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

**William Nylander signs for 6 years, per Dreger**

Aberdeen said:
If you asked me to make the worst line-up I could think of, it'd be close to that.
Click to expand...

I've got 20 bucks that says we'll see it, or something scary similar to it, before the end of January.

I've pretty much lost faith in Babcock's lineups at this point. Any lessons I thought that he might have learned with that mid season shuffle last year, that led to the Leafs being a 110+ point team in the second half, appear to not have sunk in long term.
 
BeLeafer said:
You can't be too cynical with The Cock.
Click to expand...

I still remember Willy to the 4th line and the Hyman-Matthews-Brown experience from last season.

But now I shudder to think of how bad JT and Marner would be out there if Hyman wasn't there to get the puck for them.
 
Shit, just last night he had Kapanen sitting on the bench watching Hyman bumble pucks on the powerplay.

It doesn't stop.
 
Seriously though:

Line 1: xxxxxxx - Matthews - Nylander
Line 2: xxxxxxx - Tavares - Marner
Line 3: xxxxxxx - Kadri - xxxxxxxx
Line 4: xxxxxxx - xxxxxxx - xxxxxxx

Does it really matter who plays in the other spots?

Though getting Nylander back should drop a little more talent on Kadri's line. Ideally it should be Marleau IMO.

Johnsson - Matthews - Nylander
Hyman - Tavares - Marner
Marleau - Kadri - Kapanen
Ennis - Lindholm - Brown
 
Last edited:
BG said:
Seriously though:

Line 1: xxxxxxx - Matthews - Nylander
Line 2: xxxxxxx - Tavares - Marner
Line 3: xxxxxxx - Kadri - xxxxxxxx
Line 4: xxxxxxx - xxxxxxx - xxxxxxx

Does it really matter who plays in the other spots?
Click to expand...

Honestly, yeah it does. Are we trying to ice our best lineup, with the best chance of winning a cup, or are we okay with just seeing all the shiny toys in our lineup? Want to see Matthews and Willy dominate? Give them someone with skill who can play with them. Like Kappy. The thing that gets me the most here is that our secondary skill players (Kappy, Johnsson, the departed Leivo) were as good at working in the dirty areas as the no talent plugs

Look at how good some teams can be just from stacking one line (Boston for example), and then realize that we can stack a line, and then still have two really good lines behind it. Our high end players don't need babysitters, they're already really, really ****ing good.

Though getting Nylander back should drop a little more talent on Kadri's line. Ideally it should be Marleau IMO.

Johnsson - Matthews - Nylander
Hyman - Tavares - Marner
Marleau - Kadri - Kapanen
Ennis - Lindholm - Brown
Click to expand...

I'm fine with that, I don't think our coach is though. He doesn't trust Matthews-Nylander with tough matchups without having Marleau out there with him.
 
Last edited:
MindzEye said:
Honestly, yeah it does. Are we trying to ice our best lineup, with the best chance of winning a cup, or are we okay with just seeing all the shiny toys in our lineup? Want to see Matthews and Willy dominate? Give them someone with skill who can play with them. Like Kappy. The thing that gets me the most here is that our secondary skill players (Kappy, Johnsson, the departed Leivo) were as good at working in the dirty areas as the no talent plugs

Look at how good some teams can be just from stacking one line (Boston for example), and then realize that we can stack a line, and then still have two really good lines behind it. Our high end players don't need babysitters, they're already really, really ****ing good.



I'm fine with that, I don't think our coach is though. He doesn't trust Matthews-Nylander with tough matchups without having Marleau out there with him.
Click to expand...

It actually annoys me how good Boston does with 1 line. I keep waiting for that to cool off and it never does. We should be able to wipe the floor with a team like that.
 
Cojo said:
It actually annoys me how good Boston does with 1 line. I keep waiting for that to cool off and it never does. We should be able to wipe the floor with a team like that.
Click to expand...

just be thankful they didn't do well with those 3 picks in a row that one year. Imagine what they look like now if that wasn't the case.
 
Boston is literally the only team that scares me. Not worried about TB or Buffalo or Washington or anyone else.
 
We do have a mental thing going on playing in Boston. We are a much better team though. But yeah, Boston can be scary if they get healthy.
 
They're scary when they're not healthy. I couldn't believe they were still hanging with us in that last game till the very end.

I've said it a million times, but for me, Pastrnak is one of the very best players in the league, like top 5. He's a bull and so skilled.

He should've gone 1st overall in his draft, hands down.
 
BG said:
Seriously though:

Line 1: xxxxxxx - Matthews - Nylander
Line 2: xxxxxxx - Tavares - Marner
Line 3: xxxxxxx - Kadri - xxxxxxxx
Line 4: xxxxxxx - xxxxxxx - xxxxxxx

Does it really matter who plays in the other spots?

Though getting Nylander back should drop a little more talent on Kadri's line. Ideally it should be Marleau IMO.

Johnsson - Matthews - Nylander
Hyman - Tavares - Marner
Marleau - Kadri - Kapanen
Ennis - Lindholm - Brown
Click to expand...
Agreed ... so the only part Babs' got 'wrong' is Marleau and Johnsson should switch spots.

I see many fans suggest a Kap - Matthews - Nylander 1st line, but nevermind this requires Kapanen to play on the off-wing, this also requires Marleau or Johnsson to play on the off wing, which I don't think they have done either.

And then, part of this goes back to "Why is Hoglund playing on the first line?" question. Leafs can simply stack our lines with the best players on line #1, 2nd best players on line #2 ... or we can share the wealth too. Marleau playing on Matthews' wing doesn't mean he's our best LW. The fact he's not on our PP1 tells you he isn't.

I, too, would rather have Johnsson play on Matthew's wing but I don't think Johnsson playing on Kadri's wing is so bad for him either. As long as Brown and Lindholm are playing on the 4th line I'm good.
 
I think the rumored lines for tonight's game are perfect.

Babs is slowly, but successfully, guiding this ship to its intended destination.
 
number17 said:
Agreed ... so the only part Babs' got 'wrong' is Marleau and Johnsson should switch spots.
Click to expand...

and honestly that's a pretty close call.

It just makes a whole world of difference moving Brown down to the 4th line.

the only pure grunt in the whole top 9 now is Hyman, and he at least is a really good grunt. I'd love to have seen Leivo get a look in that spot and Hyman join Brown on the 4th line, but ah well.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
They're scary when they're not healthy. I couldn't believe they were still hanging with us in that last game till the very end.

I've said it a million times, but for me, Pastrnak is one of the very best players in the league, like top 5. He's a bull and so skilled.

He should've gone 1st overall in his draft, hands down.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Pastrynak is a superstar.
 
MindzEye said:
Honestly, yeah it does. Are we trying to ice our best lineup, with the best chance of winning a cup, or are we okay with just seeing all the shiny toys in our lineup? Want to see Matthews and Willy dominate? Give them someone with skill who can play with them. Like Kappy. The thing that gets me the most here is that our secondary skill players (Kappy, Johnsson, the departed Leivo) were as good at working in the dirty areas as the no talent plugs
Click to expand...

Put Marleau, Kapanen, Johnsson, Hyman in a blender though and does it really matter? I'm not saying that you can put plugs on every line - but you could make an argument for any of those guys to play on the top line.

Yeah, we had the misfortune of having to watch Ennis on the top-line to start the season - but Brown seems to be tied to the bottom 6 and none of Lindholm or the Goat are getting a sniff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top