Sheldons' new look lines, will they work?

[tmlms13]

Would you rather Keefe tinker with lines on January 26 or April 26?

Would you rather Keefe tinker with lines with a 13 point lead & 4 games at hand over 9th in the East or a 1 point lead & 0 games at hand over 9th in the East?

Would you rather Keefe tinker with lines vs a Western Conference Team or an Eastern Conference Team?

Would you rather Keefe tinker with lines with a fully healthy forward group or a with a bunch of players who are normally in the AHL?

Would you rather Keefe tinker in front of an empty arena or full arena?

We as fans have to let coaches be able to try something new if they want to. How many times do fans complain about coaches being stubborn and sticking to the same lineup over and over? I don't care if it fails miserably. Figure out what works and doesn't work now instead of Game 5 of a playoff series

 

[zeke]

Some guys like Dekes, Zekes, notbiasekes and Fogulekes get so unbelievably offended when any criticism is leveled towards a player, coach, GM, draft pick, trade or the colour blue. It's comical to watch to be honest.

It's like you've walked into their house on Christmas Day and shat all over their dinner. Kudos to them for defending everything so vehemently to be fair. Their whole world gets shook.

Criticism is good.

Fake facts (I.e. lies) are bad.

 

[All Mod Cons]

Criticism is good.

Fake facts (I.e. lies) are bad.

Lies
Agendas
Narratives

 

[saffronleaf]

I thought it worked well enough to warrant a longer look.

 

[forecheck]

Lol - Tinkering with the lines... Look at the ice times .... All his top 4 had 20 + mins ... and the rest of the fringe were at their regular times ... Spezza and Simmonds had less than 7 minutes... Bottom line is the excercise of fliping the lines ( for more balance ) ,,, worked for those that dont look at the real numbers ... Keefe must be laughing right now

 

[Leafsfan74]

A balanced lineup is a must. A lineup firing on all cylinder on each line is a must. Otherwise, top defense pairs and shutdown lines will just focus on one line and play a game of attrition.

So, in theory, this is the better approach as long as each line is responsible on both ends. The more difficult you present the problem to the opposition, the better your chance of being triumphant.

Mix and match now, secure your three defensive pairs by the deadline and prosper.

 

[Nylanderthal]

Lies
Agendas
Narratives

Kinda hurt I didn't make your list boo-boo.

 

[Stonehands1990]

is that a fact? ...our forwards may have been better but, their defense and goaltending was better, and thats why they won

Look at what happened to Seth Jones without Torts. Their structure fell apart. Coaching, coaching, coaching

 

[Stonehands1990]

I agree most coaches are able to learn.. Keefe.... stacking lines two rounds in two consecutive seasons tells me Keefe is a slow learner...

This is what I’ve always said. He’s a slow learner. He just discovered spreading out an offence and look at the game they played last night

 

[PromisedLand]

uhhh not sure what you mean?

there is a sitcom called big bang theory and they have a character called sheldon; so every time i see sheldon i think of that dude lol.

It completely skipped my mind that Keefe's first name is Sheldon

 

[Teeder Keon]

there is a sitcom called big bang theory and they have a character called sheldon; so every time i see sheldon i think of that dude lol.

It completely skipped my mind that Keefe's first name is Sheldon

That wasn’t the same “ The Big Bang Theory “ production I was thinking about , nor was that the star ….yikes !

 

[therealkoho]

there is a sitcom called big bang theory and they have a character called sheldon; so every time i see sheldon i think of that dude lol.

It completely skipped my mind that Keefe's first name is Sheldon

Ahhh OK, I don't live under a rock or anything, I just don't really watch a lot of so called sitcoms, and when I do it's always mostly when it's in reruns. I'm more of a sports, movies, current events and documentary kind of guy.

 

[Teeder Keon]

Ahhh OK, I don't live under a rock or anything, I just don't really watch a lot of so called sitcoms, and when I do it's always mostly when it's in reruns. I'm more of a sports, movies, current events and documentary kind of guy.

