I'm not impressed so far this year, the team already looks stale, it will continue to win enough to make the playoffs but that isn't enough for me and most Leaf fans, anymore.
After 8 games TO's big 4 has 19 goals, the rest of the team 10 goals.
How bad is this, Knies has 9 shots, Domi 10 shots, Jarnkrok 12, Klingberg 8 shots on the #1 PP unit, Kampf 4. These players are expected to contribute to the offense but with 1/10th of the season done it looks like the team outside of the top 4 forwards might be capable of 100 goals, I don't think that's a winning combo.
There might be different things that can be done to improve the scoring imbalance, it's this imbalance that has consistently hogtied the Leafs come playoff time, during the regular season having so few do the scoring works because there are so many weak teams, in the playoffs the weaker teams have been weeded out.
What can be done with TO's current lineup to address the imbalance, I think 2 different approaches should be attempted. 1)strengthen the top 6, right now TO has it's top 5 forwards on the top 2 lines, Jarnkrok doesn't deserve to be there if TO was truly expecting the top 2 lines to carry the offense. I would think either Domi or Knies should be on those top 2 lines to replace Jarnkrok. 2)strengthen the 3rd line, Kampf shouldn't be on the top 3 lines, he is where offense goes to die. In this scenario Jarnkrok could be on the top 2 lines, I would think a decent 3rd line could be assembled with Tie, Knies and Bert.
I can remember my being impressed by Gregor when he played for SJ last year, he isn't shouldn't be on any team's top 2 lines but for the sake of balance, he might be a player that could be promoted, so far this year he's been playing 9:46 ATOI and he's only had 1 goal off of 22 shots. Only 3 players on the Leafs have more shots than Gregor, what might he do with quality linemates?
I like the balanced approach, I think Gregor might be an unmined diamond, Knies is being wasted on any line with Kampf as the center.
So I'm thinking:
Gregor/AM/MM
Jarnkrok/JT/WN
Knies/Tie/Bert
Robertson/Kampf/Blandisi
Reaves is entertaining and probably can continue on TO's 4th line getting around 7 mins. per but finding productivity for every line is probably more ideal, Blandisi has been a decent AHL player and he plays with attitude.
