GDT: Habs @ Leafs - 7pm - Sportsnet

[Confucius]

Running Nylander and Marner on their own lines to see you can carry the offense on their own abilities would be a true test to validate contracts.



Why does Marner always need to be paired up with someone else, to prop him up statistically?

If he wants to be paid like Nylander shouldn't he be capable to do that on his own merits?

Nylander is being moved and tested as a centre because its a more impactful and carries more resposnsibilities, which means he won't be propped up by Matthews/Tavares other centres at ES 5V5.

So JT was propping up William last season?

 

[notbias]

""

Cowan, Holmberg and Robertson given opportunities to succeed. Lorentz given his first look, on a 4th line where nobody on paper should be together.

The McMann - Nylander - Robertson line is intriguing, because I think that'd push Marner or Domi (likely Domi) to Tavares' line, and I actually think that line with a passer could be good.

Also, get Domi and Nylander away from each other.

Nice to get a look at the opening night D too.

 

[HockeyVirus]

OurLeafs have a history of playoff failures. For the last 8 playoffs they have on;y once got by the 1st round.

IMHO, our Leafs need to take this pre-season more seriously. They need to establish a winning culture, especially with a new coaching staff, and the fact that they have had a poor record of success in the playoffs the last 8 seasons.

Our very highly paid core needs to start leading this team to higher success. Let's progress towards winning the division at least. Our Leafs needs to show progress in reaching the conference finals too.

I don't give a crap about other teams and their records. Our Leafs need to change their playing standards now, that leads to better playoff success now. IMHO, this starts the moment that they play against regular season opponents in pre-season.

Every year they seem to stall in the 1st round. That needs to change if a Stanley Cup championship is going to become reality before this group of players ages out.

JMHO.

If they went undefeated all pre-season (where half the games is their AHL/ECHL roster and it doesn't matter at all for what the big boys do) AND went undefeated for the first 20 games it would STILL mean absolutely nothing for the playoffs.

All of this is them learning a new system and changing habits. All I care about is they are in a playoff spot in April and rolling at that time. Not now.

 

[Leafs87]

Reaves vs Xyagshdv tonight?

 

[Aashir Mallik]

Excited to get another look at stolarz

He was good in his first outing, hopefully he looks good here too

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

The McMann - Nylander - Robertson line is intriguing, because I think that'd push Marner or Domi (likely Domi) to Tavares' line, and I actually think that line with a passer could be good.

Also, get Domi and Nylander away from each other.

Nice to get a look at the opening night D too.

Nylander and domi didn't look good together because neither Nylander or Domi are good defensively.

Nylander and Robertson are not going to work together because Nylander is not good defensively and much like Domi neither is Robertson

 

[notbias]

Nylander and domi didn't look good together because neither Nylander or Domi are good defensively.

Nylander and Robertson are not going to work together because Nylander is not good defensively and much like Domi neither is Robertson

Domi is by far the worst one there.

 

[notdoneyet]

This team without Auston Matthews gives a clear vision where this team really stands overall in Cup competitiveness.

Take the 70 goal scorer out of the picture [temporarily] and you get a pretty good vision of depth and team building strategies.

This team is going to go as far as Matthews will carry it, and who are the other impact players or just the followers/passengers.

87 thousand posts and you spew this kind of garbage
Where would oilers be without mcdavid
My god what a revelation
Imagine a team without their top player lol

Look at our history of wins and losses when matthews missed time

 

[DragoGrizzly]

87 thousand posts and you spew this kind of garbage
Where would oilers be without mcdavid
My god what a revelation
Imagine a team without their top player lol

Look at our history of wins and losses when matthews missed time

Yup Leafs are 39-19-2 without Matthews in the lineup. We must be pretty deep then! Cup here we come, we’re contenders baby!!

 

[Dekes For Days]

Seems pretty stupid to not ever play our best defensive prospect in preseason.

 

[DragoGrizzly]

I’m really curious to see how Cowan looks tonight. He’s been playing to not make a mistake, I hope playing with two extremely skilled guys helps unwind him a bit. He just hasnt seemed to be able to find the space he did last preseason even.

 

[Fogelhund]

Seems pretty stupid to not ever play our best defensive prospect in preseason.

Preseason isn't over.

There could be a valid reason he hasn't played... minor injury maybe? What I find weird about it, is there is complete radio silence around it. No media commenting, or asking about him.

 

[no2ninja]

Generally preseason games are there for new guys to build chemistry and the team to work out their roster spots, however we have a new coach. New goaltending.