 

[wingman75]

Also on the 3rd, God love him but Jack has to have that and not a trapper full of air.

The deflection, three feet in front of him? Ah, yea, I don't think anyone is stopping that with any consistency. The 2nd one is a must have imo (the Silfverberg shot after coming out of the box).

 

[wingman75]

This is what I’ve always said. He’s a slow learner. He just discovered spreading out an offence and look at the game they played last night

Do you actually believe he just "discovered" this? He has stated in a few interviews that this has been on his to-do list since the season started, but injurues, covid, more injurues and more covid have limited the lineup so he could not get to it sooner. The guy has coached at all levels, and is now coaching in the best league in the world... pretty sure he is aware. He did mention specifically though, that the roster now has the depth to allow him to spread things out. So we'll see if it works out, but the thought that this just popped in his head the other day is fairly amusing.

 

[Stonehands1990]

Do you actually believe he just "discovered" this? He has stated in a few interviews that this has been on his to-do list since the season started, but injurues, covid, more injurues and more covid have limited the lineup so he could not get to it sooner. The guy has coached at all levels, and is now coaching in the best league in the world... pretty sure he is aware. He did mention specifically though, that the roster now has the depth to allow him to spread things out. So we'll see if it works out, but the thought that this just popped in his head the other day is fairly amusing.

In the Columbus series he “loaded up” the 1st line. Exact opposite of this concept. Got burnt. In the Montreal series when our top line was getting shutdown did he spread the talent? Nope kept going to the well

Do you really believe this is the only opportunity he’s had to try this deployment? Doesn’t check out. As soon as Matthews came back it could have been tried

FYI every bad NHL coach has coached at all levels. Keefe is a good coach but a terrible tactician

 

[Zybalto]

Full years worth of results before Keefe was hired Nov.20th 2018-November 19th, 2019):
Leafs record: 40-32-12 (.548, 19th best record in the NHL)
5v5 D (xGA/60): 26th in the NHL


Since Keefe was hired:
Leafs record: 88-39-15 (.673, Tied for 4th best record in the NHL)
5v5 D (xGA/60): 8th in the NHL

I'm really not worried about coaching in the playoffs either. I'm more worried about goalkeeping and goal scoring underperforming. The Leafs played well enough to win the last two series but it's on the players to deliver. (The Leafs having the 3rd best 5v5 xGF% and 4th best 5v5 shot differential out of the 24 team to play the last 2 playoffs.) I think the PP coaching change might be a big difference maker no matter who we face too.

I'm not a fan of praising coaches because their goaltending went ham and the other team didnt convert their chances. We had to go through our own PDO nightmare seasons to realize it's just not sustainable and probably why both the Jackets and Habs completely crumbled as a team after their playoff runs. With Korpisalo over his career-best stretch and Price not likely to duplicate his last hurrah by the time the Habs actually become even a fringe contender again, you can see the fallout of what silly thinking can lead to....but just like it's not sustainable for them, it's all not sustainable for us. Bring on Tampa baby.

 

[wingman75]

In the Columbus series he “loaded up” the 1st line. Exact opposite of this concept. Got burnt. In the Montreal series when our top line was getting shutdown did he spread the talent? Nope kept going to the well

Do you really believe this is the only opportunity he’s had to try this deployment? Doesn’t check out. As soon as Matthews came back it could have been tried

FYI every bad NHL coach has coached at all levels. Keefe is a good coach but a terrible tactician

That stacking was all based on the depth of the roster... he didn't feel it was there in previous seasons... he again has stated this multiple times this season... not sure he was wrong, and it was not tactics that lost those series. It was a mental block by many of the key players.

Yes, I believe this is the first opportunity to try it out... with ALL the roster in tact (up front). He explicitly mentioned Mikheyev being out, and then the other injuries and like I said covid. So, not sure when else the full lineup has been in place for more than a game. Regardless, its the perfect time in the season to try this out. Dog days as they day... a good way to get everyones attention by throwing something new at them as this group does get complaicent as we have all seen.

