Pre-Game Talk: Sunday guaranteed: Toronto Maple Leafs vs Vancouver Canucks

[zeke]

Will the "get off the ledge" guys get on the ledge if the Leafs lose this one?

No.

 

[Havoc]

that pp is still mediocre with rielly at point. His offensive vision is just so poor 5 on 4 and he has to stick handle slightly first before he can send puck to his right side which allows even more time for the Pk to setup. There's no passing lanes available with Rielly at point. Why would you care to cover Rielly if you're facing Leafs PP... you want it to go there.

 

[LeafsOHLRangers98]

I think Robertson was always in the plans this year, injury just set him back.

I hope he sticks and excels. Burning a year means nothing compared to another good top 9 forward for a run this year.

Robertson is likely just slotting in Folingo's spot for now while Keefe trys to build an effective bottom 6.

He's very much in the cards next year and moving forward but is still doing a lot of things that show he isn't quite ready for the pace up here. His edge work hasn't been great and he has a lot of jerky movements where he commits way too hard and overplays his man. Wastes a lot of energy.

 

[Coachcorner]

When someone says guaranteed win I get flashbacks to being beaten by a zamboni driver...

Christ. You right, but I just put a thousand on the maples'. We WINNING THIS THANG. BIG. Holtrby alson in net. Demko out. For life. I WON.

 

[egd27]

Everybody knows what Willy means and NOBODY begrudges him.

Please don't speak for "everyone" Zeke.

Perhaps a few of his team mates, coaches, or employers weren't all that thrilled with a potential exposure.

Seems more than a little irresponsible if he is referring to what "everyone knows".

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Please don't speak for "everyone" Zeke.

Perhaps a few of his team mates, coaches, or employers weren't all that thrilled with a potential exposure.

Seems more than a little irresponsible if he is referring to what "everyone knows".

Keefe specifically said that Nylander didn't break any protocols and that he appreciated how open and honest he was about the situation. No need to continue this baseless speculation

 

[GoodNewfieBoy]

The day we got Foligno that was the exact same lineup I posted with Foligno in Robertson’s place. Love it

 

[ACC1224]

Guessing they'll still play

What’s wrong with Nylander?

 

[ponder]

SHOULD be an easy win, but we haven’t been playing well recently. Feels like it could be a David Ayers level trap game.

 

[The Apologist]

Robby in the top 6 is pretty awesome and very well deserved

They really need to switch Matty and JT though. No way JT keeps up with Willie and Nick plus he has insane Chem with Mitch.

 

[ponder]

What’s wrong with Nylander?

Nothing AFAIK, he was just quarantined for 10 days though, likely hasn’t been able to skate. My guess is he plays, but might just be a touch rusty/out of game shape.

 

[Twine Tickler]

Every player had a choice to sit out, nobody picked that option, even Hamonic who opted out of the bubble. After you guys we have 4 straight against the Sens to get our legs and hopefully Petey is back but if we can split with you guys and at least 3 of 4 against the sens, covers our 6 games in hand and puts us 2-4 back with 13 games left each and they have much harder competition.

no disrespect dude, I think you're dreaming if you think the Canucks wanna play till the end of the year. JT was the only one on the team with a set of balls to say anything. He isn't saying what he said to the media if he is alone in that thought. These guys communicate despite being quarantined. I can all but guarantee they are all dreading coming back to a 2nd worst division record and having to play 19 games in 30 days to undoubtingly go nowhere in the standings. I'm from the city, and I am well aware of how much talent that team has. But under the best of circumstances the Canucks will go .500 the rest of the way. They play like 19 games in 30 days lol. I'll gladly eat crow if I'm wrong. I'd peg their o/u on pt total in that span to 13pts. And I'll take the under. Hit me up if/when I'm wrong.

 

[Gabriel426]

Nothing AFAIK, he was just quarantined for 10 days though, likely hasn’t been able to skate. My guess is he plays, but might just be a touch rusty/out of game shape.

Can’t be worse than any of the Nucks

 

[Leaf4Life79]

f*** me we're the first ones to play them

This is ending terrible for us

Yeah.... I kind of thought about that as well... well.... lets hope we come out of this clean and ready to keep the foot down!

