Injury Report: Tyler Bozak - Oblique Strain - Update Dec 6: Placed on LTIR

[Diatomic]

^ I agreed with everything you said except the last line. Kadri isn’t in the same place as Bozak defensively. For starters, there is a reason Bozak comes out to take the face-offs in the defensive zone. Also, Bozak plays PK, Kadri has barely sniffed PK time. When Bozak is on his game he is much better defensively than Kadri.

There's no doubt Bozak is better than Kadri defensively, thats why Bozak should play in a checking role with PK time. I'm sure that with Kadri on the 1st line the leafs have more offensive Zone time compared to Bozak on the 1st line, hence you don't need to play defense when your in your opponents zone the majority of the time.

 

[TMLife*]

I agree, Bozak should be put on the second or third line when he returns. There is nothing wrong with putting him on the second/third line if he’s still getting 18+ minutes of ice.

 

[namttebih]

If the first line get's very hot while Bozak's out and it takes away the option of breaking them up, I think that Bozak should be put on the 3rd. I want to keep seeing what Holland can do when playing with our top 6 wingers.
Kadri
Holland
Bozak
McClement

 

[dimi78]

Where are these supposed stats you keep talking about? I haven't seen a single stat that suggests Kessel has more synergy with Bozak than with Kadri. I think you just made that up.

Because the real stats show that the Leafs score about 20% more goals at even strength when Kessel is with Kadri. I believe I even posted these a week or two ago when Bozak got re-injured.

Kadri

GF20 - 1.288
GA20 - 0.716
Differential - 0.572

Bozak

GF20 - 1.067
GA20 - 0.712
Differential - 0.355

Or if you prefer to look at just Kessel's production, he has 10 points in 224 even strength minutes with Bozak (a point every 22.4 minutes) and 9 points in 139 minutes with Kadri (a point every 15.4 minutes).

And as if that difference wasn't stark enough, let's look at PP effectiveness: Kadri 8.67 minutes per point, Bozak 15.0 minutes per point. And that's with Kadri mostly playing on the 2nd PP unit, while Bozak mostly plays on the 1st with Kessel.

Face it - Bozak is a black hole for offense compared to Kadri. And there's almost no difference between the two defensively at even strength.

Not arguing with you but since your the type that digs out stats something I really don't care for to base my opinions if you have the time dig out Kadri's production with Lupul and compare it to Kadri's production with Kessel.

From what I see it's Kessel & JVR that run the top line rather it be with Kadri, Bozak, Holland or Bolland as center... Kadri with Lupul IMO together are just as a deadly duo and I see a lot more from Kadri playing with Lupul than I do with Kessel.

When this team is finally healthy

I want the top 2 scoring lines to be:

Kessel - Bozak - JVR
Lupul - Kadri - Clarkson

 

[dimi78]

If the first line get's very hot while Bozak's out and it takes away the option of breaking them up, I think that Bozak should be put on the 3rd. I want to keep seeing what Holland can do when playing with our top 6 wingers.
Kadri
Holland
Bozak
McClement

Agreed but this is where Carlyle becomes a problem cause he does have the tendency of breaking up good things Don't fall in love with Holland is my advice... when this team gets healthy the centers will be Bozak, Kadri, Bolland and McLement

 

[Community]

Unless we get an elite #2C or one of Holland/Smith step up a lot (more likely Holland... and actually possible), I don't want to see Bozak off the first line atm... Solely because they have a similar production (yeah it's less with Bozak, but it's not a lot less) and I'd rather us use a depth scoring attack unless Holland can play like a good-great #2C.

JVR - Bozak - Kessel
Lupul - Kadri - Clarkson

^ This gives us a very balanced scoring threat... We have Kessel/JVR taking on the big defensive guys with Kadri/Lupul destroying 2nd/3rd lines and D-pairings.

Another possiblity (espeically with Carlyle) is that our "2nd scoring line" might not get much minutes because he might play our 3rd line (shutdown line) a lot... In that scenario I might want to put Kadri back on the 1st line so that he gets lots of time. Even in that scenario I'm not sure what I would do.

Just give Kadri big pp minutes (Lupul as much as possible without taking away all of JVR/Kessel's pp time) and hope he dominates... For now, I'm okay with Kadri being our #1 C (as he's our best C... next closest is Bolland) or our 2nd line C (as Bozak doesn't hurt the first line significantly, but Kadri improves the 2nd line considerably).

Edit: We should, however, try Bozak as the 3rd line C until Bolland comes back IMO. With Kulemin and Raymond or D'amigo. Gives us a good shut-down line that will put up pretty decent #'s IMO.

Kadri
Holland
Bozak
McClement

 

[Gallagbi]

I think we all know this Interactif. Since you joined the forum in 2011, it is clear what your tendencies are here. Very predictable when one looks at your posting history. Bozak great, Gardiner bad, the only thing you haven't commented on is do you still think Randy Carlyle is the greatest coach the Leafs have had.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Agreed but this is where Carlyle becomes a problem cause he does have the tendency of breaking up good things Don't fall in love with Holland is my advice... when this team gets healthy the centers will be Bozak, Kadri, Bolland and McLement

Agreed, Carlyle has shown he is very confident in Bolland and Bozak, Kadri he chose over Grabo and we know he loves Mcclement. It would take something extraordinary for RC to move Holland up over these 4. More likely 3, he is not going to stick Holland on the 4th line, he said this as much in the Toronto Sun today of it only made sense to try Holland in the top 6 with scoring wingers.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

If the first line get's very hot while Bozak's out and it takes away the option of breaking them up, I think that Bozak should be put on the 3rd. I want to keep seeing what Holland can do when playing with our top 6 wingers.
Kadri
Holland
Bozak
McClement

Yep, this is an opportunity for players to possibly show their worth, steal jobs. This is what happens when injuries occur.

