This is the new NHL defense mix. One guy who goes and one guy who minds the net. I can't see how this defense is not a big upgrade over last year. It is. And we are likely to play our top 4 more this year while Dermy is out.
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Martin Skoula
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If you can throw one of them out there with the corpse or Ron Hainsey (or Ceci or whoever the stopgap 1RHD is) and still come out on top against top pairing competition, I don't really care how they do it. It's hard to find a more cap-efficient competent 1st pair and still have elite D leftover.
You still need to be able to do a job in your own end, this team has a lot of very one dimensional defenseman and we can't stop teams cycling and scoring off the cycle (bottom 5 in the league I believe)
That's an issue that still needs to be addressed and I don't think we have
DarkKnight
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And the last thing I want to be is the guy who is down on Barrie, just cautioning if you don’t like Reilly’s defensive acumen, be ready.
Martin Skoula
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The cycle stats are bad because of the stretch pass fetish Babcock has. Yeah, if you continuously ice the puck, the other team is going to cycle your tired defensemen into the ground.
Iirc we lead the league in icings 2 years in a row.
You're right we're the stretch pass kings and I didn't like it at first.
But the league is doing the same (few exceptions.. Blues/Wash).
Do you think Dubas or Shanny disagree on this strategy?
Seriously?
I was a big Gardiner fan so I can handle some warts if your positives outweigh the negatives
No, our cycle stats suck because our team as a whole doesn't defend it well, they prefer open ice rather than fighting for pucks in the corners
We're a run and gun team, that's not changing if anything we've doubled down this off-season, maybe it works maybe it doesn't but it's certainly something to think about
Martin Skoula
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Crazy idea, but you can actually have more than one break out strategy. We even have a guy who's job is supposed to be to decide when it's a good time to switch if teams are clogging up the neutral zone to beat it.
Martin Skoula
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Sure yes, it's because of your completely impartial observations and not because we're taking the most unforced defensive zone starts with tired players in the league.
We're not great in the corners, no argument, but we're not bottom-5 by any stretch of the imagination. With the offensive talent on this team, the puck shouldn't be in our end often enough for it to even be a reasonable possibility.
Agreed, I hated it at first.
But my question is, since you like to insult Babcock, as to whether you think Babs is tellin Dubas this is the way we re playin......
What's ur answer to my initial q?
Martin Skoula
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Babcock doesn't adapt, I'm not sure what you're looking for here. I have yet to see Babcock change his approach on anything.
Babcock will likely be fired if this year ends the same way the last 2 have.
Martin Skoula
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My question was about if you think Dubas and management think Babcock is wrong...
or you think
The last time I looked up the stats we were bottom 5 in the league, we just don't defend the cycle well, we're not built or have the mindset to stop bigger guys along the walls
We've gone even further towards puck posssion with some warts this off-season imo, unfortunately defending the cycle is one of those warts
We had Zaitsev and Hainsey as "corner warriors" last season, unfortunately if the forwards and other defenseman aren't your still pushing **** up hill Salt
Harpur is just bad, besides Babcock I can't see to many people keen on him being out there
- Prior to last season, the Kadri line was strictly a match up line and the Bozak line was used mostly in the ozone...
- last season the Leafs went with 3 offensive lines and pedal to the metal and tried to outscore teams...
Martin Skoula
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Again how much of that is the team just being bad at a basic hockey skill, and how much of that is a D pairing getting caught out 2-3 icings in a row? We're also surprisingly bad at clearing the zone because we refuse to do a series of 5-10 foot passes for some reason.
Our cycle results are bad, but I'm going to argue that the principal cause of that is the frequency and context of the time spent in the defensive zone. Improving our neutral zone play and zone exit strategy would do more to fix the cycle stats than getting a Chara clone would.
Martin Skoula
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So Kadri scores more in a matchup role than in an "offensive pedal to the metal" role? Weird.
Do you think that Marleau-Kadri-Brown is an attempt at building an offensive line? Bear in mind that Marleau and Brown were two of the worst offensive forwards in the NHL by most measurements and their only redeeming quality was their defense.
Bruh, you made a bad post and got caught, it's all good ... I showed you how the gameplan had changed ...
Martin Skoula
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You just made a claim with no evidence lol.
We replaced Bozak with a center that didn't need to be sheltered, his soft offensive starts need to go somewhere. The breakout is still the same, the special teams are still the same. Changing which line does the matchup isn't a change in gameplan, it's a change in players.
We iced the puck to much but our icing numbers would have to be astronomically bad to explain a bottom 5 finish across the entire league
You can't exit the zone if you can't win the puck off the team cycling you into the ground, our guys aren't physical and there not overly big so if your competing against bigger more physical guys around the boards your not going to win battles at rates other teams do, at least we don't anyway
Chara isn't the player he once was but he can still win board battles in his own zone, size and a significant physical edge are still useful tools in that regard
your not talking gameplan but systems ...
Our d'men personal has been on the weak side for the last 4+ years, I believe Babcocks theory with this team is to just get the puck 9ut of the d'zone as quick as possible, the less time spent in the d'zone the better. The Leafs will allow/invite teams to take perimeter (CA) shots on Freddy hoping for a quick transition out and up the ice, pretty simple easy breakouts/zone exits ...
that good enough?
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I think ceci and muzzin trumps hainsey and Z, so net improvement.
Harpur? If his job is to clear the crease and jam the cycle? Let's see how he does.
I agree that the forwards need to help out more and there have been some changes up front too, so I will cross my fingers.
That said my point that the D should've better at stopping the cycle vs last season seems valid to me.
Quoting this as the supporting argument that harpur might have a use in stopping the cycle contrary to your thoughts that he is just bad.
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