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The Defence - Quality and Depth

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Moridin

Registered User
Apr 8, 2007
311
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We basically the deepest and most skilled defence I've seen in almost 30 years as a Leafs fan.

We currently, with some being injured, have..

Rielly, Brodie, Giordano, Liljegren, Muzzin, Holl, Sandin, Lyubushkin.. Thats 8 defenders that I all trust to be at a 2nd pairing at NHL level.

While we have a high likelihood of losing to Tampa or Boston in round 1, its still damn impressive how Dubas has built a defence in just a few years, while not giving up on his 4 superstar forwards.

Remember.. its just 4 years ago that our defence was Rielly, Gardiner, Zaitsev, Hainsey, Polak & Carrick.

I don't know about you guys but its damn nice to see this change.
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Moridin said:
We basically the deepest and most skilled defence I've seen in almost 30 years as a Leafs fan.

We currently, with some being injured, have..

Rielly, Brodie, Giordano, Liljegren, Muzzin, Holl, Sandin, Lyubushkin.. Thats 8 defenders that I all trust to be at a 2nd pairing at NHL level.

While we have a high likelihood of losing to Tampa or Boston in round 1, its still damn impressive how Dubas has built a defence in just a few years, while not giving up on his 4 superstar forwards.

Remember.. its just 4 years ago that our defence was Rielly, Gardiner, Zaitsev, Hainsey, Polak & Carrick.

I don't know about you guys but its damn nice to see this change.
Click to expand...
Definitely the best I have seen since 92 - 94.

Would be HUGE if old Muzzin could show up for 8 weeks.
 
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Moridin said:
We basically the deepest and most skilled defence I've seen in almost 30 years as a Leafs fan.

We currently, with some being injured, have..

Rielly, Brodie, Giordano, Liljegren, Muzzin, Holl, Sandin, Lyubushkin.. Thats 8 defenders that I all trust to be at a 2nd pairing at NHL level.

While we have a high likelihood of losing to Tampa or Boston in round 1, its still damn impressive how Dubas has built a defence in just a few years, while not giving up on his 4 superstar forwards.

Remember.. its just 4 years ago that our defence was Rielly, Gardiner, Zaitsev, Hainsey, Polak & Carrick.

I don't know about you guys but its damn nice to see this change.
Click to expand...

Why do we have a high likelihood of losing to those teams?
 
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Moridin said:
We basically the deepest and most skilled defence I've seen in almost 30 years as a Leafs fan.

We currently, with some being injured, have..

Rielly, Brodie, Giordano, Liljegren, Muzzin, Holl, Sandin, Lyubushkin.. Thats 8 defenders that I all trust to be at a 2nd pairing at NHL level.

While we have a high likelihood of losing to Tampa or Boston in round 1, its still damn impressive how Dubas has built a defence in just a few years, while not giving up on his 4 superstar forwards.

Remember.. its just 4 years ago that our defence was Rielly, Gardiner, Zaitsev, Hainsey, Polak & Carrick.

I don't know about you guys but its damn nice to see this change.
Click to expand...
Excellent post and great thread .. I tip my hat to Dubie for assembling it .. give credit where it is due .. we are winning now because we finally have a backend .. true value will show up in playoffs and we will see how good it really is .. to me da key is Gio and Muzzy .. Gio being able to muster up 1 more big minute run .. and Muzzy recovering from his knee injury .. da rest of guys you can patch together to make it work .. I like Gio and Lily more than any other pair right now .. I think Muzzy and Brodie CAN be a great shutdown pair .. Rielly plays better with Lub because he gets stabilized in his own end and can pick up loose pucks after Lub lays da lumber and breaks up cycles .. folks I think we got a shot with this defense .. because everyone will see soon enough playoffs are a grind .. you have to be able to play a 0-0 game for 3 periods .. you have to expect to be able to play that game
 
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For all that Liljegren has improved over the last month, cutting down on brain farts and egregious errors, Lyubushkin has taken them up. I have very little confidence in him. No puck skills to speak of and his defensive game seems overrated. Even worse, when he plays and Liljegren and Holl are also in the lineup, this forces Brodie to play the left side where he's clearly less comfortable

I really hope Keefe keeps Lyubushkin away from Rielly and also stops forcing Muzzin-Holl together, if Muzzin is even healthy enough to play. Otherwise, yeah, the D has reasonable depth. More so if Sandin gets back to 100%, obviously.
 
Moridin said:
We basically the deepest and most skilled defence I've seen in almost 30 years as a Leafs fan.

We currently, with some being injured, have..

Rielly, Brodie, Giordano, Liljegren, Muzzin, Holl, Sandin, Lyubushkin.. Thats 8 defenders that I all trust to be at a 2nd pairing at NHL level.

While we have a high likelihood of losing to Tampa or Boston in round 1, its still damn impressive how Dubas has built a defence in just a few years, while not giving up on his 4 superstar forwards.

Remember.. its just 4 years ago that our defence was Rielly, Gardiner, Zaitsev, Hainsey, Polak & Carrick.