 

[peconcan]

Really like these practice lines, wonder who comes out when Foligno comes in. Don’t think it will be Jumbo even though as of lately maybe it should be, so I think it’ll be between Robertson Spezza and Mikheyev

 

[ponder]

Can’t be worse than any of the Nucks

Oh definitely, many of them have to be absolutely wiped/drained. The Brazilian variant is real nasty, and sounds like a lot of them got it bad.

Even still, with the way the Leafs have been playing recently, I’m not as confident as I probably should be.

 

[ponder]

Really like these practice lines, wonder who comes out when Foligno comes in. Don’t think it will be Jumbo even though as of lately maybe it should be, so I think it’ll be between Robertson Spezza and Mikheyev

Definitely Robertson out of the top 9, Foligno in. Out of the lineup entirely ... Robertson or Thornton IMO. Possibly both, and Engvall back in.

Galchenyuk - Matthews - Marner
Foligno - Tavares - Nylander
Mikheyev - Kerfoot - Hyman
Robertson/Thornton/Engvall - Spezza - Simmonds

Very strong on paper, and if we can get the PP humming again, should be very strong period.

 

[mix1home]

Uh. I only hope that our players would not get COVID somehow despite tests and precautions. That would be terrible outcome of this nhl decision.

 

[Gabriel426]

Let’s me get this Willie thing straight.
He met someone who later tested positive(and not already positive) but didn’t spend enough time with that person together to spread COVID, thus that’s why the rest of the team didn’t need to quarantine like him.
His new nickname got to be Minute Will. Am I right?

 

[Gabriel426]

Oh definitely, many of them have to be absolutely wiped/drained. The Brazilian variant is real nasty, and sounds like a lot of them got it bad.

Even still, with the way the Leafs have been playing recently, I’m not as confident as I probably should be.

The Sens game was back to pond hockey while Habs, And Flames were bad, the Jets game was more due to personal errors than anything.

I have faith in the boys to come through and start a 5-6 games winning streak starting tomorrow.

 

[BertCorbeau]

COVID hit the Canucks hard... you have to think their energy levels are down even if they’re healthy enough to play and given where they are in the standings, they may not be too motivated either.

Leafs need to come in hard and just roll over them

 

[CanadasTeam]

Really like these practice lines, wonder who comes out when Foligno comes in. Don’t think it will be Jumbo even though as of lately maybe it should be, so I think it’ll be between Robertson Spezza and Mikheyev

My guess is it will be Robertson, he then becomes the replacement when a forward gets banged up or injured.

 

[Gabriel426]

I think Robertson needs to be the sparks plug on the 4th line.
Unless they dress the HEM line and move Kerfoot to C-Spezza and Simmonds/Jumbo, Robertson should stay.

 

[Burnie97]

What’s wrong with Nylander?

I don't think anything is... I think they'll both be back. Nylander with the covid protocol but seems like he'll be back... and Matty I think will be too.

 

[meefer]

that pp is still mediocre with rielly at point. His offensive vision is just so poor 5 on 4 and he has to stick handle slightly first before he can send puck to his right side which allows even more time for the Pk to setup. There's no passing lanes available with Rielly at point. Why would you care to cover Rielly if you're facing Leafs PP... you want it to go there.

Well, if you look at the last 3 years of PP contributions, Rielly sits tied with four other defensemen with 39 points on the PP. They rank tied at 14th overall in points for a defensemen during that period of time. Of those 5 players Rielly plays the least amount per game on the PP with an average 2:37 min/, ranking 28th for defensemen in the league for time on ice during the PP. The other defensemen he is tied with in PPP:

Erik Karlsson (3:00/)
Alex Pietrangelo (2:52/)
Marc Giordano (2:49/)
Oliver Ekman-Larsson (3:01/)

Over the same 3 year span, the Leafs rank 7th overall in PP% success rate, while factoring in this abysmal period for the team. Were they to have scored at their usual rate, the team moves into the top 5.

Granted, he's not John Carlson, but he's not chopped liver on the PP either.