Holland made a big bid to steal the 2nd C spot last night, Nonis has to be happy with this. Kadri has not knocked it out of the park yet with Kessel and JVR. So Bozak is still the Center on the #1 line. When Bozak comes back and Holland is still producing with Lupul, it will be interesting if Kadri is put with Clarkson and Kule. And then when Bolland comes back, more shakedown will occur. Competition for jobs is a good thing. You play well you are in.

 

[leafstilldeath*]

There is no reason for a joke of a top 6 C (he is a bottom 6C at best) called Bozo to be on this team. If someone is stupid enough to take his ridiculous contract. SHIP HIM OUT. Make it happen Nonis. You made a mistake by giving him a contract. now redeem yourself and get rid of him

 

[King85Kong]

Going to be good to see our centres in their proper spots

1C - Kadri - Best centre, centering the first line. More time in the O zone
2C - Holland - His game is starting to show, lots of skill
3C - Bozak - Good two-way player, and saved more for PK (where we need help)
4C - McClemment - Good defensively

Excited for what's to come. But hope the coach does whats right for the team, not whats right for friendships.

 

[namttebih]

Agreed but this is where Carlyle becomes a problem cause he does have the tendency of breaking up good things Don't fall in love with Holland is my advice... when this team gets healthy the centers will be Bozak, Kadri, Bolland and McLement

I'm also afraid of this. If the top two lines can go haywire over the next couple of weeks maybe it will be too hard for him to break up. I think that he'd look good in Bolland's 3C spot until he gets back.

 

[Punn]

Bozak said today that he's ready to go. Has to wait until the LTIR is no longer in effect- will play on the 29th versus Carolina

 

[blue82]

Bozak said today that he's ready to go. Has to wait until the LTIR is no longer in effect- will play on the 29th versus Carolina

so he's got to miss 4 more games because of the LTIR...hopefully he is fully healed by then

 

[Ari91]

Bozak said today that he's ready to go. Has to wait until the LTIR is no longer in effect- will play on the 29th versus Carolina

Well that extra time can be used as insurance making sure he's really ready to go and have him in all practices. I didn't even know he had even started on ice workouts.

I'm just looking forward to having a regular body back in the line up. Means we can get rid so Smithsonite quicker.

 

[CanadasTeam]

Great news. He is sorely missed by this team whether people are willing to admit it or not.

 

[ACC1224]

Bozak said today that he's ready to go. Has to wait until the LTIR is no longer in effect- will play on the 29th versus Carolina

Too bad he needs to wait, they could use him tonight.

 

[King85Kong]

If Bozak was playing and Kadri and Bolland were out with injuries, would things be any different? I think not, more likely would be worse.

 

[blue82]

If Bozak was playing and Kadri and Bolland were out with injuries, would things be any different? I think not, more likely would be worse.

the leafs were already thin at center, so either way..if you take 2 centers away it will have a brutal impact since we have guys like smithson (yikes) to fill the void

 

[King85Kong]

the leafs were already thin at center, so either way..if you take 2 centers away it will have a brutal impact since we have guys like smithson (yikes) to fill the void

I agree, just pointing out that it's due to missing two centres in general, not strictly Bozak.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Phil Kessel has not had an even strength point in 4 games, JVR has not had a point in his last 5 games.

We won't even touch on how they were plus players before the Bozak injury and now are all minuses.

They don't miss Tyler Bozak. They are doing fine without him. Yep.

 

[Eb]

You're not going to win without your big guns scoring like Phil and JvR have, simple as that.

Whens the last time Kadri has scored? With Bozak in the lineup, I guarantee we see Kadri's production increase drastically as well playing with Lupul on the second line.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

You're not going to win without your big guns scoring like Phil and JvR have, simple as that.

Whens the last time Kadri has scored? With Bozak in the lineup, I guarantee we see Kadri's production increase drastically as well playing with Lupul on the second line.

Bozak>Kadri
Bolland>Kadri
Holland>Kadri

And I was a huge Kadri guy last season.

Atleast Kadri is still > Mikfail Grabovski.

Need Bozak back, he may be even more valuable to the team than I first thought. Agreed, Kadri facing easier defence pairs will make him look more like the Kadri of old.

Remember they used to say Bozak was a passenger with Phil and JVR, a fire hydrant could play with these 2? Who is the passenger now and a fire hydrant could do better than Kadri now between these 2.

 

[Eb]

Kadri is still playing well, don't get me wrong.

He will produce much better playing with Lupul too playing against second pairing d's.

Kadri will be our #1 center, just not this year.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Kadri is still playing well, don't get me wrong.

He will produce much better playing with Lupul too playing against second pairing d's.

Kadri will be our #1 center, just not this year.

Kadri will be fine, if he can win back his spot with Lupul from Holland when Bozak comes back. This is not a shoe in with the way Holland is playing.