• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

The Official 2026-27 Leafs Season Thread: New Regime, Who Dis?

Long-term Marchenko-Tavares-Nylander should be very good. No excuse for it not to be. And if it is, they'll be a very good team. If the first line is continues to be super elite and the second line is very good, there is like a 0% chance they'll be shit. It's nearly impossible. That's where the main issue is right now. There's like 75% of the 5 on 5 minutes per night covered between the top 2 lines. You can't have one of them being such a tire fire.
 
Last edited:
Preston said:
Long-term Marchenko-Tavares-Nylander should be very good. No excuse for it not to be. And if it is, they'll be a very good team. If the first line is continues to be super elite and the second line is very good, there is like a 0% chance they'll be shit. It's nearly impossible. That's where the main issue is right now. There's like 75% of the 5 on 5 minutes per night covered between the top 2 lines. You can't have one of them being such a tire fire.
Click to expand...
They will be good. I have no worries about a line with those three. None.

My worry is why can't we get the puck out of our zone, and what to fucking expect from Bob.

Small sample, but Hildeby might suck, or maybe TB does since Vasy has the same stats, or maybe both of them are bad now.

Poor Woll is playing for maybe a lottery team and is still just about at .900, which I assume is probably actually very good performance considering what they're doing in front of him. Giving him away, ultimately for nothing, is really annoying.

Either way, I still would've run with one of those guys instead of this commitment to the old, but Chaykes might know better and Bob could still definitely bounce back if we're otherwise good. And I think we are otherwise good. Even last night, only 17 shots given up.
 
i guess for me the question is it Willy just forgetting how to play over the offseason, or what he is being asked to do.

Willy currently has one of the lowest ixg/60 and xGF/60 of his career. He also isn’t producing off the rush as he is 204th in rush points/60, which is usually his bread and butter (he was 21st overall the last 2 seasons combined.)

The Leafs ozone game seems to be to work the cycle low to high and either feed F3 on the circle or the dman for a low percentage shot. Which isn’t letting Willy be Willy, and is really only working for Matthews, Cowan, Roslovic, Marchenko.

And their transition game is a mess.
 
The transition game is atrocious. It starts at the back end where we have a tough time getting the puck out, and then we seem to have difficulty getting set up in the offensive zone. We go in, but give the puck away quick and head back the other way to defend.
 
I think there's definitely a world in which Marchenko -Tavares-Nylander being a thing while also spreading out 3 solid lines. If you hold firm with Gav and keep him with Auston, you can comfortably reunite the cowan-paul-sissons line imo. Granted, Gav needs to get up to speed fast if you want to optimize performance. But you gotta go with it I think.
 
Adding Joshua at least makes that third line look less terrible.

McKenna Matthews Roslovic
Cowan Paul Nylander
Groulx Sissons Joshua
Duhaime Blueger MacEwen

And if Tanev is back...do they sit Stecher given his recent play?
 
We could so badly use Minten. Legit the thing we're missing most and will be incredibly tough to find, a young C who can actually play, so that if Tavares or Matty is down, we don't turn into an offensive wasteland down the middle. Fucking Tre couldn't have fucking just traded the pick, which was already a stupid overpay for Carlo. Fuck that guy and his ineptitude.
 
McKenna-Matthews-Nylander
Cowan-Tavares-Marchenko
Joshua-Paul-Roslovic
Duhaime-Scissons-Blueger

-breaks up the Nylander/Tavares combo
-gives Tavares two good skating wingers to cover back for him
-puts all the 4th line guys on the 4th line
-Roslovic and Paul have both played really well and should be able to provide us 3rd line level scoring over a whole season
 
Matthews-Roslovic has been great no matter eho they're with and i can't imagine anywhere else maximizing Roslovic more. I've never thought Matthews ever needed another elite player to be great. And anyways cowan is getting to be reall damn good.

Marchenko-Nylander seemed fire together and i don't think tavares would make them any better. Paul or Sissons betwen them gives them a defensive presence to anchor them.

Tavares-McKenna on a 3rd line gives them top talent to play with while letting them be super sheltered. Any of Paul/Joseph/Sisssons could fit on their wing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top