Speculation: Babcock Turning Matthews Into A Checker & The Leafs Into Boring Chumps

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If babcock wants to run a dump and chase system then Nylander, Marner are not built for that. Hell even Crosby, Malkin and especially Kane are not built for that.

Change the system or change the personnel.

Except Babcock didn't change systems for no reason, it was a counter measure to what the opposition were doing to the Leafs. Everybody knows the Leafs love to attack with speed as its their best weapon, so any good opposition coach would defend against that by clogging up the middle of the ice, call it neutral zone trap, left wing lock, or any other such defensive positioning you like that prevents the Leafs speedy forwards from getting up a head of steam and coming at them in waves, unopposed up the ice. Disrupt the Leafs attack and you neutralize Leafs greatest advantage, its basic defending for dummies 101. Not Babcocks call blame the opposition coach for that one.

So Babcock tells his players if there is a wall of defenders in front of you preventing you from gaining and skating the puck into the Ozone, to put the puck into the zone, away from the goalie behind the row of defenders and use your speed to go chase it down to regain possession in the Ozone again.

What Babcock is trying to prevent was all the costly mid-ice giveaways and high grade scoring chances against that were happening when a Leaf tried to skate and dangle on a rush attack by himself through an entire team waiting for them at centre and lose the puck and the other team pouncing on turnovers and going in and scoring on Anderson. So by dumping it in, even if you lose possession the other team has to bring the puck back 200ft from your own net and not just from Centre ice in at odd man advantages.

Babcock knows full well better than anyone playoff hockey is tight checking and lower scoring and that teams put even more effort into defending, so this was inevitable that the opposition would block the rush attack and force dump and chase tactics on them and that the generally soft/small but skilled forwards of the Leafs are no real match to big heavy built teams to win puck battles in their Dzone. So Leafs forwards better get use to being blocked and forced to dump it in and win those puck battles now in the regular season and not think its something they can switch on in the playoffs.

Hyman, Komarov, Brown etc are the forwards best suited for this to get the puck back for the skilled forwards on an aggressive forecheck after its dumped in by their linemates. That is why Babcock likes and feels he needs one of these workers on every line, because he knows he has a bunch of players ill equipped to hit and check and win 50/50 puck battles in the Ozone behind the icing line.

It would be naive to believe a line stacked offensive line of JVR/Nylander -- Matthews -- Marner would have someone on it equipped to charge fearlessly head first into the zone and go get the puck against big/strong defenders, win the board battles and get out front to Matthews for scoring opportunities. Babcock is not naive and knows just like you point out, he has numerous players that are not built to play physical and battle to regain dumped in pucks. So he sends in his few puck hounds, tells them to "go fetch", that he has on the roster and uses them more than many other players who can't do what they do. Plain and simple.
 
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saffronleaf

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May 17, 2011
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Toronto, ON
Matthews has been disappointing but the real story is the damage he's doing to the entire team. Matthews is a top 10 talent but our offense overall should be easily top 3 and somehow it's been in the bottom 5 for weeks

agreed. he's killed it all.

poor nylander I hope he gets to escape babcuck and play on a team that appreciates him.
 

CantLoseWithMatthews

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Sep 28, 2015
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agreed. he's killed it all.

poor nylander I hope he gets to escape babcuck and play on a team that appreciates him.
At least Willy escaped demotion it seems. Marner is down to the 4th line because he had a bad game and isn't a veteran, which is all it takes for Babcock to want to destroy you. It's not a shock nobody does anything offensively anymore. The young players are terrified Babcock will ruin them, and the vets are completely carefree and lackadaisical because they can do whatever they want
 
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frog

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Apr 8, 2014
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Riiiiight.

It certainly shows in games. He's so pissed that he goes with the exact same lines and system. As long as the other team doesn't score 4+ on us, it's all gravy
Thats just his coaching style. Id say he's definetly more than annoyed with his team, he's just not gonna broadcast it to us. I know im in the minority but changing the lines arent going to do shit, id find it concerning if Marner, Nylander etc are so dependant on line combinations that they dont have the inherent talent to score no matter who is on there line.

