Line Combos: Komarov Watch

[Polaris1010]

People were speaking in the same tone about

Do not keep track about who sayz what around here ... but ...

Don't ya think that the complainers are always the same people?

Like the same people who complained about Hyman, are complaining about Komarov, and whoever is next on the list.

Yet when someone like Nylander who disappears, not a peep.

 

[Polaris1010]

Not while Babcock is coaching this team.

Yup, agree.

And that is the way it should be. People have to listen to the boss.

 

[moon111]

why was our PK 5/10 with him in this series?

Hainsey

 

[MR4]

Hainsey

Komarov supporters when PK is bad: it's not his fault it was bad!
Them when it's good: Komarov single-handedly carried that PK to greatness!

 

[Coachcorner]

Komarov supporters when PK is bad: it's not his fault it was bad!
Them when it's good: Komarov single-handedly carried that PK to greatness!

When Komarov has been killing our 5 on 3 pk's and we won those great games (Polak and Hainsey and Andersen did their thang too) It was all four of them greats We and our PK was that great, we will do it again too :fist:

Man Komarov is good on special teams and coach babcock really loves him and to have him. Me and Babcock decide and we'll put komarov back on as soon as he is ready. Not tomorrow, but later. It's not even close and we don't take any talk at all when it concerns him. He will play period.

 

[Maple Leaf]

Goodnight sweet prince

 

[Black hat blue eyes]

People were speaking in the same tone about Plekanec on Monday morning, before he turned in a great performance on Monday night.

We need to relax here and just trust the damn coach.

The Leafs aren't going to win or lose based on whether or not Komarov is in the lineup

Komorov has not had great games recently. He has a great reputation. Plekanecs also has not shown a lot. However... Just like komorov, has a reputation of giving marchand a difficult time. So plek was going to be in the line up as a 4th line center regardless.. but due to kadris suspension he's centering the 2nd line. Komorov was a question mark to be in the line up in replacement for Jonsson, who has shown to be a better player ov er all. Not sure how you are connecting plek and komorov.

 

[Tak7]

Komorov has not had great games recently. He has a great reputation. Plekanecs also has not shown a lot. However... Just like komorov, has a reputation of giving marchand a difficult time. So plek was going to be in the line up as a 4th line center regardless.. but due to kadris suspension he's centering the 2nd line. Komorov was a question mark to be in the line up in replacement for Jonsson, who has shown to be a better player ov er all. Not sure how you are connecting plek and komorov.

The point I'm making is that the playoffs are a different animal, and lots of players perform differently.

Nobody here saw Plekanec's performance in game 3 coming. Almost to a person, we all saw the lineups Monday morning and had a collective freakout. But Plek found a way to deliver.

Why are we so convinced that Komarov can't do the same if he gets back in the lineup?

Just saying - maybe we need to ease off the criticism of players until after they crap the bed, instead of assuming that they are automatically destined to do it.

 

[Black hat blue eyes]

The point I'm making is that the playoffs are a different animal, and lots of players perform differently.

Nobody here saw Plekanec's performance in game 3 coming. Almost to a person, we all saw the lineups Monday morning and had a collective freakout. But Plek found a way to deliver.

Why are we so convinced that Komarov can't do the same if he gets back in the lineup?

Just saying - maybe we need to ease off the criticism of players until after they crap the bed, instead of assuming that they are automatically destined to do it.

Ok point taken. However, Johnsson is performing. So by your same argument why are you taking johnsson out if the line up in favor of leo who so far hasn't?

 

[Tak7]

Ok point taken. However, Johnsson is performing. So by your same argument why are you taking johnsson out if the line up in favor of leo who so far hasn't?

The only thing that could tilt the decision to Komarov in my opinion, is his experience and penalty killing ability.

Johnsson pretty much beats Leo in most other categories - speed, skill, combativeness, offensive potential.

But at this time of year, there's something to be said for experience, and if the penalty kill continues to be a tire fire, how can you argue against inserting a pretty good PKer back into the lineup? There's no way the Leafs stay out of the box in Game 4 the way they did in game 3 (just 1 minor penalty on Monday night, and that was a 2-minute fire drill in the Leafs zone).

If the PK struggles tonight, and Leo is fit/healthy for Game 5, I think it's an automatic decision.

 

[Black hat blue eyes]

The only thing that could tilt the decision to Komarov in my opinion, is his experience and penalty killing ability.

Johnsson pretty much beats Leo in most other categories - speed, skill, combativeness, offensive potential.

