Patience is really running thin with carlyle as far as gardiner goes, nonis loves him, carlyle can't coach him, he gets beat in the corner everytime. All this stress for him to play responsible D is taking a toll on his overall game which his strength is moving the puck and creating plays, I think he gets moved.
A team put together for ron wilson, now with brown, komorov, grabovski, and macarthur gone, looks like a different team. Clarkson playing third line minutes, his play was enhanced in jersey with elias and kova, pp time, not here, could be a long 7 years. This team is a 7th or 8th seed playoff team, provided everyone's healthy, (kadri,bozak,lupul and bolland out) this team can't compete with teams like the sharks.
From the CBC... It just keeps getting worse for the Leafs as far as injuries go. Lot of big names going down to injury lately.
Kessel, Datsyuk, and Zetterberg out. Enough with science, time to bring in the witch-doctors to get everybody healthy for the WC.
A lot of injuries all round, there was a while in my other league where at least two players a week would go down, usually on the monday or tuesday.
I read on the CBC, they were recording at the time Kessel was injured and left the ice at practice. They (HBO) followed him into the locker room. I guess they started their recording of the Leafs yesterday.
Yes they did, we get to see the leafs in a crisis, in real time, everyone out is a top #6 forward and going into one of the toughest part of their schedule.
Bozak out for a while again. So why the hell did Nonis take on an injury risk like Bolland again given the vulnerability at the position?
I'm no longer down there, back up here now. i meant down here relative to Canada. do you have Center Ice bob?
Try to see if you could stream it live, now colton orr is out too, geez, talk about being snake bitten, not sure kessel will be effective tonight. All my teams have gone down in flames, (jays,skins) now the leafs, a trifecta, maybe I should take my luck to the track.
Outshot 50-24 but Leafs win in OT on a goal by Trevor Smith. That is good enough by me since we played a Western Conference team.
It's obvious this isn't the same time like last year, despite the injuries, here's my take. The absence of leo komorov, mike brown, and grabovski have taken away the toughness to this team. All the credit went to orr and maclaren for being tough, but they're only tough when they fight, and macleren often times takes costly penalties. Komorov was 4 th in the league with hits, brown was a no nonsense checker, grabo never hurt, this would have an effect with the overall team, it would get guys like fraser going. The top 6 forwards being smallish and skilled only needed to do their job, score goals, it was a perfect system. Now having to replace that chemistry with new players like a clarkson, who comes from a different system hasn't been that easy, being up against the cap, and forced to settle with a ranger on D who hasn't played in 4 years, doesn't make any sense either, and fraser isn't the same player like last year. I don't think there's any reason to panic, a couple of guys need to go and be replaced by some marlies hungry for playing time, d'amigo in there last night, is ten times better than having maclaren in any kind of checking role, at least he could keep up with the play. Nothing against maclaren and orr, but either one or the other, you can't have both, especially on together, its a total mismatch vs any other lines they match up against. A few tweaks, and when they're back to a healthy lineup, and they could still make the playoffs, and maybe in the off season, try to add some toughness more similar to the team they had last year.
The problem isn't the toughness, at least it isn't the core of it. Toronto has a certain playstyle and it, infuriatingly enough, involves picking way too many shots instead of putting it on net as often as they should and the never seem to get a pass once they enter the zone. I mean They enter the zone along the boards or a dump and then they have ZERO pass options to give it to a guy that can at least put a half-decent shot on net. They need to fix that first. Practice passes and shots shortly after crossing the blue line. As for defense, for the most part Toronto does a good job not giving good shots, because honestly most of these shots on Toronto are bad angle shots, usually with little rebound opportunity and it inflates the shot disparity. However they still need to improve things a bit, learn improve their d play and for God's sake stop scratching Reilly and get some other bum out or even swap the pairings.
I understand the frustration at times, they aren't aggressive enough in their shots, they'd rather get that one extra pass in when they're 6 effin feet from the net, and they pass it back to the point lol. I really can't look at the offense now because three top #6 guys are out, and when they're healthy, I know they could score as good as anyone in the league, and even better, a lot of scoring depth from lupul, kadri, jvr, and then the potential in , clarkson, kulemin, and don't forget bolland. I pick on their toughness, because, honestly, even healthy, I don't think this team would be able to take the B's to 7 like last year, I think this team would get knocked out in 5, they would get knocked around and probably have some key injuries by the time the series was over, and playoffs is what its all about.
