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Pre-season GDT - Leafs vs Sens Round 2 (9:30 EST TSN4)

number17

number17

Mod Squad
Andersen getting his start tonight, and I can't wait to see how he plays.

So far, all the question marks heading into pre-season has been answered with positive answers ... like :

- Is Matthews the 'real deal'? (Oh yes!)
- Is Marner ready for the NHL (Yes, for sure)
- Is Zaitsev as good as people say he is? (Yes)
- Is Rielly gonna keep improving? (So far so good)
- Are Valiev and Carrick NHL dmen (Sure looks like it so far)

The only 'disappointment' for me thus far this season is Brown has not played like he wants to compete for a spot on the NHL roster.

The other outstanding Q is "Is Andersen the answer?" and I guess we'll begin to find out tonight.

I don't have the lineup for tonight ... anyone who has it please post it.
 
Side note:

I really like what the leafs are doing by taking preseason games out east, to the prairies as well as Hamilton and St Catherines. I'm sure most of the decision is based on the ACC being able to make more money on other events but it does help us get and keep more non GTA based support.
 
trujaysfan said:
Side note:

I really like what the leafs are doing by taking preseason games out east, to the prairies as well as Hamilton and St Catherines. I'm sure most of the decision is based on the ACC being able to make more money on other events but it does help us get and keep more non GTA based support.
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Probably a good idea for the organization, as far as maintaining the fanbase for the long-term. I mean, you have to figure there's a good chance that the team's taken a pretty significant hit among young Toronto and Canadian hockey fans in general who were born in the late 90's, and grew up only knowing the Leafs as the shit-show of the past 10 years, and not the Gilmour/Clark/Burns & Sundin/Roberts/Quinn crews a lot of us got to see as kids and young hockey fans.
 
Seems like they're trying to see how Brown would fit in a fourth line role. Too bad because I don't think he will ever stand out with that kind of opportunity. Still somehow found his way on the scoresheet last game.
 
LeafGm said:
Probably a good idea for the organization, as far as maintaining the fanbase for the long-term. I mean, you have to figure there's a good chance that the team's taken a pretty significant hit among young Toronto and Canadian hockey fans in general who were born in the late 90's, and grew up only knowing the Leafs as the shit-show of the past 10 years, and not the Gilmour/Clark/Burns & Sundin/Roberts/Quinn crews a lot of us got to see as kids and young hockey fans.
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+1

There are a lot of Leaf fans out west for example, but not a whole hell of a lot of them are younger than I am...and I'm not a kid anymore.
 
MindzEye said:
+1

There are a lot of Leaf fans out west for example, but not a whole hell of a lot of them are younger than I am...and I'm not a kid anymore.
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Yeah, that doesn't surprise me a lot. I even see the same kind of thing here in Toronto. My office is next door to a large hockey rink/complex that has hockey camps for kids throughout the summer, and big tournaments at least once a week, and out of all the kids I'll see milling about or running through drills outside, maybe one in twenty is sporting Leaf gear.

And they're almost always outnumbered by kids wearing merch for the Blackhawks, Penguins, Capitals, Habs, etc.
 
Lines look like this sounds like:

VanRiemsdyk - Holland - Marner
Hyman - Matthews - Nylander
Timashov - Laich - Kapanen
Greening - Froese - Prust
Moore

Rielly - Zaitsev
Gardiner - Nielsen
Dermott - Corrado
Carrick

Andersen


I'm starting to think they're legit getting worried about Laich's ability to contribute, especially at center. I'm surprised to see Holland getting so much time at C this training camp.
 
zeke said:
Lines look like this sounds like:

VanRiemsdyk - Holland - Marner
Hyman - Matthews - Nylander
Timashov - Laich - Kapanen
Greening - Froese - Prust
Moore

Rielly - Zaitsev
Gardiner - Nielsen
Dermott - Corrado
Carrick

Andersen


I'm starting to think they're legit getting worried about Laich's ability to contribute, especially at center. I'm surprised to see Holland getting so much time at C this training camp.
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Lines appear to be wrong... Bozak with JVR and marner

Holland with greening and kapanen
 
scratch that. henny tweets that no bozak or kadri means matthews and nylander at center tonight. with marner on matthews' wing.

VanRyk - Nylander - Hyman
Greening - Matthews - Marner
 
For someone Babcock has said he wants to start on the wing, he has sure given Nylander a good amount of time at Center. Probably just part of the process? or are we seeing a slight change in tactics this season already.
 
Pre-season is the time to experiment. I think Babs already saw what he wanted out of the Matthews - Nylander combo. Now he wants to see how Matthews - Marner works.
 
number17 said:
Andersen getting his start tonight, and I can't wait to see how he plays.

So far, all the question marks heading into pre-season has been answered with positive answers ... like :

- Is Matthews the 'real deal'? (Oh yes!)
- Is Marner ready for the NHL (Yes, for sure)
- Is Zaitsev as good as people say he is? (Yes)
- Is Rielly gonna keep improving? (So far so good)
- Are Valiev and Carrick NHL dmen (Sure looks like it so far)

The only 'disappointment' for me thus far this season is Brown has not played like he wants to compete for a spot on the NHL roster.

The other outstanding Q is "Is Andersen the answer?" and I guess we'll begin to find out tonight.

I don't have the lineup for tonight ... anyone who has it please post it.
Click to expand...

Excellent post. From what I have read and been told many people feel Andersen is the real deal as well. I'm predicting he will be a top 5 goalie in the conference, which would make our season very interesting.
 
Not sure why but I think Matthews and Marner will have better chemistry than Matthews and Nylander. Will be interesting to see if that's the case (though one game is not much to go on).

Also like shifting Nylander back to centre. Just seems like centre is a better fit for him than wing. Of course, this would mean unloading Bozak if they go this way.

Freddy's debut as well. Too bad this one conflicts with the Jays game.
 
So if we are going to kadri-nylander-matthews as our centres and it appears that kadri -komarov, Nylander - hyman and Matthew's- marner forward pairings.

Where do JVR, Michalek fit in and who else gets added to the top 9?
 
I can't see them playing Nylander at center this year. The only reason he is now is because Kadri and Bozak aren't playing.
 
Kadri and/or Bozak could be playing. Sure seems to me that they want a look at Nylander up the middle against a near-NHL roster and/or Matthews with Nylander.
 
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