But at this time of year, there's something to be said for experience, and if the penalty kill continues to be a tire fire, how can you argue against inserting a pretty good PKer back into the lineup? There's no way the Leafs stay out of the box in Game 4 the way they did in game 3 (just 1 minor penalty on Monday night, and that was a 2-minute fire drill in the Leafs zone).

If the PK struggles tonight, and Leo is fit/healthy for Game 5, I think it's an automatic decision.

Hard to argue against experience. Leo just hasn't performed. To be honest he's been ok at the pk. But so has Johnsson. My argument for Johnsson is that AJ is arguably almost as good as leo in the pk but offers much higher offensive potential. AJ is good all around. Now, couple that with kadris offence being out if the line up and we all know plek is not adding any, I'd rather have AJ in the line up. Both AJ and kappy are getting great looks and it feels like they are about to break out.

 

[ShaneFalco]

If the PK struggles tonight, and Leo is fit/healthy for Game 5, I think it's an automatic decision

I think it's automatic regardless. Babcock won't sit him

And matching him up with Marchand seemed to work in their favour

 

[Blanche Blanche]

The only thing that could tilt the decision to Komarov in my opinion, is his experience and penalty killing ability.

Johnsson pretty much beats Leo in most other categories - speed, skill, combativeness, offensive potential.

But at this time of year, there's something to be said for experience, and if the penalty kill continues to be a tire fire, how can you argue against inserting a pretty good PKer back into the lineup? There's no way the Leafs stay out of the box in Game 4 the way they did in game 3 (just 1 minor penalty on Monday night, and that was a 2-minute fire drill in the Leafs zone).

If the PK struggles tonight, and Leo is fit/healthy for Game 5, I think it's an automatic decision.

If the PK struggles, then it struggles... against boston, much like pittsburgh, its just a gamble..

How you actually make them actually double think things if you have a guy like Johnsson who can break away by himself if you make a mistake.

Kappy has been doing this everygame in this series, Hyman did it in GM1. Speed is the only reason why we win. Think Marner and Marleau flying down full speed.

Why would you take away a scoring chance for 60 minutes just to have a guy who can kill penalties, and arguably not that better than Johnsson.

A Bruin player will fully commit to covering Johnsson, and he might even draw a second bruin because Johnsson is a puck hound and quick.

Komorov can barely pass it NHL speed anymore and bruins know to cover his outlets,
He isnt flying to the net.
He isnt gona have a threatening shot
He cant puck handle to get past the D
His passes are slow and they rarely find a leaf player.

Thats not how we win. We need a scoring chance to pad leads, not play PK bonanza.

Johnsson does fine considering he has all the other aspects of being NHL caliber right up there.

Komorov is on and we lose. Bank it

 

[Tak7]

Hard to argue against experience. Leo just hasn't performed. To be honest he's been ok at the pk. But so has Johnsson. My argument for Johnsson is that AJ is arguably almost as good as leo in the pk but offers much higher offensive potential. AJ is good all around. Now, couple that with kadris offence being out if the line up and we all know plek is not adding any, I'd rather have AJ in the line up. Both AJ and kappy are getting great looks and it feels like they are about to break out.

You won't find me disagreeing with you at all here. I like AJ a lot.

Just trying to get into the head of Babcock and the likely decisions he makes - I'm also not a fan of ripping players incessently at this time of year, either.

 

[Tak7]

If the PK struggles, then it struggles... against boston, much like pittsburgh, its just a gamble..

How you actually make them actually double think things if you have a guy like Johnsson who can break away by himself if you make a mistake.

Kappy has been doing this everygame in this series, Hyman did it in GM1. Speed is the only reason why we win. Think Marner and Marleau flying down full speed.

Why would you take away a scoring chance for 60 minutes just to have a guy who can kill penalties, and arguably not that better than Johnsson.

t

Because you've got 9 other forwards who can score, but none of that matters if your penalty kill is constantly pulling the puck out of your own net.

 

[Menzinger]

Not to keep harping on the guy, but the Leafs PK has been lousy all year, I think we may be overrating Leo’s positive impact here

 

[Caroline Says ll]

Because you've got 9 other forwards who can score, but none of that matters if your penalty kill is constantly pulling the puck out of your own net.

The problem is that there is no evidence to show that Komorov is a good penalty killer, other than his deployment by Babcock.

Furthermore, if Komorov was just limited to 4th line minutes and PK, most would not be in a fuss. But everyone realises that Komorov will be elevated at various points to top lines, that he will play the powerplay, and that he will be on the ice in the final minutes of a game. That is where Komorov truly hurts the team.