1. Mathews is playing with Nylander.
2. Kadri is playing with Marleau
3. Marner is playing with Bozak and Van Reimsdyk

I see no reason for the line combinations to hold any of these guys back. they should have the talent to start scoring again, but if they need other players to make them good then we should reconsider calling these guys elite. Babcock thinks there elite hence no lineup changes.
 
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saffronleaf

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May 17, 2011
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Toronto, ON
At least Willy escaped demotion it seems. Marner is down to the 4th line because he had a bad game and isn't a veteran, which is all it takes for Babcock to want to destroy you. It's not a shock nobody does anything offensively anymore. The young players are terrified Babcock will ruin them, and the vets are completely carefree and lackadaisical because they can do whatever they want

exactly. he always has some stupid seniority excuse. oh, yea, komarov and bozak are trash? too bad, send willie or mitch to the fourth line.

willie must be playing so scared. one mistake and the cock will unleash his wrath on him.
 

IBeL34f

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Jun 3, 2010
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okay, show me the matthews highlight reel from last night.
Unfortunately, I'm not a film editor - I'm sorry I can't compile a bunch of clips for you to prove my point.

However, he put on an absolute clinic of puck-protection in the Blues zone at one point on Tuesday night, and was stick-handling in a phone-booth around 3 or 4 Senators who were draping themselves over him last week - He does this stuff all the time. Not to mention the sheer joy I get watching him in his own zone.

Seriously, if you find him boring, you're not paying close enough attention.
 
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PromisedLand

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Dec 3, 2016
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Except Babcock didn't change systems for no reason, it was a counter measure to what the opposition were doing to the Leafs. Everybody knows the Leafs love to attack with speed as its their best weapon, so any good opposition coach would defend against that by clogging up the middle of the ice, call it neutral zone trap, left wing lock, or any other such defensive positioning you like that prevents the Leafs speedy forwards from getting up a head of steam and coming at them in waves, unopposed up the ice. Disrupt the Leafs attack and you neutralize Leafs greatest advantage, its basic defending for dummies 101. Not Babcocks call blame the opposition coach for that one.

So Babcock tells his players if there is a wall of defenders in front of you preventing you from gaining and skating the puck into the Ozone, to put the puck into the zone, away from the goalie behind the row of defenders and use your speed to go chase it down to regain possession in the Ozone again.

What Babcock is trying to prevent was all the costly mid-ice giveaways and high grade scoring chances against that were happening when a Leaf tried to skate and dangle on a rush attack by himself through an entire team waiting for them at centre and lose the puck and the other team pouncing on turnovers and going in and scoring on Anderson. So by dumping it in, even if you lose possession the other team has to bring the puck back 200ft from your own net and not just from Centre ice in at odd man advantages.

Babcock knows full well better than anyone playoff hockey is tight checking and lower scoring and that teams put even more effort into defending, so this was inevitable that the opposition would block the rush attack and force dump and chase tactics on them and that the generally soft/small but skilled forwards of the Leafs are no real match to big heavy built teams to win puck battles in their Dzone. So Leafs forwards better get use to being blocked and forced to dump it in and win those puck battles now in the regular season and not think its something they can switch on in the playoffs.

Hyman, Komarov, Brown etc are the forwards best suited for this to get the puck back for the skilled forwards on an aggressive forecheck after its dumped in by their linemates. That is why Babcock likes and feels he needs one of these workers on every line, because he knows he has a bunch of players ill equipped to hit and check and win 50/50 puck battles in the Ozone behind the icing line.