I like Keefe as a coach... he has the players attention, and can get in their ears when he needs to. He seems pretty direct with the players, and for anyone who has had a supervisor there is nothing better!

What does this have to do with the East playoff teams being set? No idea... we are clearly off track.

 

[Stonehands1990]

That stacking was all based on the depth of the roster... he didn't feel it was there in previous seasons... he again has stated this multiple times this season... not sure he was wrong, and it was not tactics that lost those series. It was a mental block by many of the key players.

Yes, I believe this is the first opportunity to try it out... with ALL the roster in tact (up front). He explicitly mentioned Mikheyev being out, and then the other injuries and like I said covid. So, not sure when else the full lineup has been in place for more than a game. Regardless, its the perfect time in the season to try this out. Dog days as they day... a good way to get everyones attention by throwing something new at them as this group does get complaicent as we have all seen.

I like Keefe as a coach... he has the players attention, and can get in their ears when he needs to. He seems pretty direct with the players, and for anyone who has had a supervisor there is nothing better!

What does this have to do with the East playoff teams being set? No idea... we are clearly off track.

Keefe coached a roster with
Matthews
Tavares
Marner
Nylander
Kerfoot
Kapanen
Hyman
Johnsson

The depth argument isn’t looking very solid

 

[therealkoho]

The deflection, three feet in front of him? Ah, yea, I don't think anyone is stopping that with any consistency. The 2nd one is a must have imo (the Silfverberg shot after coming out of the box).

Yep my bad the 2nd for sure the 30 foot wrister, I'm getting old and occasionally suffer from KRAFT

 

[Dekes For Days]

In the Columbus series he “loaded up” the 1st line. Exact opposite of this concept. Got burnt. In the Montreal series when our top line was getting shutdown did he spread the talent? Nope kept going to the well

In the Columbus series, he "loaded up" the 1st line for one game, after our core forwards playing together scored 4 goals during a small portion of the previous game and saved the season in the face of elimination.

In the Montreal series, with Tavares gone, Nylander's line clicking, and the top line dominating their matchup in expected and real goals, Keefe kept together one of the best lines in hockey last year.

Neither of these things suggest "a terrible tactician", just because you as a casual fan and outside observer with none of the information necessary for determining optimal lineup configurations but all of the benefit of hindsight, disagree. Splitting up all of your elite players isn't the cure-all you seem to think it is. Outside of certain situations on a team with insane depth, it usually just results in more dead plays and an inefficient use of your best players. Generally a bad idea when your biggest obstacle is a hot goalie.

 

[Bluelines]

This is what I’ve always said. He’s a slow learner. He just discovered spreading out an offence and look at the game they played last night

Last night was pretty impressive, for the first time in years, every line looked like it was dangerous. Simmonds, dude what are you doing?

 

[Bluelines]

In the Columbus series, he "loaded up" the 1st line for one game, after our core forwards playing together scored 4 goals during a small portion of the previous game and saved the season in the face of elimination.

In the Montreal series, with Tavares gone, Nylander's line clicking, and the top line dominating their matchup in expected and real goals, Keefe kept together one of the best lines in hockey last year.

Neither of these things suggest "a terrible tactician", just because you as a casual fan and outside observer with none of the information necessary for determining optimal lineup configurations but all of the benefit of hindsight, disagree. Splitting up all of your elite players isn't the cure-all you seem to think it is. Outside of certain situations on a team with insane depth, it usually just results in more dead plays and an inefficient use of your best players. Generally a bad idea when your biggest obstacle is a hot goalie.

Yeah this is not factually accurate.

 

[Dekes For Days]

Yeah this is not factually accurate.

It's all factually accurate.

 

[Carltons Cup]

there is a sitcom called big bang theory and they have a character called sheldon; so every time i see sheldon i think of that dude lol.

It completely skipped my mind that Keefe's first name is Sheldon

Love me some Kaley Cuoco!!