Fan's are excited to see how everything comes together and we all hope to see a bit of what is to come for this season. If there were no changes, same coaching, I wouldn't really care all that much, but I have to admit that I am looking forward to tonight even though it is a preseason game.

Also Pacioretty has me very excited, I love his sound bites, he seems like a stand up guy and a credit to the locker room. I have a feeling he is going to be a huge part of this teams success.

 

[jiggy35]

Hope McMann - Nylander - Robertson looks good, really could have 3 dangerous lines if they gel.

Knies - Matthews - Domi
Pacioretty - Tavares - Marner
McMann - Nylander - Robertson

 

[Gary Nylund]

Yes, I'd like to see them together longer before I call them a good duo.

They've been great in their time together though.

Marner led our team in points during his contract year.

If we want to question if Marner was a driver during that year, I question who was driving the line for Matthews last year.

Maybe Domi and Marner were driving the line with Matthews and he was the passenger?

Marner sucked these playoffs, no complaints with that statement, Domi wasn't good either though.

He has shown that, our board just ignores it.

If you added consistently to that, I'd agree.

And all our stars need to.

No, I am not blind, I just have the ability to remember the good he's done in the playoffs as well as the bad.

I don't think I've said anything about a "good duo", just pointing out that Matthews produced just as much with Domi as with Marner so the idea that he needs Marner to produce took a big hit.

LOL at Matthews being the passenger, I'll assume you're not being serious there and just say LOL again.

I don't care much about how many points Marner gets during the regular season, and what he's done lately carries a lot more weight than what he did years ago. This applies to all players as a general rule and Marner sucked in the playoffs not just last season, but also against Florida. And Domi was fine in the playoffs, if he had an 11 million dollar cap hit then I'd say otherwise.

You can lump all our starts together if you like but to my mind, JT and Marner have been much bigger disappointments than Matthews and Nylander. JMHO.

 

[Larcos_Unal]

Knies - Matthews - Marner
Domi - Nylander - Jankrok
McMann - Tavares - Robertson
Pacorietty - Kampf - Cowan/Holmberg/Reaves

This is very close to what I think we'll end up seeing:

Knies - Matthews - Marner
Domi - Nylander - Jarnkrok
McMann - Tavares - Pacioretty
Holmberg - Kampf - Reaves

 

[Dekes For Days]

Preseason isn't over. There could be a valid reason he hasn't played... minor injury maybe? What I find weird about it, is there is complete radio silence around it. No media commenting, or asking about him.

Preseason isn't over but not getting into any of the first 3 games is unacceptable if he isn't injured, which he doesn't seem to be.

 

[thewave]

Preseason isn't over but not getting into any of the first 3 games is unacceptable if he isn't injured, which he doesn't seem to be.

Are you saying fire Keefe?

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Knies - Matthews - Marner
Domi - Nylander - Jarnkrok
McMann - Tavares - Pacioretty
Holmberg - Kampf - Reaves

This team is slow.

Nylander must be the fastest.

 

[RunItBackAgain]

This team is slow.

Nylander must be the fastest.

Deceptively slow. The D is worse.

 

[thewave]

This team is slow.

Nylander must be the fastest.

Somehow it never dawned on me. You're right. We are a slow team.

 

[Sypher04]

So dramatic.

I couldn’t imagine living in these people’s constant state of outrage. Sounds miserable and utterly exhausting for a hobby

 

[Racer88]

Domi is a blackhole defensively, and I'd like to see more than half a season of them together.



This is how Marner got his first contract and now everyone cries about it.

Shouldn't you bring up the playoffs and how Domi dropped off significantly when discussing how good he was too?



Pretty much anyone who followed hockey for more than the last few seasons already knows, who is he supposed to be showing?

Marner got his contract because Dubas was an ATM

 

[Sypher04]

Another 'who cares' pre-season game. Our Leafs play like they don't care, while the Habs take the game seriously and try to win the game.

Being win less in pre-season means nothing. It's not important to set a precedence of a winning culture before the games count for real. One just needs to flick on that competitive switch once the games count for real, especially when the playoffs start for real.

Take this game off Auston, there is no reason to get yourself into game shape for the regular season and beyond.

This whole post is beyond ridiculous but I’d like to specifically address the bolded statement.

First of all, we’ve played two games. But despite your trying to mock the concept, preseason results do in fact mean nothing and this has been proven repeatedly over the years

 

[notbias]

Marner got his contract because Dubas was an ATM

Sleeping through the current contracts being signed? Same thing is happening.