It would be naive to believe a line stacked offensive line of JVR/Nylander -- Matthews -- Marner would have someone on it equipped to charge fearlessly head first into the zone and go get the puck against big/strong defenders, win the board battles and get out front to Matthews for scoring opportunities. Babcock is not naive and knows just like you point out, he has numerous players that are not built to play physical and battle to regain dumped in pucks. So he sends in his few puck hounds, tells them to "go fetch", that he has on the roster and uses them more than many other players who can't do what they do. Plain and simple.

Although I see some truth to the logic you present; I do not agree with everything you posted.

D-men attempting stretch passes to get a tip in were giving away puck

D-men hardly skated with the puck even when there was no pressure (excluding Mo)

Meanwhile leafs wingers especially human and Komarov and JVR just stand at the opposition blue line waiting for that pass to tip in; never gain the possession while opposition transitions with structure and speed.

How is it that leafs are being “trapped” but opposition keeps gaining zone entries uncontested more often than not in the leafs zone.

There is a serious disconnect here; if opposition is trapping you why aren’t we trapping back? Have you seen the defens Ce positioning of the 5 men unit when the puck is in transition by opposition in neutral zone? It gets even worst in the defensive zone for the leafs.

When was the last time Leafs had a sustained offensive pressure while cycling the puck in the offensive zone because of forecheck? And consistently not just a shift here or there?

This is a fundamental problem, going back to the basics while Babcock refuses to adapt or change his lines to see if something else may work.

This is what I call arrogance; he is so set in his ways and so egotistical that he refuses to change except flipping brown and Nylander.

Other coaches change it up. The idea is not only teach defense but at the same time keep morale of the team and players high. With the results we are getting and now Freddie calling out the disgusting play it seems pretty obvious to me that the morale of the players and by extension the team is on a downward trend

Babcock must adapt! Change the system or change the personnel who will execute his systems.

Somethings gotta give
 

CantLoseWithMatthews

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Sep 28, 2015
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exactly. he always has some stupid seniority excuse. oh, yea, komarov and bozak are trash? too bad, send willie or mitch to the fourth line.

willie must be playing so scared. one mistake and the cock will unleash his wrath on him.
exactly. he's an elite zone entry machine but all he can do is dump it in out of fear he'll make a mistake and end up dragging Martin and Moore/Gauthier around the ice for the rest of the year
 
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david999

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Jan 21, 2011
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Colorado is another team that is having great success by stacking the top line with their best offensive players. Babcock on the other hand seems to think playing Marner on the 4th line is better strategy,
 
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frizzer1

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Oct 19, 2013
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No matter how bad the coach is he can't take Matthews' ability away no matter what he does.
Superstars just get it done..
 

Superstar

"Be water, my friend."
Jun 25, 2008
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Wow they were flying and managed to only get 2 goals. Man we are in trouble.

You talk like there isn't another team on the opposite end. We played well enough to win this game, and tonight's game was exciting as a Leafs fan.
 

david999

Registered User
Jan 21, 2011
1,197
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Stop following the narrative.

They were flying tonight and lost due to a giveaway and a miscue/bad backcheck.

You’re joking right? Kadri’s line looked really slow out there against Mckinnon’s, and the 4th line was totally dominated. Forget about what Bozak’s was doing as well. Nylander and Mathews played with speed. The Leafs look like they have been skating in mud for the last 20 games, and have been in most of them because of Anderson, not their stellar offence.
 
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Tlo1

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Nov 6, 2017
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You talk like there isn't another team on the opposite end. We played well enough to win this game, and tonight's game was exciting as a Leafs fan.
We didn’t win. Period. Not sure what your watching but the leafs haven’t played exciting hockey in a month and our record proves it.
 

Superstar

"Be water, my friend."
Jun 25, 2008
12,398
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We didn’t win. Period. Not sure what your watching but the leafs haven’t played exciting hockey in a month and our record proves it.

Easy to say we didn't win period and simply dismiss how we played tonight. I watched tonight's game...we having not been playing great, though not that poorly either, but I'm not lumping all those bad games and just smooth it over into tonight's game...we played a good game tonight.
 

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