Line Combos: Kapanen with Matthews

[srnd9399]

Marleau-Matthews-Kapanen
Hyman-Tavares-Marner
Nash-Kadri-Nylander
Johnsson-Lindholm-Brown

The balance here would be phenomenal.

Agreed, only change I would make is swap Johnsson for Leivo. Based on their play so far. Hopefully Johnsson finds his game again soon.

 

[johnny_rudeboy]

Matthews is BY FAR the best player on the Leafs. Considering his age and talent level.

Matthews has no weaknesses and all his strengths are elite. He sure has areas he can improve in but he is not bad at one thing. Pretty amazing and a privelige he is a Leaf.

 

[srnd9399]

Oh I get it, you're pretending that you get to formulate everyone else's opinion.

Bottom line is I don't really care who our "best" player is, I'm glad we have the players we have. I do find it rather comical how some people think they get to made these type of declarations for everyone else.

Why you get so bent out of shape about this? Matthews is arguably the Leafs best player, one of the best in the league in fact. No need to nitpick when most who disagreed on OPs assessment of Matthews would have simply kept reading.

 

[inthe6ix]

Every day Kap improves showing he can play with #34 is one less day we have to worry about Willy re-signing (which he will.... eventually).

Win/Win

 

[moon111]

This.

People forget that Kappy was a point per game player in the AHL at 20 years old. This isn't just your average 22 year old that is interchangable with Ennis.

I don't like how Babcock places his young upcoming talent on the 4th line i.e.: Kapanen, Marner and now Johnsson. They weren't called up to be 4th line checkers. They progressed through the system to be effective point producing wingers.

Russ Courtnall wasn't brought in as a fourth line checker. He went straight to 'point producing winger'. Later on, he was traded to Montreal for John Kordic. And although Montreal
obviously won that trade, they couldn't believe how much he didn't have a clue about defensive assignments, etc. You don't win on offense alone. The `80's Leafs were bad because
they didn't bring up forwards like Babcock is bringing up guys like Kapanen. Your namesake Doug Gilmour hit 127 points. But you're looking at a time you had guys like Lemieux, LaFontaine, Oates, Yzerman, Selanne, Pierre Turgeon, Mogilny, Robitaille, during that time. I would dare say even among these scoring elite, it was mostly those who had a defensive game that drove their clubs to success. Sure some of them latched on like Kessel has done in Pittsburgh, but it's mostly the players with two-way play that were real winners.

 

[moon111]

Agreed, only change I would make is swap Johnsson for Leivo. Based on their play so far. Hopefully Johnsson finds his game again soon.

Babcock has given Johnsson the 8th most power-play ice-time. But his overall ice-time is under 22 minutes and in that time he has been credited with two takeaways.
I wouldn't be surprised if they've asked him to slowly roll out his game from the defensive end of it out. There was a lot of running around on Johnsson's part last year,
and it wasn't always right, despite the fans loving his high spirited game. They'll get him to earn his defensive stripes before letting him open up his game.

 

[Zizzzzy]

Eventually I would like to see:

Kapanen-Matthews-Nylander
Leivo-Tavares-Marner
Marleau-Kadri-Hyman
Johnsson-Lindholm-Brown
/Ennis

Can't say I agree that Leivo has done anything so far to warrant a promotion to the Tavares-Marner line... and over Hyman at that?

I do think Marleau works well with Kadri to be the speed on that line as I like the idea of Kap-Matthews-Nylander

 

[BAM]

If Kapanen can continue his production/chemistry with Matthews I would love to see these lines once Nylander is signed:

Kapanen-Matthews-Nylander (good luck NHL)
Hyman-Tavares-Marner (again good luck NHL)
Marleau-Kadri-Johnsson (really liked this line in the playoffs, Marleau and Kadri work well together)
Brown-Lindholm-Leivo (meh sorry Leivo)

 

[Eb]

I remember when Ennis looked good with Matthews for a handful of games.

The honeymoon will wear off soon and we will be hoping Nylander signs soon.

 

[mapleleafs34]

I remember when Ennis looked good with Matthews for a handful of games.

The honeymoon will wear off soon and we will be hoping Nylander signs soon.

Comparing Ennis to Kapanen is laughable though

 

[socko]

I remember when Ennis looked good with Matthews for a handful of games.

The honeymoon will wear off soon and we will be hoping Nylander signs soon.

Kapanen can replace some of what was lost with Hyman. And how many breakaways is he going to have 1 a game? It's not all about doing circles in the neutral zone.

 

[ACC1224]

He looked pretty good, have to say I was surprised....pleasantly.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

But to be honest it is almost impossible not to get any points when playing with Matthews.

Even Nylander can get 60.

 

[Sypher04]

I remember when Ennis looked good with Matthews for a handful of games.

The honeymoon will wear off soon and we will be hoping Nylander signs soon.

Well, this is just dumb. Kapanen is far better than Ennis, at this point. Speed to burn, great shot (though he doesn't show it often), good hands, not afraid of boardplay, responsible defensively. People sleep on Kapanen a bit imo because he's spent most of his time as a Leaf playing 4th line minutes. Kapanen has very legitimate top 6 capability.

 

[Faltorvo]

Kappy with matty???? WELP

 

[Faltorvo]

I remember when Ennis looked good with Matthews for a handful of games.

The honeymoon will wear off soon and we will be hoping Nylander signs soon.

nope i doubt it,

 

[Polaris1010]

Kapanen is a real player.

But he's winger, so he floats a bit.

Most wingers tend to do that. Not have much of a game. Go missing at times ... then he strikes.

Last two playoffs season. Guys scoring big goals. That's Kapanen.

 

[Polaris1010]

Kapanen is a real player.

But he's winger, so he floats a bit.

Most wingers tend to do that. Not have much of a game. Go missing at times ... then he strikes.

Last two playoffs season. Guys scoring big goals. That's Kapanen.

 

[lipstickjunkie]

Fun fact: Kapanen already has a career high in assists.

 

[Boutette]

Fun fact: Kapanen already has a career high in assists.

That's the sort of thing that happens when you play with linemates who can actually score.

 

[EXTRAS]

Nylander - Matthews - Kapanen
Johnsson - Tavares - Marner
Marleau - Kadri - Hyman
Leivo - lindholm - brown

 

[mikeyz]

If Kapanen can continue his production/chemistry with Matthews I would love to see these lines once Nylander is signed:

Kapanen-Matthews-Nylander (good luck NHL)
Hyman-Tavares-Marner (again good luck NHL)
Marleau-Kadri-Johnsson (really liked this line in the playoffs, Marleau and Kadri work well together)
Brown-Lindholm-Leivo (meh sorry Leivo)

Love those lines!!!

 

[7even]

Glad we got him instead of Pouliot after all

 

[Canadian Finn]

not going to say I told ya so, but, I told ya so



(yes, I'm super happy he has been added to AM34 line, but it truly was inevitable).

Kappy is the real deal!

 

[Nineteen67]

Kappy is a good player and he deserves to be playing with AM34, one of the best players on the planet.