Comedy Platinum out of Toronto - "Canada's Team" quest for the Cup

Steve Briere, who had no NHL experience before Babs & Co hired him which was a nice change from guys like Allaire and St. Croix who both were old school guys with padded resumes including Cup wins.

He's done some fine work thus far IMO.

 

Well, my son is impressed with the work he did with McIlhiney.

 

Well, it was definitely a concussion. A "normal" one, whatever that means.

Leafs' Matthews felt 'normal concussion symptoms' - Article - TSN

 

Sure looked like it based on his immediate reaction after the collision.

Hope they were exercising extreme caution, and does not become a persistent problem

 

Leafs took 13 of 24 pts from this stretch so far. Other than TB and SJ, the remaining teams on this home stand are all struggling at the moment. Gonna have to pick up some points here to make up for those dropped December ones otherwise the Leafs might find the Panthers nipping at their heels by the all star break.

 

It'll be nice to see Dermott get a couple of games in (guessing he'll be in the box tomorrow) before Zaitsev returns. Hopefully he can make a good impression.

 

The Rielly Factor.

 

Few thoughts:

-Dermott looked good, albeit against one of the league's worst teams in a game the Leafs made so much harder than it needed to be.

-Jake Gardiner looks like shit. Something is very wrong there - a lot may be his linemate (both before and after Zaitsev's injury) but he's not innocent here. If they keep Dermott up and he can handle a bit more of a workload I'd like to see him on his off-side paired with Jake for a bit.

-Likewise, Ron Hainsey is being made to look much better these days by Morgan Rielly. Rielly looks like a Norris contender out there some days.

-The PP is trash. Fix it.

-The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player. The Goat is not an NHL player.

-Leafs are bottom third in shots for, third-last in shots against and 18th in corsi. These things, along with a lot of the above, is shit Babcock has the single-handed ability to improve and needs to. He's the highest-paid coach in the game, go earn your fucking money. This roster is capable of much better and he needs to answer why it isn't playing better.

-Leafs' break week starts after the game vs. the Snes on Wednesday, followed by the ASG break two weeks later. Thanks schedule-makers!

 

Or, are they just a mediocre team?

Outside of Matthews, you can go up and down the roster and critique every one of them. Except maybe Rielly, but he had a pretty weak December as well.

 

11 pts in 13 games in December for Rielly...Weak? I'm too lazy to go look it up by month but he's at 52% corsi while 54.6% of his zone starts are in his own end for the year. He's been an all star IMO.

Other players may not be doing great, particularly Nylander/Marner/Brown, but they're second-year guys. I'm not looking to roast them. Kadri's been kinda butt since December started but showed some signs of life this week. Bozak's been a decent version of Bozak. JVR's been cold the past few games but he's been pretty good for the year. Marleau is on a 30 goal pace.

After playing him for 24 minutes against SJ, Babcock only played Komarov for 17 on Saturday, hopefully the start of a trend.

You can critique any player for any number of things but as long as his output is better than what he struggles with then I don't really mind it. The coach also has the responsibility to provide the conditions for his better players to excel. For example, I understand the injury concerns over the year but Auston Matthews has only played over 20 minutes 7 times this year. He's played over 21 minutes twice. Compare that to McDavid last season where he only played less than 20 minutes in a game 29 times the entire season last year. Why isn't our best player averaging 22-23 minutes a night? Why does he share a line with Hyman?

The defence isn't great but nothing else with this team is anything coaching adjustments couldn't address.

 

Change "Matthews" to "Werenski" and make your "maybe" Jones, you just described the Jackets.

Mediocre? We will SHOW you mediocre.

 

Pretty mediocre game last night, IMO. Two fairly even teams.

 

Can we agree that Rielly gave away the game against CBJ? That pass was Gardiner-esque in terms of Hockey IQ.

Kid made a mistake. It happens. Leafs had so many chances to put them away, it should never have come down to that play. Hey, I like Rielly. Wouldn't trade him for anything (well maybe for McJesus, but...), I am just not seeing a consistent level of high level play. Yet.

If they make one move before the deadline, I hope they trade Leo for some D help. But he won't get much of anything on the trade market, so that is not going to happen.

Not sure what the team does, if anything for the rest of the season. Giving the kids another year under their belt is not a bad result. But they have to make the playoffs. If they miss for some reason, that could be catastrophic. The kids need that experience to continue to develop.

 

It was a bad moment in what was a good game for him to that point. It happens. Screw-ups like that have been rare for him this year.

 

That's some kind of rotation, eh guys?

 

I thought Dermott has looked just fine on the Leafs backend - However, I'm not being paid 50 shmill to coach the Leafs

 

Maybe there's a benefit to him watching a game from the box, seeing what the better d-men are doing.

If he spends his bye-week working on some particulars with the staff and plays well when games resume I don't think he'll be scratched much after this.

 

As of today, Leafs and the Wild are the only 2 teams at 50 contracts. FWIW

/capfriendly.com

 

I didn't see much wrong with his game in the two that he's already played, and yet here we are.