Sheldons' new look lines, will they work?

[Stonehands1990]

Personally I don't care about TOI .. it is meaningless to me .. what excites me is Willy getting a goal and an assist every game against weaker competition and TEAM winning in playoffs .. there is nothing any team including Tampa can do about it .. Point/McD will go against JT/Mitch .. Cirelli/Hedman will take away Matty and then Willy can't be stopped .. well Willy/Kerfoot against Ross/Sergey will be in our favour every single shift .. da ice will be tilted .. it gives us a fighting chance to win

HF boards doesn’t want goals. They want expected goals. Expected goals = expected cups .= profit

 

[hotpaws]

I understand the season has been rough for you. Hopefully something bad happens soon so you can have fun again.

i guess i'm just one of the fans who have higher hopes for the Leafs than others and i'm concerned how we stack up against teams like T-Bay/Flor/Car who you know we'll have to get by to try to win the cup

unfortunately i can't be as thrilled as you to just count shots and win the x/goals cup

 

[zeke]

i guess i'm just one of the fans who have higher hopes for the Leafs than others and i'm concerned how we stack up against teams like T-Bay/Flor/Car who you know we'll have to get by to try to win the cup

unfortunately i can't be as thrilled as you to just count shots and win the x/goals cup

You must be ecstatic that the Leafs compare so much better to them in the standings and in goals for/against than you were so sure they would this year, then.

 

[hotpaws]

You must be ecstatic that the Leafs compare so much better to them in the standings and in goals for/against than you were so sure they would this year, then.

yup i can tell by the standings how much better we are than the Bolts/Panthers and Canes

but lucky actual pts % doesn't count and it's all about x/something something adjusted for something something

and it must be horrible watching a sport , not having any idea what's going on and having to look at shots to try to figure out what you just witnessed

 

[zeke]

yup i can tell by the standings how much better we are than the Bolts/Panthers and Canes

but lucky actual pts % doesn't count and it's all about x/something something adjusted for something something

and it must be horrible watching a sport , not having any idea what's going on and having to look at shots to try to figure out what you just witnessed

Must be tough to keep staring at the standings hoping against hope that the Leafs will fall off their 115pt pace only to see them just keep winning and winning

Like I said, hopefully something bad happens soon so you can start having fun again.

 

[hotpaws]

Must be tough to keep staring at the standings hoping against hope that the Leafs will fall off their 115pt pace only to see them just keep winning and winning

Like I said, hopefully something bad happens soon so you can start having fun again.

since when did you put any faith in actual pts ?

aren't wins/losses just a noisy stat ?

 

[zeke]

since when did you put any faith in actual pts ?

aren't wins/losses just a noisy stat ?

Oh don't worry I'm even happier about their league best xgf% than their elite pts%.

 

[Dough72]

Nylander and Marner should be fine but Matthews benefits a lot from a speedy puck carrier so it seems pretty silly to take your best puck carriers off his line but then again this is the braintrust who brought in Wayne Simmonds and asked him not to body check.

 

[zeke]

Nylander and Marner should be fine but Matthews benefits a lot from a speedy puck carrier so it seems pretty silly to take your best puck carriers off his line but then again this is the braintrust who brought in Wayne Simmonds and asked him not to body check.

Simmonds Career

PHI: 584gms, 17:05mpg, 1108ht, 1.89ht/gm, 6.67ht/60
LAK: 240gms, 13:55mpg, 380ht, 1.58ht/gm, 6.84ht/60
TOR: 75gms, 10:56mpg, 126ht, 1.68ht/gm, 9.22ht/60
NJD: 61gms, 15:11mpg, 128ht, 2.09ht/gm, 8.28ht/60

 

[Dough72]

Simmonds Career

PHI: 584gms, 17:05mpg, 1108ht, 1.89ht/gm, 6.67ht/60
LAK: 240gms, 13:55mpg, 380ht, 1.58ht/gm, 6.84ht/60
TOR: 75gms, 10:56mpg, 126ht, 1.68ht/gm, 9.22ht/60
NJD: 61gms, 15:11mpg, 128ht, 2.09ht/gm, 8.28ht/60

Simmonds from the past was an intimidator who crashed defencemen making them rush their pass. Simmonds in Toronto curls away on dump-ins as instructed by our management. Safe guess your hitting stat doesn't differentiate an actual hit from a gentle bump that does nothing.

