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GDT: Pre-Season Game #2: Toronto @ Montreal | 7pm

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DarkKnight said:
The guys with spots solidified, infer nothing from their first preseason game. It’s the marginal and young guys, even here the first game is suspect to extrapolate. Just one preseason it would be nice to not over analyze, we’ve seen so many guys look great then fall on their face as soon as the season starts. Conversely, if people think you’re going to fly through the neutral zone like we’ve seen in October, forget it, and laughable by March.

I don’t care if a vet dominates or not, if anything I want them to pace themselves. This is meaningless, apart from timing and fitness and nobody here will remember anything about the preseason in a few weeks. Guys who need to make an impression, the only thing remotely instructive.
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Definitely, the fringe guys should look good, if they don't that's a real problem for them since they are closer to NHL level than the further away prospects and should be fighting for an NHL job.

  • Established NHLers, don't really care what they do, it's just a warm up for them
  • Young prospects, show me glimpses of something special, what you might become, I'm not really concerned about mistakes for them
  • Fringe and PTOs, you better be the best players on the ice if you want to make the team
 
The final score aside, I thought there were plenty of positives to take away from the game last night.

We had a significant edge in play at even strength, despite missing so many key regulars. Marner and Mrazek were fantastic. Ritchie and Kase looked like bonafide top 6 forwards. Mikheyev had another strong game (if this guy had any scoring touch he'd be an all star). Brooks looked dangerous all night.

Campbell had a rough outing but it's difficult to blame him on any of the goals he allowed.

Overall, a solid effort that would have likely ended with a victory if not for penalty trouble.
 
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JT AM da real deal said:
Rielly Dermy does not work .. bad bad fit .. Rielly needs a defender with him at all times .. he just can't do it on his own .. that's why we can't pay him as he does not have requisite skills on defense .. play Dermy with Holl on 3rd pair he is not developing well enough ..

Up front Mitch, like normal, can't do anything on his own .. til he improves his foot speed straight line and shot he will be an assist man who plays well in da down low creative skills game with a shooter ..

Overall team played better than Habs, except PK, which decided a 'who cares' game
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Personally I can't get on board myself with paying a D $8-9M but he needs TJ Brodie to clean up his mistakes for him.

No, if you're getting that money YOU need to be the guy to clean up mistakes for your partner, having it the other way around is just absurd.
 
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Guided by Veseys said:
You know what? That is a fair question. Savard played tonight and as a premier 4d he didn’t look any better. Holl doesn’t suck, I just feel maybe others could have filled his spot decently and nepotism cost the team a solid player in McCann. I am probably wrong but producing a list of league wide 4d to compare to Holl is a bit of an ask. I’d be happy to hear your comparisons beyond stat lines and I mean that.

edit: I actually like your stat lines as they can be illuminating. I just was hoping for a more personal perspective as you were critiquing mine.
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nepotism?
 
Nooodles said:
So you warned us not to draw too many conclusions from the 1st pre-season game which we won, but here you are after the 2nd pre-season game calling Holl an AHL defenseman and Dubas the worst GM of the league after we lost.

Your average Leafs fan, ladies and gentleman.
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he/she is not a Leafs fan, he/she is a proud member of the LeaFlanders
 
We need to do a "who's in and who's out? Poll soon.

Maybe I'll start one.

First tidbit of controversy Ottomaddox style:

Simmonds could be out.
 
SnizzNasty88 said:
Also, remember what I said about not drawing too many conclusions from the first preseason game, cause duds like this (more of what this team is capable of) are bound to happen.
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Yea, fair comment... but lets be real about at least Holl. He hasn't been very good for some time. His foot speed seems to be decreasing and when he gets overwhelmed he just cannot make plays... same when he gets caught out on a long shift. Some guys can power through, some cannot. This is not just something from the first pre-season game. I mean, I hope he can pick it up and become steady eddy back there... I am not holding my breath. Muzzin us way underrated imo.
 
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therealkoho said:
he is really f****** good he just cant' bury his f****** chances:naughty:
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Yup pretty well.