What ever line Komorov has played on and what ever line he has been playing against, all stats indicate he spends the majority of his time in the defensive zone, as well has he has some of the worst transitional abilities in the entire league. He has terrible zone entry and zone exits stats, indicating he cannot maintain possession in the other teams zone and has an inability to leave his zone - which means a failure in proper positioning, breakouts, passing and reading plays. Thus when he plays on a top line, he is bringing down that line as a 3 man unit effectively becomes a 2 man unit.

I do not need to discuss him being on the powerplay.

Lastly, when he plays in the final minutes of a game, is where everything about his possession numbers and lack of ability is at it's worst. I've said it previously in this thread, that the NHL is trending in a direction where every player needs to have offensive ability. That does not mean he needs to have a great shot and great passing, but more importantly to be able to read plays, react quickly, and have proper instinct. Komorov defensivly might have effort with his waving of his stick around, yet his pressure is not properly applied, he does not win puck battles, and his inability to understand what another team is doing in their cycle and building their play does not allow him to anticipate to properly defend.

Everything that has happened this season indicates that Komorov is no longer a useful NHL forward. By playing him over other players, you are not icing your best team possible.

 

[Tak7]

The problem is that there is no evidence to show that Komorov is a good penalty killer, other than his deployment by Babcock.

Furthermore, if Komorov was just limited to 4th line minutes and PK, most would not be in a fuss. But everyone realises that Komorov will be elevated at various points to top lines, that he will play the powerplay, and that he will be on the ice in the final minutes of a game. That is where Komorov truly hurts the team.

.

This has literally been Komarov's role the past month, save for Game 2 when he was elevated in the lineup.

People are still fussing.

 

[Caroline Says ll]

This has literally been Komarov's role the past month, save for Game 2 when he was elevated in the lineup.

People are still fussing.

People are fussing because it took one terrible game for Babcock to put him on a top line in the NHL playoffs. Komorov may have been playing on the 4th line, but it is crystal clear Babcock does not identify him at all as a 4th line player - and that is the problem.

Sadly Komorov is going to be played, but he should be an afterthought. Throw him out on the 4th line, maybe some penalty killing. Instead Babcock sees him important enough to play with Kadri and Marleau, with Matthews and Nylander. He sees him being important enough to be on the ice in the final minutes of a game. He starts every penalty kill despite all stats, and everything you can visually see in a game showing that Brown, Hyman, and Kapanen are far better than him.

This season has shown that Komorov no longer has grit and no longer forechecks which are two things unskilled players can project to compensate. Thus the only thing some posters here are clinging to is his "experience", and I find that to be nonsense. All I expect every time he takes a shift, is that for that 40-80 seconds is that the Leafs will not have an offensive chance and will spend that time with the far majority in their own zone.

 

[Blanche Blanche]

People are fussing because it took one terrible game for Babcock to put him on a top line in the NHL playoffs. Komorov may have been playing on the 4th line, but it is crystal clear Babcock does not identify him at all as a 4th line player - and that is the problem.

Sadly Komorov is going to be played, but he should be an afterthought. Throw him out on the 4th line, maybe some penalty killing. Instead Babcock sees him important enough to play with Kadri and Marleau, with Matthews and Nylander. He sees him being important enough to be on the ice in the final minutes of a game. He starts every penalty kill despite all stats, and everything you can visually see in a game showing that Brown, Hyman, and Kapanen are far better than him.

This season has shown that Komorov no longer has grit and no longer forechecks which are two things unskilled players can project to compensate. Thus the only thing some posters here are clinging to is his "experience", and I find that to be nonsense. All I expect every time he takes a shift, is that for that 40-80 seconds is that the Leafs will not have an offensive chance and will spend that time with the far majority in their own zone.

Its so nice to read/hear from someone who sees Komorov not as a personal bash vs him, but as an unfortunate reality with Babcock having blind mothers love for the guy.

He shouldve been scratched for the entire playoffs, and the warning signs came during reg season games where he was shuffled higher into the lineup during a game, received NUMEROUS perfect passes and just whiffs it, or it entirely missed a wide open net.

First thing i wrote, after like 4 of those happened was that Babcock should never let this guy be dressed over anyone else who can PK similarly. We need goals because of our lousy D.

In the playoffs, sometimes all you have is that one chance, that one slip the opponent made for a fraction of a second, and the puck magically defied odds and landed on your tape.

That guy might be Leo and odds aint in our favor

 

[diceman934]

Do not keep track about who sayz what around here ... but ...

Don't ya think that the complainers are always the same people?

