have made are stupid per se. Bobrovsky was a gamble. It hasn't paid off. The injuries are a piling up. Hillier so far does not inspire me as a coach.

Bobrovsky wasn't just a gamble, it was a long shot. The odds of getting a positive return on investment of 3-years/$7m for Bob was so infinitesimally small it wasn't worth the risk.

 

[dappleganger]

The problem is that the decision to trade those picks was made in a season where they thought they would be contenders for a couple of seasons. They underestimated the impact of Marner, and here we are. The picks are gone. They have to make smart decisions from here on out. I don't think the decisions they have made are stupid per se. Bobrovsky was a gamble. It hasn't paid off. The injuries are a piling up. Hillier so far does not inspire me as a coach.

I missed the third

https://twitter.com/x/status/2121083489370153247

Nylander obviously getting roasted for this, but they switched to a man-to-man system and that's definitely something that can happen on a cross-over drop (a highly effective play for a reason). I think it would be good for the player who sees it coming to bark on-ice orders (something Stolarz does well) to coordinate these things.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2121071280321667288

I did not expect Willy to show up that high on this (Matthews shifts towards the end?); probably explains why they shifted Cowan off.

Anyway, I think the lines benefited from Cole McWard vs busted Tanev

I actually think that was on OEL and not Willy. I think Willy was right in going to cover the man in the middle up high leaving OEL to cover in front of the net.


Also, who is this Cole McWard guy and why is he the best defenseman on the Leafs?

 

[herman]

I actually think that was on OEL and not Willy. I think Willy was right in going to cover the man in the middle up high leaving OEL to cover in front of the net.

Specific situation aside, if he wants to continue to be paid as he is by Toronto, he needs to step up (or adjust) his game, especially if he's not actually playing through injury right now. It's a lot easier to push him out the door with Marchenko in the fold.

The Leafs need Willy to be a second Auston Matthews on his own line, not merely Will Ny the (only) Scoring Guy. Most of his development years had him yanked off high leverage defense situations for Marner/Brown/Hyman etc. so I get why he's still bad at it, but it's well past time to man up and help set a proper standard for the team.

 

[YYZ]

Specific situation aside, if he wants to continue to be paid as he is by Toronto, he needs to step up (or adjust) his game, especially if he's not actually playing through injury right now. It's a lot easier to push him out the door with Marchenko in the fold.

The Leafs need Willy to be a second Auston Matthews on his own line, not merely Will Ny the (only) Scoring Guy. Most of his development years had him yanked off high leverage defense situations for Marner/Brown/Hyman etc. so I get why he's still bad at it, but it's well past time to man up and help set a proper standard for the team.

I don't think he's bad at defense. I have seen him skate, catch up to opposing players, get body position, lift sticks, strip pucks. He's fast and he's strong and smart at hockey.

He just doesn't want to play defense. He wants to use his energy on the rush. He doesn't want to expend that energy in the opposite direction. That's the thing that is frustrating with Nylander is we know he can do it, he just doesn't want to.

This team isn't built to be able to hide Nylander's unwillingness to play defense.

 

[cw]

Problem is, no one has the balls to sit his ass. No matter who he plays with he's the defensive liability. Defence is effort and 88 doesn't give a shit about it 95% of the time. He's not a team player. World class talent and by all accounts a great person for sure, but a terrible teammate. The effort on D would piss a lot of guys off and you can't have that.

88 5v5 goals against with different C's...
Tavares...10
Matthews...5
Paul...5

It isn't just reflected in his league high ES GA
He's got a perennial record, among the league leaders of forwards, for low hits/60 and low blocked shots/60. He's been doing that his whole career. He does not like getting bruised.

So what does a guy like Tanev think about that sitting there in the same locker room after a game nursing his bruises/sacrifices?
Maybe some of it is on his teammates for tolerating it.
In years gone by, we had ways of straightening guys like that out.

Lead by example in the games that matter most:

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