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

Lineup Your Lineups WTF its September? Edition

I'd be pretty shocked if Corrado was waived. He's a bottom pair guy and stuff, but to sign Polak and waive Corrado would be pretty dumb.
 
Something has to give.. I'd agree Marincin should be in the line up... I've just heard Babcock talk way too much about having D on their strong side to think he won't start that way.
 
Post-Trade Deadline Dman Icetime:

Rielly 25:17 (22gms)
Hunwick 23:36 (5gms)
Gardiner 22:55 (22gms)
Marincin 22:39 (22gms)
Carrick 16:33 (16gms)

Brennan 15:06 (7gms)
Corrado 14:38 (22gms)
Valiev 12:15 (10gms)
Campbell 11:35 (6gms)
 
Preston_Mizzi said:
I'd be pretty shocked if Corrado was waived. He's a bottom pair guy and stuff, but to sign Polak and waive Corrado would be pretty dumb.
Click to expand...

meh, corrado stinks.

polak is there purely for toughness and to flip at the deadline again.
 
zeke said:
meh, corrado stinks.

polak is there purely for toughness and to flip at the deadline again.
Click to expand...

I think Corrado is better than anything they'll get for Polak. I agree that he's not a huge loss but he's exactly what you want on your third pair - elite possession numbers in sheltered minutes. Polak isn't even capable of that.
 
See, Babcock is kind of an expert at making guys look good with protected minutes. All of the guys at the bottom of his Detroit roster would put up good possession numbers too. IMO that's a good sign of a well-coached team - when the tiny bit players most all look good possession wise. I don't think it says much about the player though. Corrado's possession numbers weren't good in vancouver.
 
zeke said:
See, Babcock is kind of an expert at making guys look good with protected minutes. All of the guys at the bottom of his Detroit roster would put up good possession numbers too. IMO that's a good sign of a well-coached team - when the tiny bit players most all look good possession wise. I don't think it says much about the player though. Corrado's possession numbers weren't good in vancouver.
Click to expand...

Oh I agree completely. That's a coach's job - to protect his players so they all succeed. Those horrible Leaf corsi teams were mostly all due to coaching. Bozak in particular is a solid example of becoming somewhat useful under Babcock's sheltering.

The thing is, some guys can't be protected. After all, you can't protect a guy any more than having them play third pair minutes against weak competition and high o-zone starts. A guy like Polak, for example, cannot be protected. His possession numbers are poor no matter where he plays. A lot of it is down to coaching, yes, but the fact is for whatever reason Corrado fits Babcock's system and does his job very admirably in the role he was given. I agree that it isn't very difficult to find a third pairing d that can play that role to perfection, but if they keep Polak over him it's simply a mistake IMO.

With that said, it's true that Babcock historically puts ridiculous pressure in his top pairs. Historically, even on the Wings teams, the top pair has always been pretty poor possession-wise (a lot of it is down to personnel) and the 2nd and 3rd pair consisted of elite possession guys mostly due to sheltering. The Leafs last season was no different. Except for Polak.. Polak was very clearly shit.
 
Yeah, but guys like Polak will always, always have value to nhl gms.

we got a 2nd rounder for Polak last eyar, and I doubt we get that for Corrado - who we picked up on waivers after all.
 
The writing's on the wall already for Corrado. Rielly, Gardiner, Zaitsev & Marincin are pretty much set in stone on the roster. So, there's four roster spots filled. Hunwick is a Babcock favourite, so I'd say it's a pretty good bet he's filling roster spot #5. Roman Polak, stinks, I agree, but Lou and Babcock love him, and Lou didn't promise to bring him back when he dealt him at the trade deadline and give him $2.25M just to waive him at the end of training camp. So, there's six roster spots spoken for.

That leaves Carrick & Corrado fighting for the last spot, and both have to be waived to be sent down. And I think Carrick wins that battle pretty handily.
 
Meh we'll see. I don't think they'd waive Polak. I just think there will be injuries like there are every year and/or they'll roll with 8 d at least to start.

But I suppose you're right at the end of the day. If the d have a healthy season Corrado will be a goner. We'll see what Polak returns them.
 
BTW Babs just told reporter he will start Matthews in 3C hole, and it is entirely up to Matthews if and when he moves up in depth chart.

So, expect to see a Martin - Matthews - Nylander line on opening night if we're lucky ... swap Nylander with Michalek / Greening / Leivo if we're not.
 
This is not a surprising statement but will be blown out of proportion.

Every knows he has the talent to be the top guy now but let him prove it himself. I give it 10 games max before he is playing heavy minutes
 
I don't think it's a big deal. It won't be long before he's our clear #1. He's too good to stay there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Also it's probably not good for your vets egos to be usurped buy someone whose never played a game, regardless off the hype. But if he earns it on the ice, it's a much easier pill to swallow.
 
no, i agree it's not a big issue.

It only becomes an issue if Matthew shows he's clearly better than every other C on the team (which will take maybe 10 games or 15 games) and he's still stuck behind other players.
 
I would imagine the plan for the year is to give Kadri the hard minutes vs the other teams top lines and then to play Matthews in the more offensively oriented situations.
 
number17 said:
- Putting low skilled guys like Martin on Marner or Matthews' line will only drag him down. As we saw from the exhibition game, Marner created lots of chances for Laich and Greening but they can't even get close to capitalize on them
Click to expand...

Like Quinn, Babcock loves to slot a banger in with two skill guys. I don't see that changing, particularly will all the rookie forwards coming in.
 
LeafGm said:
The writing's on the wall already for Corrado. Rielly, Gardiner, Zaitsev & Marincin are pretty much set in stone on the roster. So, there's four roster spots filled. Hunwick is a Babcock favourite, so I'd say it's a pretty good bet he's filling roster spot #5. Roman Polak, stinks, I agree, but Lou and Babcock love him, and Lou didn't promise to bring him back when he dealt him at the trade deadline and give him $2.25M just to waive him at the end of training camp. So, there's six roster spots spoken for.

That leaves Carrick & Corrado fighting for the last spot, and both have to be waived to be sent down. And I think Carrick wins that battle pretty handily.
Click to expand...

This.

Yeah, Corrado stinks. Filler that should be replaced with a guy like Loov or Valiev on the pecking order.

Don't really get the love for Hunwick, but every coach seems to have one of these.
 
Hunwick was actually a pretty good bottom pair defenseman for the Rangers. He is a good skater and plays smart. He can't handle the shutdown minutes though. He is too soft and not good enough with the puck for that role.

Babcock likes him because of his work ethic.
 
BeLeafer said:
This.

Yeah, Corrado stinks. Filler that should be replaced with a guy like Loov or Valiev on the pecking order.

Don't really get the love for Hunwick, but every coach seems to have one of these.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Babcock wanted Hunwick brought in for cultural reasons more than anything else. I've got not qualms with moves like that when they're cheap and short term. Way better than Komi, Clarkson, etc, etc. Having a hard working professional around to show the kids how to be mature pros is a good thing. The hope is that by the time the kids start really developing, you have higher skill gym rats showing the way (Willy, Rielly, etc)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top