Way too much doom and gloom around here. A young team got beat by one of the most talented lines in the league, by a team that is a legitimate contender. This is part of the learning curve. No big deal.
Way too much doom and gloom around here. A young team got beat by one of the most talented lines in the league, by a team that is a legitimate contender. This is part of the learning curve. No big deal.
I know,but there is always wishful thinking.If the leafs wind up playing .500 this season I'll be happy.
Kessel could be 10x more effective on the boards than he is if he actually wanted to. Don't kid yourself, Kessel is not engaging more now than he ever has. It's not that he's losing puck battles on the boards, the battles aren't even happening.
I have no time (or desire really) to re-watch the first four games to make a clip of what I perceive as his improved board work, but I will re-watch tonight's game at some point tomorrow, and will try to post something from this game. The one play that really stood out tonight was in the 2nd period (I believe), when Kessel knowingly took a big hit to ensure the puck got out of our defensive zone. I remember cringing, and thinking that the prototypical Kessel of seasons past would have just bailed on that play.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bunjay
You can tailor the team to Kessel's weaknesses all you want. With Lupul out we don't have what it takes. Sure, move Kadri up. Then we're back to two 'scoring' lines (neither of which have actually played together, and could just as easily fail), a third line that can do nothing and is probably a defensive liability (MacArthur being soft on the boards, Frattin being inexperienced), and a fourth line that gets trusted with 7 minutes a game or less.
Making the lineup is definitely a balancing act, and one that will get tougher with injuries. I agree that the 3rd line could end up being useless, but maybe a Komarov-McClement-Frattin line (I'd prefer Kulemin instead of Frattin, but it's not an option with Lupul out) can be used as a shutdown line of sort. I'm not very high on Frattin's defensive abilities, but now's as good a time as any to hone his defensive game.
I'd rather not have the Grabo line in a dedicated shutdown role, and would prefer to utilize them mostly offensively. Same with the Kessel line.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bunjay
That's pretty similar to where we were in '10-11, is it not? Kessel scored 32, second line scored 80 or whatever it was, and the team sucked.
The '10-'11 team didn't suck because of the lack of offense. Grabo's line scored around 80, while the Kessel line (of various permutations) scored around 58 goals. That's actually not bad for secondary scoring, considering the Russian roulette that was happening on Kessel's opposite wing.
The Kessel line had a dedicated puck retriever/net presence for most of the season (be it Kulemin, Caputi, Mitchell, Armstrong, Crabb, or Lupul), except for the relatively short Versteeg/Kadri experiments. Some of the teams decided to mark the Kessel line, the rest checked the Grabo line. When one line was shut down, the other usually stepped up. The major difference between then, and now is that back then, on most nights, both lines were buzzing, and creating chances. Even during Kessel's infamous slump, he was generating plenty of offensive chances.
I have no time (or desire really) to re-watch the first four games to make a clip of what I perceive as his improved board work, but I will re-watch tonight's game at some point tomorrow, and will try to post something from this game. The one play that really stood out tonight was in the 2nd period (I believe), when Kessel knowingly took a big hit to ensure the puck got out of our defensive zone. I remember cringing, and thinking that the prototypical Kessel of seasons past would have just bailed on that play.
We are not even close to the Oilers! The Oilers have AMAZING young talent that we have none of.
Hall, RNH, Yakupov... ALL 1st overall picks. Then add Eberle to that. We have nothing compared to them, just overrated/overpaid passengers.
The Leafs need to finish last a few years in a row and get the 1st overall pick a few times. These 5th overall just don't seem to be working out.
The oNLY way to build a Championship team is through the draft. These accelerated rebuilds do not work, you just end up with a bunch of old players like Komisarek, Connolly and so on that can't win.
I swear that Leafs have already started tanking, sending Gardiner down albeit a conditioning assignment and playing KOSTKA 31+MINUTES!? That guarantee's us getting Jones, since Lottery is against dead last winning lottery now.
I swear that Leafs have already started tanking, sending Gardiner down albeit a conditioning assignment and playing KOSTKA 31+MINUTES!? That guarantee's us getting Jones, since Lottery is against dead last winning lottery now.
If you didn't read it fully, I said that the Lottery favors a team that is not dead last to win the lottery, which means that the last-placed team would get knocked down to #2.
Who would be interested in him/his contract though?
Hmmm.
I see a Phaneuf for Stastny deal working, but if we were going rebuild idk what team to go too. Maybe try to get the Schenn bro's back for Phaneuf lol??
We are not even close to the Oilers! The Oilers have AMAZING young talent that we have none of.
Hall, RNH, Yakupov... ALL 1st overall picks. Then add Eberle to that. We have nothing compared to them, just overrated/overpaid passengers.
The Leafs need to finish last a few years in a row and get the 1st overall pick a few times. These 5th overall just don't seem to be working out.
The oNLY way to build a Championship team is through the draft. These accelerated rebuilds do not work, you just end up with a bunch of old players like Komisarek, Connolly and so on that can't win.
Actually, it looks as though recently all of our higher draft picks have been turning out pretty well. If you count the Schenn for JVR swap as well.