 

[mapleleafs34]

Spreading out the 5v5 lines should make it even more obvious that PP1 should be playing at minimum 1:30 of every PP.

 

[zeke]

Simmonds from the past was an intimidator who crashed defencemen making them rush their pass. Simmonds in Toronto curls away on dump-ins as instructed by our vegan management. Safe guess your hitting stat doesn't differentiate an actual hit from a gentle bump that does nothing.

Or maybe this is the first time you've ever actually watched simmonds shift by shift.

 

[notbias]

my thoughts exactly and it's the type of bs move this mgmt group thinks they need to make to distract the fans so no ones starts paying attention that JT looks too slow to keep up with the flow of the game

better option imo would have been to throw JT on Mathews wing and let him blow the D zone early hang around the net in the o-zone where he's still good and build a 2nd line around Willie who had a great playoff driving his own line

this being said i think Marner with JT and Mik will produce but i don't see it making our forward group better as a whole and catering to JT over AM/Willie isn't going to make for a happy dressing room

You write some good fanfiction.

Here are JT stats this year

GP37

G15

A21

P36

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

He has had portions where he has looked good and some portions where he has looked average, but he has been effective overall. Not too worried about him yet as he has had portions where he looked quick enough and his speed has always been questionable.

 

[Mess]

i guess i'm just one of the fans who have higher hopes for the Leafs than others and i'm concerned how we stack up against teams like T-Bay/Flor/Car who you know we'll have to get by to try to win the cup

unfortunately i can't be as thrilled as you to just count shots and win the x/goals cup

Such is the way of Diehard fans, its a curse that goes with cheering for your favourite team, and being fully invested emotionally where its all about wins and losses on the way to the Cup, and it comes with age and experience, and no doubt influenced by long suffering fans through losing years.

Its more important to some to defend the team and explain away the losses and minimize the outcome against diehard fans with feel good pretend stats. Our Leafs have been bad for so long that I suspect some of the younger Leafs fans haven't even seen the Leafs win a playoff round in their lifetime since it hasn't happened since 2004.

Even Keefe is willing to call out the team and change up the lines when he sees things creeping into the Leafs game he doesn't like and I guarantee he is watching the competition and constantly judging how they stack up and what can be done differently to improve chances of winning. The last road trip was a good test to see where the Leafs stood as measuring stick against strong competition and it was eye opening and it wasn't pretty, as Leafs gave up 3-1 and 4-1 leads consistently and got outworked and outplayed .. Campbell's 18 goals in 4 games or 4.5 GA/g game showed real concern of over usage and burnout from his usual 2.5 GA/g average.

These current line change attempts by the coach here is a direct reflection that he wasn't happy with the play and the performance of his team and various players so it called for changes to see if that improves things.

 

[ACC1224]

I expect Kerfoot and Mikheyev to switch spots before long.

 

[aingefan]

I expect Kerfoot and Mikheyev to switch spots before long.

Sounds interchangeably effective, actually.
I can also see coach being confident throwing the Nylander line out against opposition top lines.

 

[Mess]

Sounds interchangeably effective, actually.
I can also see coach being confident throwing the Nylander line out against opposition top lines.

I think that is the true test and intent of this experiment particularly at home with last change.. He would like to turn Kampf into Leafs version of Phillip Danault and use them against an opposition top offensive line in a shutdown role but with enough talent with Nylander to still be able to deliver some offense in the process.

It that works then it allows him to match either AM or JT lines against the opposition lower level of QofC and create a mismatch offensively for the Leafs to exploit.

 

[zeke]

Such is the way of Diehard fans, its a curse that goes with cheering for your favourite team, and being fully invested emotionally where its all about wins and losses on the way to the Cup, and it comes with age and experience, and no doubt influenced by long suffering fans through losing years.