I don't know about you guys but its damn nice to see this change.
Click to expand...

Dubas has done a good job turning a terrible blueline into a decent blueline, but you’re crazy if you think we have 8 top-4 defensemen. I’m not even sure we have 4. Reilly, Brodie and Giordano are 100%. Muzzin used to be, but he’s done. I have no faith that he can ever return to form. I really like Liljegren - he’s been playing like a top-4 lately. I am somewhat confident he will continue that, but I don’t think it’s a given.

Holl and Lyubuahkin are #6s. Sandin is an AHLer with potential to improve.
 
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Dreakmur said:
Dubas has done a good job turning a terrible blueline into a decent blueline, but you’re crazy if you think we have 8 top-4 defensemen. I’m not even sure we have 4. Reilly, Brodie and Giordano are 100%. Muzzin used to be, but he’s done. I have no faith that he can ever return to form. I really like Liljegren - he’s been playing like a top-4 lately. I am somewhat confident he will continue that, but I don’t think it’s a given.

Holl and Lyubuahkin are #6s. Sandin is an AHLer with potential to improve.
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There's a lot of hard truth there but I think we will all find out soon enough what happened to Muzzy as Leafs have been really good about hiding it .. but to me his big issue from what I know is his ability to stay healthy as he ages .. hard to know if he will both recover and get back into proper condition in last couple weeks but that is da KEY .. Holl also has AHL skills too .. Sandin just skates slower but he has an NHL brain/skills
 
What's crazy is that Niemela has a technically higher ceiling than anyone on our blueline currently (minus MAYBE Rielly/Lilly). He has historic numbers in the finnish league and is a better skater than Sandin as well.
 
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Dreakmur said:
Holl and Lyubuahkin are #6s. Sandin is an AHLer with potential to improve.
Click to expand...

Holl has been a quality top 4 dman on a top matchup pairing on one of the best teams in the league for 3yrs now.

Sandin is a 21yr old 1st round pick that was one of the very best bottom pair dmen in hockey this year, which most likely means he's already top 4 caliber, though he does have to prove that still.
 
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Apotheosis said:
What's crazy is that Niemela has a technically higher ceiling than anyone on our blueline currently (minus MAYBE Rielly/Lilly). He has historic numbers in the finnish league and is a better skater than Sandin as well.
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Really wish there was a way to land Chychrun without surrendering one of our three young D. We could move on from Muzzin (age seems to be catching up) and would be well set up for the next decade with Rielly, Chychrun, Liljegren, Niemela, Sandin. Add in one or two hard nosed, grumpy guys.
 
Rants Mulliniks said:
Really wish there was a way to land Chychrun without surrendering one of our three young D. We could move on from Muzzin (age seems to be catching up) and would be well set up for the next decade with Rielly, Chychrun, Liljegren, Niemela, Sandin. Add in one or two hard nosed, grumpy guys.
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I would trade Sandin from that bunch even though I am very high on him. Of everyone listed, he's the only one without elite mobility but he also has insane puck skills when he's actually in the zone. Chychrun on a second pairing or even top pairing allowing everyone to move down would be insane. Something I would definitely consider as Sandin+1st as a starting point.

Insanely mobile D core with some grit (Liljegren is playing a lot bigger now and Chychrun is like 6'4 and isn't afraid to throw the body).
 
Definitely one of Dubas' underrated accomplishments. Having Timoth emerge as a possible top 4 is huge, but the Lybushkin and Gio trades have just solidified the blueline, best one I've seen in a looooong time
 
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Damisoph said:
Definitely one of Dubas' underrated accomplishments. Having Timoth emerge as a possible top 4 is huge, but the Lybushkin and Gio trades have just solidified the blueline, best one I've seen in a looooong time
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And we didn’t give up a blue chip or a 1st either

Giordano is looking like such a great add and lyubushkin has been exactly what the team needs.

Dubas deserves a ton of credit for both of those guys
 
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Apotheosis said:
What's crazy is that Niemela has a technically higher ceiling than anyone on our blueline currently (minus MAYBE Rielly/Lilly). He has historic numbers in the finnish league and is a better skater than Sandin as well.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure Sandin's age 19 numbers in the AHL were similarly historic.
 
Dubas deserves a ton of credit for this. He's turned our D-Corps from a joke to very respectable. The additions of Gio and Lybushkin in season were outstanding.

Seriously, how good has Gio been????

When you compare what other teams paid for their upgrades, the Gio/Blackwell addition is pure larceny.

I have very little expectations of this team in playoffs, because after all, they are still the Leafs. I will commit myself to the potential hurt once the post season starts, but until then I will just enjoy these last 2 weeks of peaceful hockey lol.

From a birds eye view this team that Kyle has assembled should be able to compete for it all. That said, they were also in the exact same position last season and they had a much easier R1 opponent.

I am praying to a god I don't even believe in at this point in hopes that they have some success this postseason. I just really don't want to see this team blown up. Most importantly I don't want the guys in charge to be canned, because they've done an excellent job IMO. If we need to shift gears, I feel like we have the right people in charge to facilitate that.
 
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