Pre-Game Talk: It’s almost time.... Habs @ Leafs | Wednesday @ 7pm

[Cor]

Kerfoot might be ready for Wednesday after all

 

[Mess]

Our defense is just as good as theirs, if not better. I'd take Rielly over Weber. We have Muzzin and Brodie as #2s, and, Lehtonen is looking like a sure fire top 4D.
Our offense is way better than theirs. Tavares, Matthews, Marner, and, Nylander are better than any forward they have.

I'm talking about this becoming a heated rivalry more based on WILL then on SKILL.

This IMO is going to be more about old time hockey, were aggressiveness and physical contact though hitting and and 50/50 puck battles won through engaging and battling, which will play larger roles in games than in the past, where high speed and skill was on display and physical contact an after thought.

I guess you could frame that as more "Hockey and less Figure Skating" to determine the outcome, and hopefully our Leafs have the intestinal fortitude to be willing to engage when the going gets tough. This by both internal maturity and personal growth of our talented players and new additions added to surround them.

Nobody can question the Leafs skill level of its individual players but we have seen that skill depressed by hard hitting or tight checking system in the past which nullifies the effectiveness of skilled players when he game turns away from free flowing and end to end rushes to generate offense, and more a willingness to play in traffic and engage physically to maintain that skill advantage. Taking a hit to make a play and driving the net in heavy traffic to generate offense as Leaf evolve into a more complete team that can be successful regardless style of play in games.

With Ottawa and Calgary both icing a Tkachuk in Leafs Div, this is going to extend beyond just Montreal where I'm expecting more heated rivalry's and more traditional hockey.

PS. Remember Leafs offense was far better #3 best in GF vs Columbus #3 worst and we saw how that turned out.

 

[Dion TheFluff]

Is it just me or is Montreal's defense incredibly underwhelming? They rave about it like its the best in the north division, but they're running out:
Chiarot-Weber
Edmunson-Petry
Kulak-Romanov
Mete.

Not to homer here, but that's definitely worse than ours imo.

agreed Petry is a stud and Weber is still solid but Edmundson and Chiarot are both massively overrated (by their fanbase in particular) and Romanov is still a huge wildcard (for better or for worse)

 

[ottomaddox]

It’s almost time!

Doubt anything changes from the standard lines we’ve seen. Perhaps Kerfoot is healthy enough to play. I assume we will see our waivers dump today.

expected lineup:

Thornton - Matthews - Marner
Vesey - Tavares - Nylander
Mikheyev - Engvall - Hyman
Barabanov - Spezza - Simmonds

Rielly - Brodie
Muzzin - Holl
Lehtonen - Bogosian

Andersen
Campbell

Let's do this! Go Leafs Go!

 

[Rob Brown]

Engvall down to the Marlies.

 

[IPS]

Romanov is 5-11

We have Lehtonen at 6-0 as our smallest.
Brodie is 6-1 and everyone else is 6-2 or bigger.

Lehtonen is 190 and Brodie is 180. These are very small defensemen. I could see teams causing us problems down low and in front of the net with Rielly-Brodie on the ice.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

for all the additions Dubas made, Engvall and Dermott losing their spots for no good reason arguably makes the Leafs a worse team than last year. Very questionable decision making

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Engvall down to the Marlies.

As is Liljegren, although that should come as no surprise given the RD depth.

I guess Sandin, Boyd, Dell, and Brooks are considered the taxi squad? The latter three still require waivers to get there though, and I am not sure Sandin should be on the taxi squad over Rosen/Marincin.

 

[Rob Brown]

for all the additions Dubas made, Engvall and Dermott losing their spots for no good reason arguably makes the Leafs a worse team than last year. Very questionable decision making

Dermott is still with the team.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Dermott is still with the team.

not in the lineup though. Going from Dermott to Bogosian is a pretty heavy downgrade and hard to agree with

 

[Rob Brown]

not in the lineup though. Going from Dermott to Bogosian is a pretty heavy downgrade and hard to agree with

We don't really know anything for sure yet. Regardless, it's going to be a weird year and all these guys will end up playing games.

 

[X66]

for all the additions Dubas made, Engvall and Dermott losing their spots for no good reason arguably makes the Leafs a worse team than last year. Very questionable decision making

I think they'll find themselves back in the line-up.

 

[IPS]

agreed Petry is a stud and Weber is still solid but Edmundson and Chiarot are both massively overrated (by their fanbase in particular) and Romanov is still a huge wildcard (for better or for worse)

There's a reason St. Louis didn't care about losing Edmundson despite not being that strong on LHD. He's just not that good.