Its more important to some to defend the team and explain away the losses and minimize the outcome against diehard fans with feel good pretend stats. Our Leafs have been bad for so long that I suspect some of the younger Leafs fans haven't even seen the Leafs win a playoff round in their lifetime since it hasn't happened since 2004.

Even Keefe is willing to call out the team and change up the lines when he sees things creeping into the Leafs game he doesn't like and I guarantee he is watching the competition and constantly judging how they stack up and what can be done differently to improve chances of winning. The last road trip was a good test to see where the Leafs stood as measuring stick against strong competition and it was eye opening and it wasn't pretty, as Leafs gave up 3-1 and 4-1 leads consistently and got outworked and outplayed .. Campbell's 18 goals in 4 games or 4.5 GA/g game showed real concern of over usage and burnout from his usual 2.5 GA/g average.

These current line change attempts by the coach here is a direct reflection that he wasn't happy with the play and the performance of his team and various players so it called for changes to see if that improves things.

How could the coach be unhappy with the level of play he's seen from the roster objective posters such as yourself said was only playoffs bubble quality on paper?

 

[Hockey Crazy]

I really liked the Bunting Matthews kase line before, and Tavares had his best season as a leaf playing with Marner. Nylander has shown that he needs to have the puck for a majority of the time, so I like him driving his own line. I think this will stick… my only concern is Kampf keeping up offensively.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

I wouldn't lump Marner in JT's camp when it comes to foot speed. Marner is an above average skater as his edge control makes up for his lack of straight line speed (which isn't even that bad tbh).

JT though.... Ouf. Honestly, I don't think Nylander has the playoff series he had with JT. Nylander's game is predicated on speed and creativity. JT just can't keep up. Marner and JT is probably a better fit because Marner does a good job playing a slower style of game.

I agree Mitch has between 2nd and 3rd line speed .. I did not mean to lump Mitch together as same as JT foot speed .. JT way slower .. but if you look back Mitch has much more playoff success when he goes up against other teams 2nd and 3rd lines .. what Mitch excels at is stopping/cutting at blue line and if Mik can use his blow bye speed on left side to help Mitch keep defender honest that way it may work out .. then JT can come in late for a snipe .. we will see over next month how it works out .. it will be different than Zach on that line where it was a puck dump in strategy of puck retrieval .. and agree with you Willy and JT are a terrible match up as the speed GAP is just way way too big

 

[JT AM da real deal]

HF boards doesn’t want goals. They want expected goals. Expected goals = expected cups .= profit

I guess so .. I could care less about stats .. I see only ice tilting and real goals .. generally when ice tilts in your favour you win .. but advanced stats is still in its early adoption/development stage but it is ok for many of these computer geeks guys to jump on board with early stage stuff (someone always does) .. in 20-30 years hopefully I am still around to see it then maybe it will be more illuminating

 

[WillyC]

I’m hoping this sticks for a while.
Matthews - Bunting
Tavares - Marner

Play Willy up and down the lines.

 

[PromisedLand]

OP why you used Sheldon instead of Keefe? The moment I saw the name Sheldon I thought....

 

[TML1967]

IMO this just really shows the versatility of the lineup, but also the weakness of our third line.
Even when putting Nylander there, he is stuck with what is essentially an offensive black hole in Kamf.

I wonder if this test is to see what Kamf can really do, and if we may be looking to add a 3C (or 3W if Kerfoot moves over) rental?

With the same lines, but Kamf-Engval on a 4th line, we become a stupid deep team.

I.E. Grab a young guy underperforming and see what he can do with a Nylander (Borgstrom?Zadina?Veleno?), go to a full offence 3rd line (Strome? Domi?), grab a vet who is thrill seeking (Giroux) or just a young guy who is a good 2 way player (Zacha)

 

[zeke]

I guess so .. I could care less about stats .. I see only ice tilting and real goals .. generally when ice tilts in your favour you win .. but advanced stats is still in its early adoption/development stage but it is ok for many of these computer geeks guys to jump on board with early stage stuff (someone always does) .. in 20-30 years hopefully I am still around to see it then maybe it will be more illuminating

the good news for you then is that the Leafs are also top-5 in actual goal differential this year, aside from being #1 in expected goal differential.