This guy must average 0.5 breakaways/game. I am almost guaranteed that this is discussed in pre-game meetings from the opposition. But, When was the last time we have seen Micheyev rip one on a breakaway from more than 5 feet out?

He almost always backs the tendy onto his line and trys to elevate the puck over right side or goes backhand deke. What do the tendy's do to combat this? they never challenge him as a shooter....ever. they stay closer to their line than they would for say anyone else, and when Ilya inevitably releases the puck he has lost his angle and can no longer elevate it in time. If he learned to do the Kapenen head fake backhand 2 forehand release from about 8-10 feet out, I swear he'd score twice as much. At least if he misses from a further distance, goalies will have to respect him as a shooter. Which he doesn't ever present himself as.

here's the move I am talking about:



JVR used to do this subtle move before releasing the puck on shootouts and it just handcuffs goalies thinking are about to enter a deke.



I am not saying Ilya would score every time doing this move, but mix in a f***ing shot here an there. I swear to god he refuses to release the puck until its almost in the blue paint. Pretty f***ing easy to stop those when that's all you do
 
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VanW27 said:
Definitely, the fringe guys should look good, if they don't that's a real problem for them since they are closer to NHL level than the further away prospects and should be fighting for an NHL job.

  • Established NHLers, don't really care what they do, it's just a warm up for them
  • Young prospects, show me glimpses of something special, what you might become, I'm not really concerned about mistakes for them
  • Fringe and PTOs, you better be the best players on the ice if you want to make the team
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Exactly.
 
While I agree we can't read into pre-season too much, I do think it would be nice to see some of the 'leaders' play well. At the end of the day they are supposed to lead by example, I'm not saying go hard playoff style and get hurt, but don't be lazy either. This notion that its ok for vets or those with guaranteed spots to suck is silly. I see that as a 'loser' attitude. Eg. Nylander, JT, Muzzin all looked fantastic in their pre-season debut and I feel they should as 'leaders' of this team show the rest how its done even for a pre-season game. That attitude can be infectious & should become a habit. Once it does, I think the playoff choking will stop.
 
SnizzNasty88 said:
Protecting either and losing McCann is a big mistake. McCann is a good player that would have fit in very well here. So yeah I’m pissed about it that we exposed him to protect an AHL defenseman and the most vanilla third line player in the league.
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A. McCann was acquired for the sole purpose of being exposed.
B. Give your assessment of Holl, why would you think Seattle would have wanted him anyway?
 
IPS said:
Personally I can't get on board myself with paying a D $8-9M but he needs TJ Brodie to clean up his mistakes for him.

No, if you're getting that money YOU need to be the guy to clean up mistakes for your partner, having it the other way around is just absurd.
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Everyone knows it .. it is worst kept secret around Leafs .. Leafs want Rielly and Rielly wants to be a Leaf .. but he has to be sheltered defensively and once his speed goes away like I have said earlier he will be out of NHL very fast .. it makes for a difficult negotiation .. I don't blame Dubie for wanting last few years of Rielly's contract without a NMC .. I heard recently that da bump up Rielly wants is not acceptable to Leafs .. I still hope they get something done as Sandin is flat out not ready yet .. he has not improved his speed over summer which has been a big disappointment for team
 
JT AM da real deal said:
Everyone knows it .. it is worst kept secret around Leafs .. Leafs want Rielly and Rielly wants to be a Leaf .. but he has to be sheltered defensively and once his speed goes away like I have said earlier he will be out of NHL very fast .. it makes for a difficult negotiation .. I don't blame Dubie for wanting last few years of Rielly's contract without a NMC .. I heard recently that da bump up Rielly wants is not acceptable to Leafs .. I still hope they get something done as Sandin is flat out not ready yet .. he has not improved his speed over summer which has been a big disappointment for team
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Glad you are not assessing talent. Reilly does not need to be sheltered. He just needs a competent d partner. Look at TJ without him. He sucked.
Anyone who knows hockey knows that speed is the last thing to go.
Muzzin needs to be traded before his contract is up. He is aging in front of our eyes and is a bandaid.
If the leafs do not resign Rielly they are in serious trouble on D.
 
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