 

[Cor]

Wow. This surprises me. I really liked how Lehtonen looked on Saturday, and he's been playing actual game action since the summer essentially.

Though, perhaps they want to start Dermott to get him up to speed, since Lehtonen is already in "game shape"

 

[Rob Brown]

Wow. This surprises me. I really liked how Lehtonen looked on Saturday, and he's been playing actual game action since the summer essentially.

Though, perhaps they want to start Dermott to get him up to speed, since Lehtonen is already in "game shape"

@CantLoseWithMatthews there you go lol

 

[Advanced stats]

Lehtonen is 190 and Brodie is 180. These are very small defensemen. I could see teams causing us problems down low and in front of the net with Rielly-Brodie on the ice.

Lehtonen is listed at 196 and Brodie is our smallest at 185...which is by no stretch, "very small"

On the flip side, Mete, Romanov and Kulak are all in the mid-180s and Petry is less than 200 as well

 

[Stigma]

Engvall down to the Marlies.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

not in the lineup though. Going from Dermott to Bogosian is a pretty heavy downgrade and hard to agree with

I mean to me it is just all depth. Covid is a thing and all of these guys are going to get game time. Who plays the first game doesn't really mean much to me. If Dermott is riding the press box 3 weeks into the season then yeah something should change lol

 

[JT AM da real deal]

I would disagree with Edmundson being > Holl.

Edmundson is very much the same as Holl where it entirely depends on who their partner is. If they have the right partner they are a stable #4, while if they don’t, they aren’t much more than a bottom pairing player.

I think that’s entirely a wash.

(though, I suppose maybe you were giving the Habs the bias to counter act the argument of leafs bias)

Not even remotely right here on this take ... skill levels are not even close ... Edmundson is a beast in defensive end --- he fight for pucks, he turns over pucks back to his partner on boards and in front of net, he can eat a puck at will against anyone, he blocks shots, he can throw you threw da boards, he has great defensive reads, he is very aggressive which dissuades attackers from going to net, he can fight anyone and he can play right side with anyone in a top 4 role ...

Holl has skill sets of a #7 defense in league who is playing up in our top 4 which still tells you we don't have a solid top 4 defense yet ...

 

[diehardleafsfan9878]

By old time hockey , do you mean pre 1995 NHL or 2019/20 nhl?

I mean by how there will hardly be any penalties called.

 

[IPS]

Lehtonen is listed at 196 and Brodie is our smallest at 185...which is by no stretch, "very small"

On the flip side, Mete, Romanov and Kulak are all in the mid-180s and Petry is less than 200 as well

I assume you're getting those numbers from NHL.com? they're not accurate. We have a fresh update of our players' size this camp.



Mikko Lehtonen: 6'0 187
TJ Brodie: 6'1 181

That's very light for defensemen and they could easily face problems against bigger forwards.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Not even remotely right here on this take ... skill levels are not even close ... Edmundson is a beast in defensive end --- he fight for pucks, he turns over pucks back to his partner on boards and in front of net, he can eat a puck at will against anyone, he blocks shots, he can throw you threw da boards, he has great defensive reads, he is very aggressive which dissuades attackers from going to net, he can fight anyone and he can play right side with anyone in a top 4 role ...

Holl has skill sets of a #7 defense in league who is playing up in our top 4 which still tells you we don't have a solid top 4 defense yet ...

I think you might be confused we are talking about Joel Edmunson not Chris Pronger!

 

[ToDavid]

Engvall down to the Marlies.

Man there must be more to it than a few bad days at camp. Management must have been really pissed at him over how the second half of his season went last year. Still time for him to bounce back, he's waiver exempt for now.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Wow. This surprises me. I really liked how Lehtonen looked on Saturday, and he's been playing actual game action since the summer essentially.

Though, perhaps they want to start Dermott to get him up to speed, since Lehtonen is already in "game shape"

Perhaps they want to give Lehtonen more time to learn the systems? It requires more than than a guy like Barabanov, who is on the 4th line and will have a much simpler role.

I am surprised they are keeping Sandin on the taxi squad. I don't see him getting a ton of ice time.

 

[ottomaddox]

Wow. This surprises me. I really liked how Lehtonen looked on Saturday, and he's been playing actual game action since the summer essentially.

Though, perhaps they want to start Dermott to get him up to speed, since Lehtonen is already in "game shape"

Can't believe Dermott is there. Hopefully it's written in pencil.

Sheldon,

Ya want an erasure?