Like the same people who complained about Hyman, are complaining about Komarov, and whoever is next on the list.

Yet when someone like Nylander who disappears, not a peep.

Because they are the same people pumping the tires of Nylander and now Johnnson.

 

[TOGuy14]

I believe cagey, wily Babcock is holding him out of game 4 deliberately-because he needs “injury recovery time”.

If the Leafs win game 4 then I believe Babcock will not dare put him in for game 5, the pivotal game, because he will be vilified if we lose. The heat will really turn up on him.
If they lose game 4 then easy decision to bring him back in for game 5, especially needing more physicality in the Bruins tough home barn (that will be the reason given). I think Babcock won’t have a tough decision at all for game 5-game 4 will dictate the decision.

On a side note and for all those who accuse us Leaf diehards of always nitpicking and being critical; we don’t have any personal agenda against Leo, a lot of us simply believe the team is better without him, you play your best.

But don’t be shy to check out Monday’s in between periods mini-rant by analyst Nick Kypreos. He can’t believe how Komorov is in the lineup either, nothing to do with recent injury.

Regardless if we win or not I can already see Babcock making the excuses:

1. Won't have last change so won't be able to control the matchup for Johnsson
2. Worried about a rookie performing in a big time rivals rink in a key game.

 

[Tak7]

People are fussing because it took one terrible game for Babcock to put him on a top line in the NHL playoffs. Komorov may have been playing on the 4th line, but it is crystal clear Babcock does not identify him at all as a 4th line player - and that is the problem.

Sadly Komorov is going to be played, but he should be an afterthought. Throw him out on the 4th line, maybe some penalty killing. Instead Babcock sees him important enough to play with Kadri and Marleau, with Matthews and Nylander. He sees him being important enough to be on the ice in the final minutes of a game. He starts every penalty kill despite all stats, and everything you can visually see in a game showing that Brown, Hyman, and Kapanen are far better than him.

This season has shown that Komorov no longer has grit and no longer forechecks which are two things unskilled players can project to compensate. Thus the only thing some posters here are clinging to is his "experience", and I find that to be nonsense. All I expect every time he takes a shift, is that for that 40-80 seconds is that the Leafs will not have an offensive chance and will spend that time with the far majority in their own zone.

Hyman - Matthews - Nylander
Marleau - Kadri - Marner
JvR - Bozak - Brown

That's your top 9. Komarov isn't in there. That makes him a 4th liner. His ice time is consistent with a 4th line player recently.

People need to relax.

 

[diceman934]

The problem is that there is no evidence to show that Komorov is a good penalty killer, other than his deployment by Babcock.

Furthermore, if Komorov was just limited to 4th line minutes and PK, most would not be in a fuss. But everyone realises that Komorov will be elevated at various points to top lines, that he will play the powerplay, and that he will be on the ice in the final minutes of a game. That is where Komorov truly hurts the team.

What ever line Komorov has played on and what ever line he has been playing against, all stats indicate he spends the majority of his time in the defensive zone, as well has he has some of the worst transitional abilities in the entire league. He has terrible zone entry and zone exits stats, indicating he cannot maintain possession in the other teams zone and has an inability to leave his zone - which means a failure in proper positioning, breakouts, passing and reading plays. Thus when he plays on a top line, he is bringing down that line as a 3 man unit effectively becomes a 2 man unit.

I do not need to discuss him being on the powerplay.

Lastly, when he plays in the final minutes of a game, is where everything about his possession numbers and lack of ability is at it's worst. I've said it previously in this thread, that the NHL is trending in a direction where every player needs to have offensive ability. That does not mean he needs to have a great shot and great passing, but more importantly to be able to read plays, react quickly, and have proper instinct. Komorov defensivly might have effort with his waving of his stick around, yet his pressure is not properly applied, he does not win puck battles, and his inability to understand what another team is doing in their cycle and building their play does not allow him to anticipate to properly defend.

Everything that has happened this season indicates that Komorov is no longer a useful NHL forward. By playing him over other players, you are not icing your best team possible.

Lol his replacement is afraid of his own shadow...Johnnson watch him tonight and watch in his own end how many times the puck comes up the boards on his side of the ice and how many times he is still a long way from the wall or flying the zone so as to avoid checks. Last game he turn away from the wall when the puck was going to be coming up the wall. Sorry but he is a stick checking chicken.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Last game he turn away from the wall when the puck was going to be coming up the wall. Sorry but he is a stick checking chicken.

Hopefully he leaves the zone alot for some odd man rushes.
Just skate by the D and get ready for the stretch pass.