Speculation: What ever happened to Zaitsev?
- Thread starter ottomaddox
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stickty111
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- Jan 23, 2017
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PlietscherDassel
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- Dec 3, 2009
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Polaris1010
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Nothing has happened to Zaitsev.
He is exactly the same guy playing the exactly the same way from last year.
Not flashy, tries to be efficient, plays hard around his own net, really enjoys the puck battles.
He plays better if he has more support from the forwards. He is not that big and he is out-muscled at times.
Zaitsev probably still is the Leafs best defenseman.
The Rielly Hainsey pair has all of the sudden struggled the last few games.
Rielly plays smaller than Zaitsev, and Hainsey is kind of slow. The other team bodies Rielly and exploits Hainsey with speed.
That is why the Leafs as a team, have a tough time against good fast big teams.
Against teams like that, you want Zaistev in there. He will fight for every inch of ice.
dont pay attention to the nonsense, babcock plays zaitsev a lot every night and hes a rock solid defender, hes also on when our opponents top offensive players are on...and like with all top end nhl talent like matthews, nylander, and marner, you cant stop them every night
LeafalCrusader
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Love to see Hainsey back with Gardiner and Dermott with Zaitsev. Need to bring in a top 4 d-man to do that though unless we're planning to play Rielly with Carrick/Polak.
Rielly
Gardiner Hainsey
Dermott Zaitsev
Rielly
Gardiner Hainsey
Dermott Zaitsev
Albus Dumbledore
Master of Death
- Mar 28, 2015
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i get that he had a injury but still he looks just bad out there...
he went from 2 mins of pp time to almost none, so that explains some of his production loss
but that man hasnt gotten a point since freaking NOVEMBER, thats 17 games without a point..
so hes not scoring but the dude is lost in his own zone too, missing coverages and is -4.9% corsi playing B+ competition compare that to Gards B+ Rielly A and Hainsey A+(courtesy of zeke)
he went from 2 mins of pp time to almost none, so that explains some of his production loss
but that man hasnt gotten a point since freaking NOVEMBER, thats 17 games without a point..
so hes not scoring but the dude is lost in his own zone too, missing coverages and is -4.9% corsi playing B+ competition compare that to Gards B+ Rielly A and Hainsey A+(courtesy of zeke)
I think he'll be fine. Zaitsev will come around and will be better than last year. We just need patience with him coming back from injuries. In my opinion, it's all confidence.
WTFMAN99
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- Jun 17, 2009
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Think it's the perfect storm for a lot of our defense to struggle.
Zaitsev rusty coming off an injury
Hainsey been rough since the flu, probably logged too many minutes at his age and PK TOI is nuts
Rielly said he's still getting his hands and game speed back after missing time
Polak is awful
Carrick likely not confident and rusty by being yo-yo'd in and out of the line up
Dermott has to carry Polak but individually looks fine
Gardiner needs to carry the defense for a bit due to the circumstances
Zaitsev rusty coming off an injury
Hainsey been rough since the flu, probably logged too many minutes at his age and PK TOI is nuts
Rielly said he's still getting his hands and game speed back after missing time
Polak is awful
Carrick likely not confident and rusty by being yo-yo'd in and out of the line up
Dermott has to carry Polak but individually looks fine
Gardiner needs to carry the defense for a bit due to the circumstances
I don't think he was ever that good in the first place, thought he was very overrated last season and didn't see what others saw in him, and I think giving him a 7-year contract was bonkers.
tokyoite
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Gamble9
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Has great potential but also has bumps in his game hes never shown a real high level of play but hes almost worth his contract right now and i see him improving over time because hes got good raw talent and effort and doesnt seem to brain cramp alot he needs time to settle in playing with gardiner doesnt help because hes so hot and cold being his partner must be like riding a roller coaster
saffronleaf
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He was fine tonight. He'll get back into form. He was rock solid for us last year. Be patient, people.
firstemperor
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- May 25, 2011
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I think a simple, elementary timeline of Zaitsev, for me is:
He was our best d-man for the first 7-10 games or so. Then Gardiner regressed into "Bad Gardiner".... who completely sank that pairing....then Zaits got injured.....and Gardiner continued to be in a slump (which suggested to me that Gardiner was to blame for most of the early struggles). Shortly before he came back, Gardiner starting picking up into the opposite extreme (Good Gardiner....still a bit of a farcry from last year's Gardiner but good nonetheless- only because he's not skating nearly as much this year).
