Solutions to the PK.

[Duke Silver]

3 Defensemen, who between the three of them, were regularly playing the 2nd most minutes on the top PK in the NHL.

If they were such scrubs, and so bad at PKing, why were they being given so much time? And why was the PK so successful?

Komisarek, Holzer and O'Byrne all were offensive black holes, but all were and still are strong PK'ers.

I don't see how you can possibly rationalize otherwise.

When one of those 3 guys was in our roster playing top PK minutes, our PK was very good, and our D-men looked excellent on the ice as a unit.

When none of those 3 guys are on our roster this year, our PK has not been good, and our D-men in particular have looked terrible as a unit.

Komisarek played 10 MINUTES shorthanded last year.

O'Byrne played the 7th most minutes amongst Leafs d-men for a whopping total of 22 minutes.

Holzer played 57 minutes shorthanded, good for 4th best on the Leafs.

PPGA60:

Komisarek: 0 PP goals against in 10 minutes of shorthanded time. 0 PPGA60. OMG HE'S AMAZING.
O'Byrne: 3 PP goals against in 22 minutes of shorthanded time as a Leaf. 8.18 PPGA60. WORST ON THE LEAFS.
Holzer: 4 PP goals against in 57 minutes of shorthanded time. 4.21 PPGA60. 4th best on the Leafs d-core.

And here you are saying that their loss has, in effect, crippled our penalty kill?

I can't believe you're continuing with this argument. You're putting A and B together without even considering C, D, E, F and G. Just simplistic at its very core.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Clearly, we're getting burned in the special teams department this year and it's continuing to cost us games.

What are your tell tale solutions for regaining some of what we had last year? My solutions:

1)The one glaring statistic for me is our PIM's. 2nd in the league, averaging just over 15 minutes a night. The defensive system Carlyle has implemented leaves us with limited puck possession time, hence why we're not drawing as many penalties and taking more.

Less time in the box means more gas in the PK tank for McClement and Kulemin. Lately, we've been in the box enough that we're relying on players who are not defensively sound (Mason Raymond).

2) We need a quicker, puck moving D-man on the PK. It's nice to have a big body out there but Phaneuf, Ranger, Fraser and Franson are far too slow in the corners to clear the puck effectively. I'd throw Gunnar/Liles/Gardiner out there more in the future...

Gunnar already plays a ******** of time on the PK, he's 2nd on the Leafs Dmen in PK time just 3 seconds behind Phaneuf, and he's out there way more than Fraser, Ranger, and Franson

Liles and Gardiner sure but Gunnar does play the PK a lot.

I'd value defensive awareness, ability to block shots, etc over a puck moving d-man too. Most times when someone gets the puck they try and wire it down the other end anyway, I doubt having a guy like Gardiner or Liles out there more often would really help all that much, they might be able to make a pass every now and then to help escape the zone but if they're not as good, shot blockers, and defenseviliy taking away shooting lanes and whatnot I'd prefer guys who can do that over making a pass to get out of the zone when most of the time they'll end up wiring it down the ice like others do.

Franson is horrible defensively, I'm not sure I even want him on this team anymore if we can garner a decent return for him let alone out there playing pk or on the ice for defensive zone faceoffs

 

[Mowerman]

What are your tell tale solutions for regaining some of what we had last year? My solutions:

1)The one glaring statistic for me is our PIM's. 2nd in the league, averaging just over 15 minutes a night. The defensive system Carlyle has implemented leaves us with limited puck possession time, hence why we're not drawing as many penalties and taking more.

"Some of what we had last year" (as well as the first half of this season, don't forget). How can Carlyle's system be the main reason for the Leafs inability to succeed on special teams when the same system was in place for the much longer stretch where the Leafs were dominating the league in special teams (pk especially). It was the reason they made the playoffs last year.

If the system is the primary cause for the Leafs current special teams issues, why wasn't it causing the same issues for that much longer stretch? The system hasn't changed. If you genuinely want to figure out why there has been such a dramatic shift perhaps you should look at what has changed rather than what has remained constant.

 

[hammertime]

Use Jerry D'amigo. Very aggressive on the puck and very fast skater.