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GDT #7: Deposed Monarchs @ Heir Apparents, 7:30 PM, SNET Ontario

Lindholm is a real gud player. Makes all kinds of nice plays all over the ice. Not uberskilled but a very nice find. Same with Oz.

LA gave up after that mesmerizing goal by Kappy. They just said, **** it, and stopped trying. lol

Sparks had a real nice game. Hopefully, he builds on this and The Cock starts to get some love for him.
 
Yes, adding Lindholm and Ozhiganov was pretty great. Ozzie isn't a great skater, but he has that no look pass to Dermott, that so far is working. But the season is very young. Hope he has a few more tricks up his sleeve.

Dermott is just awesome. Wish we had four of him.
 
Random thoughts on the game:


  • Par Lindholm has been looking like a pretty decent NHL hockey player the past couple of games. Credit to Babcock---he's not a winger I ever would have chosen for Kadri, but he's clearly gaining some confidence playing on the wing with a good center. Maybe that is the ideal way to eventually transition him back to centering the fourth line.

  • Kadri's looking good too, these past couple of games. He's going to get scoring eventually regardless, but if only Brown could be replaced with someone on that line that'll help Kadri create offense.

  • Way to go Sparks. This was a big moment for him with no safety net, considering he had a mediocre ECHL goalie backing him up tonight---and he stepped up big. He didn't look too scrambly, controlled his rebounds, made all the stops he should have made and held down the fort at a couple of points when the Kings dominated possession for a handful of shifts at times.

  • Auston looked like a man on a mission against Kopitar tonight. Whenever they were on the ice together, which was a lot, Auston was checking him hard and coming out on the right end of a lot of puck battles. And now he's got seven straight multi-point games to start the year, and 16 points in 7 games. This is unprecedented stuff for us Leaf fans, really.

  • I wonder if the Nylander/Kapanen bromance is going to survive Kapanen's start to the year? He's looking more like a legit top-six forward with Matthews with each passing game.

  • It's incredible how slow this Kings team is. There were times when Freddie Gauthier and Josh Leivo looked like speedsters against these guys.

  • Travis Dermott might already been this team's second best defenseman at five-on-five.
 
DpmAeFaWkAApDn-
 
One more multi-point game to go before he passes Gretzky's career best to start a season.

Ho-hum.
 
The officiating in that game was embarrassing for the NHL. It's pretty clear they try to even things up. Fake parity.
 
BeLeafer said:
The officiating in that game was embarrassing for the NHL. It's pretty clear they try to even things up. Fake parity.
Click to expand...
I didn't disagree with any of the calls against the Leafs, except for what appeared to be a phantom call on Gauthier in the third.

But the refs are obviously wary of putting the Leaf power-play on the ice, and let the other team get away with a lot of shit.
 
LeafGm said:
I didn't disagree with any of the calls against the Leafs, except for what appeared to be a phantom call on Gauthier in the third.

But the refs are obviously wary of putting the Leaf power-play on the ice, and let the other team get away with a lot of shit.
Click to expand...

The second slash on Marner was bush league and they let LA (like Washington the game previous) get away with a ton of shit after they were down a few goals.
 
zeke said:
naz is about to bust out big-time btw.
Click to expand...

Yep. He's going to get a dirty goal one of these days and get his own little streak going, ending the season with about 25-30 G and another 20+ assists.
Those SP% numbers are frightening, but Andersen will end up around .916 or so, and we can just score our way out of issues. We shouldn't, and we won't when Babcock has them on program, but it's fine for now.
 
MindzEye said:
They look better, but get lighter usage in fairness.

I would like to see them tougher usage. Not necessarily take the Jake-Zaitsev roll, just split it down the middle and don't shelter anyone.
Click to expand...

You gotta ease them in for sure, but they are (especially Dermott) dominating the weaker comp. Then look what happens to Rielly/Hainsey matched up against the tougher comp -- ugly numbers 5v5. An elderly Kopitar/Kovalchuk is obviously tougher than Carter/Thompson but not by the relative margin of play (~25 vs 58 CF%). I think a bit too much gets made out of QoC.
 
The corsi stat though shows its weakness with teams like LA. Yeah, lots of shot attempts ... from the blueline and boards.
 
Babs says Freddy Andy gets the next start Thursday against the Pens


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Kristen Shilton
‏
Asked Mike Babcock what the biggest difference was in Garret Sparks from start one to start two this season: "The puck hit him." End quote.
7:29 PM - 15 Oct 2018
Click to expand...

He really is a bit of douchebag.
 
I thought Sparks was better, but still not great. He did a great job making the initial save, but he was still swimming around in his net a fair bit. He did seem to manage to largely control his rebounds, which really impressed me given his questionable positioning. Regardless, huge bounce back game for him, and he did his part to keep us on top.

I didn't think the Leafs played great, but it's not really like the Kings had that many good chances to score. And they really do lack foot speed and talent. There is no way this version of the Kings win anything of significance in the coming years.

Auston continues to look beastly. I thought that was the worst game of the year for the Tavares line, although they still managed to score.

Kadri and Lindholm continue to look awesome, and I thought Leivo carried the fourth line (LOF, this is my eye test, hope you approve ;) )

And yeah, Kapanen is a player. Poor timing for his break out from the team perspective with his pending free agency, but I'll take it. The Kessel return is actually looking much more palatable now... Kappy and Andy, essentially. And we pay part of his salary.

This team is pretty impressive though. There is just so much talent that we can get away with firing on only some cylinders and still win handily. Gonna be a fun season.
 
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