Since he's come back, he's been on and off. I don't think he's been nearly as bad as others suggest. Really, Hainsey's been worst since his return IMO (not nearly enough to fret about but nonetheless). I think he's worth a shot next to Dermott instead of Gardiner though. I'm not a huge fan of Zaitsev and Gardiner together for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that they both have fallen in love with the low % home run pass....it's high-risk as it is much more suspectible to a neutral zone turnover...and in some cases..it just leads to more opposition possession/zone time as evidenced by Pittsburgh.
He was our best d-man for the first 7-10 games or so. Then Gardiner regressed into "Bad Gardiner".... who completely sank that pairing....then Zaits got injured.....and Gardiner continued to be in a slump (which suggested to me that Gardiner was to blame for most of the early struggles). Shortly before he came back, Gardiner starting picking up into the opposite extreme (Good Gardiner....still a bit of a farcry from last year's Gardiner but good nonetheless- only because he's not skating nearly as much this year).
Since he's come back, he's been on and off. I don't think he's been nearly as bad as others suggest. Really, Hainsey's been worst since his return IMO (not nearly enough to fret about but nonetheless). I think he's worth a shot next to Dermott instead of Gardiner though. I'm not a huge fan of Zaitsev and Gardiner together for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that they both have fallen in love with the low % home run pass....it's high-risk as it is much more suspectible to a neutral zone turnover...and in some cases..it just leads to more opposition possession/zone time as evidenced by Pittsburgh.
WTFMAN99
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- Jun 17, 2009
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Can't disagree. I think if we were able to grab another partner to go with Rielly like a Tanev or Pysyk we could drop Hainsey down a bit. Since the flu, Hainsey hasn't looked right but he's been playing a lot of minutes and he's not a young guy.
Perfect world we roll:
Rielly-Tanev
Gardiner-Hainsey
Dermott-Zaitsev
Gardiner and Hainsey looked good together and Dermott-Zaitsev would be considered a luxury 3rd pairing considering their play, they should easily handle lesser threats in opponent's line ups.
WTFMAN99
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The defenseman on pace for nearly 50 points is the problem? Right now it's Zaitsev.
I think people expect a flawless defenseman but the best defenseman in the NHL routinely get beaten, it seems like the moment Gardiner makes a mistake there is a segment of Leaf fans that jumps up to say "LOOK IT'S GARDINER MAKING A MISTAKE! I KNEW HE WAS BAD!"
Trust me, we'll miss him if he goes, and he likely will be at some point because of the depth we have at LD in Rielly, Gardiner, Dermott and Borgman and the cost of them.
Gardiner is second in the NHL in giveaways this season, and by far the worst on the Leafs for it. Points don't help when you're averaging 2-3 giveaways a game...
WTFMAN99
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Cool, did you know last year's Norris trophy winner was #1 in give aways? Did you know that the more often you have the puck on your stick and try to make plays, the more likely you are to commit a giveaway?
Crosby, Tavares and J.Thornton are the top 3 forwards for giveaways.
Gardiner helps more then he hurts, try to come up with a better stat to discredit him, seriously.
Macallan18
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- Aug 10, 2015
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Guess we are watching different hockey games. The only thing Zaitzev is fighting is the puck.
He has been brutal defensively, making bad decisions, bad pinch last night led to him being forced to hook the Detroit player on the way back, and then Detroit scored.
He has looked like a bottom pairing RHD, far worse than Carrick.
Thankfully, Jake can shoulder some of the burden of carrying him, but if he doesn't snap back I worry about our playoffs, and his eternal contract.
Macallan18
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lol, I guess we are back in the "hate Gardiner" phase of leaf fandom. They should save it for Zaitzev and Polak.
Now if you are the the Dave Poulin who once was Brian Burke's bum boy at MLG, . Leafs fans and MLG owners suffered through years of you and your drinking buddies, and you criticize this current management group? "But management wanted to act like the smartest guys in the room". I'm only this if you are that former MLG employee.
As many have stated he is being asked to play with Gardiner. I believe that it was the second goal Pens scored when Gardiner tried to throw the puck down the middle. Zaitsev called for the pass behind the net and instead Gardiner passed the puck to the Pens player and bang in the back of the net.
When you don’t know what your partner is going to do or trust their actions you play scared and that is not the way to play.
When you don’t know what your partner is going to do or trust their actions you play scared and that is not the way to play.
