aingefan
Registered User
- Feb 27, 2008
- 4,770
- 2,645
Thanks for doing this.
Watching the game yesterday, Lehtonen had some flashes where he carried the puck up the ice but there were very long stretches where he was invisible. Perhaps a good thing though. He was more of a stabilizing force on the ice for Jokerit. When they were fumbling around with passes in the neutral zone or there were pucks available for the other team to pounce on for offensive chances, Lehtonen always stepped up and took those chances away. In the defensive zone, he's not really a guy that chases much. He tends to protect the net and let guys do their own thing along the boards and behind the net. Which again isn't the worst thing for a defenseman as long as you're not being lazy. He looked like he was strategically doing it. He layed a couple of big hits from what I saw on guys streaking into the zone along the boards. Both were pretty clean and caught the forward solidly.
Offensively his game seemed pretty simple, keep possession and shoot the puck. There were plenty of rushes where he was the 3rd man up the ice for his team and provided a nice drop back option for the player rushing with the puck. His shot seems to be okay, but nothing spectacular. The goal where he assisted he got the puck quickly off the boards and floated it to the net and O'neill? happened to be there at the right time to get kind of a lucky deflection (he looked surprised himself). Otherwise, he doesn't make bad pinches or bad plays to put himself or his teammates out of position.
I was really surprised to see that he was the 2nd highest guy on the team for TOI before their PK to end the game (He doesn't PK). Kind of just snuck up on me. Felt like I hardly saw him out there and yet he did a lot of the small things that were very noticeable, very odd. All in all, he doesn't bleed offensive chances against (not sure how great his opponents were really yesterday however) and offensively he picks his spots and is always ready to lead the rush and skate the puck or be the 3rd guy in on odd rushes. Isn't afraid to shoot and doesn't throw the puck away. His game reminds me of a poor mans OEL. OEL is one of my fav players.
Former Leafs rookie Viktor Loov is also on the team and had a fairly solid game himself. Nice to see he found himself a spot, seemed like a really great kid.
This guy just casually throws out trading Rielly like that's the consensus thing to do.Agreed. Rather not alter a player's development or make them uncomfortable playing a position they don't excel at.
Lehtonen, Dermott, Muzzin, Sandin provide great depth at LHD for now. It should allow us to at least explore trading Rielly for a top pairing RHP (A.K.A Colton Parayko).
This guy just casually throws out trading Rielly like that's the consensus thing to do.
Can he be worse than Marincin, Ceci or Holl. No ? OK I'm ok then
I'm guilty of this but we don't appreciate Holl enough. He was a riverboat gambler in the AHL and has changed his game so much so that he can play hard minutes with Muzzin right off the bat. That's no small ask and his possession stats show that he fared quite well.
The cap hit is also nice.
I'm also one of the few that actually likes Marincin based on what he brings:
- I'm a big fan of his willingness to sign and stay with Toronto,
- More often than not, as a 7D, he's coming into games cold and being tasked with playing PK minutes and moving up the lineup in a pinch. You're getting all this for near league minimum.
Good to know someone appreciates Marincin. He has spanned numerous coaches and GM's, so clearly people like him.
He is the perfect player for everyone to hate though. Not good offensively, not flashy and not physical. So he must be bad.
It's hard for me to get too excited considering our track record with this type of signing. Optimistic about what I've seen of him so far though this season (limited sample size considered).
That way we can set out to acquire a top pairing LHD. Great idea.I'm trying to say that if trading Rielly can get us a top pairing RHD, we should consider that.
Any points today?I swear he played nearly the entire OT in today's game. 1:40 min straight to start the OT 3on3 and then played the entire PK before Avangard scored (1:30 min straight ish). Jokerit uses him in every situation.
Not a flashy player but his skating is fun to watch. Goes end to end multiple times per game with ease. By far his best attribute is moving the puck, but he's always making the safe play/pass - no surprise he has 90%+ passing completion every game.
Sandin Dermott Lehtonen Liljegren fighting for the third pair.
That would be pretty awesome.