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GDT #5: Leafs @ Dead Things, 7:30PM, TSN4

LeafGm

LeafGm

Well-known member
Another battle with a basement-dweller of the Atlantic division tonight.

Looks like Babcock is coming back with pretty much the same lineup that beat Dallas, except with Marincin subbing into the lineup for Ozhiganov:

Patrick Marleau - Auston Matthews - Kasperi Kapanen
Zach Hyman - John Tavares - Mitch Marner
Par Lindholm - Nazem Kadri - Connor Brown
Josh Leivo - Frederik Gauthier - Tyler Ennis

Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott - Martin Marincin

Andersen starts
 
It's a good idea to ease Oz in by rotating him, but why not Holl?

Won't be shocked in the Leafs score another touchdown tonight. Holland seems committed to following Toronto's 2015-16 lead.
 
BeLeafer said:
It's a good idea to ease Oz in by rotating him, but why not Holl?

Won't be shocked in the Leafs score another touchdown tonight. Holland seems committed to following Toronto's 2015-16 lead.
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Yeah, I dunno.

It seems to make all the sense in the world to put Holl in that spot, considering he's a natural RHD and has a ton of experience playing with Dermott.

The answer may be that Holl is Frankie Corrado---management likes him, but the coach doesn't want to play him.
 
but people were arguing babs doesn't like marincin either, no?

tbh, this might be about trying to work up some kind of trade value for marincin, who does have a bit of a career behind him.
 
but people were arguing babs doesn't like marincin either, no?

tbh, this might be about trying to work up some kind of trade value for marincin, who does have a bit of a career behind him.
 
zeke said:
but people were arguing babs doesn't like marincin either, no?

tbh, this might be about trying to work up some kind of trade value for marincin, who does have a bit of a career behind him.
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I hadn't really considered that as a possibility, but that could be a factor here.

After all, whenever the Swedish dude with the nice hair signs a contract and returns, the Leafs will have to dump someone from the current roster in order to make room. And the only guys on the team who are still waiver-exempt are Kapanen, Johnsson, Dermott, Ozhiganov & Lindholm, and it seems unlikely they'd send any of those guys down.
 
I doubt Marincin has any trade value, but maybe Dubas is trying to showcase him so that another team will pick him up on waivers.
 
BG said:
I doubt Marincin has any trade value, but maybe Dubas is trying to showcase him so that another team will pick him up on waivers.
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You never know.

The Leafs have recently shown a penchant for collecting 6th or 7th round picks in exchange for guys with seemingly little-to-no trade value.
 
That may be why they're doing it. Build up some value so that he can be included in a trade package.
 
I wonder if the Goat can actually figure it out as a 4th liner. He was legit good last game, albeit against absolute crap competition. But still - if he can do well against crap competition that's a worthwhile 4th liner. And I thought I read somewhere that his possession numbers in the AHL playoffs last year were pretty darn good, whereas in previous ahl stints they had been pretty bad.
 
Dermott on the right side could help fill that black hole

Get him comfortable there and start slowly increasing his minutes as games go on
 
zeke said:
I wonder if the Goat can actually figure it out as a 4th liner. He was legit good last game, albeit against absolute crap competition. But still - if he can do well against crap competition that's a worthwhile 4th liner. And I thought I read somewhere that his possession numbers in the AHL playoffs last year were pretty darn good, whereas in previous ahl stints they had been pretty bad.
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I've never had much hope of The Goat being anything more than an OK 4th liner, and last year pretty much did away with even that modest hope.

Still, when it comes to last season, it might be worth taking into consideration that he spent most of the 2017 off-season re-learning how to walk. So, maybe that Dallas game isn't just him beating up on awful competition, and it's indicative of where he's currently at after the AHL experience he's accumulated, and being able to work through a full, healthy off-season.

We'll soon find out.
 
Artnes said:
Dermott on the right side could help fill that black hole

Get him comfortable there and start slowly increasing his minutes as games go on
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This would require Babcock putting Hainsey out to pasture, and I think we all know this isn't going to happen any time soon. There might be another mid season intervention like there was last season, but Babcock will give Hainsey absolutely every opportunity possible to prove he can still do it.
 
hainsey leads all the top-4 in all the metrics. by a LOT.

RelCA60: 1 Hainsey -6.3, 2. Zaitsev +6.8, 3.Jake +9.8, 4. Mo +16.5
RelxGA60: 1.Hainsey -0.3, 2.Zaitsev -0.1, 3.Jake -0.1, 4. Mo +1.2

RelCF%: 1.Hainsey +5.9, 2.Mo -1.4, 3.Zaits -6.6, 4.Jake -10.1
RelxGF%: 1.hainsey +5.8, 2.Jake -4.4, 3.Mo -6.1, 4.Zaits -7.2

heh. even leads in plus minus.

heheh. second in points, too.
 
It looks like Babs might have finally got the drift on Hainsey. He's fourth among the blueliners with 5v5 TOI/G. I've been noticing he's starting to play way better, despite all the people around the interwebs screaming about him being over the hill.

He's also not leading in pk toi/g either. That's Zaitsev.

My view from last season was that he went in the toilet due to extreme overusage. Looks like that's indeed the case.
 
An interesting development (not sure if reported already):

Paul Hendrick
‏ @HennyTweets

Marincin left side, and Dermott plays right.#tmltalk
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Dermott does well here and I predict he'll be on Rielly's right side before long. Then we'll have a true top pair.
 
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