Line Combos: Who sits?

[glg51*]

Really? people think Rielly has been the worst out of our top 6? I think he's easily in the top 4 in terms of playing. He's been left to deal with a lot of odd man rushes because of Franson, not to mention the turnovers Franson has been causing in some other games in our zone.

Also its pretty obvious that Rielly is trying to focus more of defense rather than try and be as offensive as Gardiner. Playing defense will get him in the NHL faster rather then trying high risk plays every time he's on the ice.

He hasn't been that good defensively.

At the current state he is at, he isn't particularly good at anything. Just mediocre defensively and honestly pretty bad offensively. There's no need to rush him, we have capable players coming from the IR and in the AHL.

 

[Hibachi]

I agree that Ranger is better, he had a few bad games early on but he's getting better and better as he gets more comfortable. You have the remember that guy has stopped playing hockey for a while and only last year did he play in the AHL, thats a 2-3 year break of hockey completely.

 

[Hibachi]

He hasn't been that good defensively.

At the current state he is at, he isn't particularly good at anything. Just mediocre defensively and honestly pretty bad offensively. There's no need to rush him, we have capable players coming from the IR and in the AHL.

I think he has the best passes out of all of our dmen, he made 3-4 beautiful long passes last night and Raymond couldn't even handle them. One of them would have broke Raymond for a breakaway and it was pretty well placed, just bounced off his stick. Rielly is taking the body more than Gardiner has so far throughout this season, and wins more puck battles along the boards. Defensively speaking, he's no way our worst dman on our team when you combine the fact that he can get the puck out of the zone.

Offense will come more when he's comfortable and knows he will not be sent down, he's just focusing on playing good defense because that will earn him a spot, not his offense.

 

[Asif16*]

Minus fighting, Ranger does everything better than Fraser.

Forget fights

Ranger Doesnt clear the crease as well as fraser, doesnt block shots as much as fraser, doesnt bring the intimidation factor as much as fraser, doesnt hit as much as fraser, and fraser sure as hell doesnt turn the puck over as much as ranger.

Also, in a board battle in the corner, id say Fraser has a higher chance of winning it than ranger.

 

[CanadasTeam]

Forget fights

Ranger Doesnt clear the crease as well as fraser, doesnt block shots as much as fraser, doesnt bring the intimidation factor as much as fraser, doesnt hit as much as fraser, and fraser sure as hell doesnt turn the puck over as much as ranger.

Also, in a board battle in the corner, id say Fraser has a higher chance of winning it than ranger.

True, true, true, true, and true.

Forget what Fraser brings as an individual player, it's how he makes the team and everyone around him "better".

 

[mikebel111*]

rielly as been really good. Like I said holding back a player is just as bad as rushing a player. He deserves to be here

 

[Asif16*]

I agree that Ranger is better, he had a few bad games early on but he's getting better and better as he gets more comfortable. You have the remember that guy has stopped playing hockey for a while and only last year did he play in the AHL, thats a 2-3 year break of hockey completely.

Seriously stop bringing that up. Its just a stupid excuse now.

REILLY who has played only 7 NHL games has looked better than ranger.

Ranger HAS played in the NHL before and has been playing hockey with marlies 2-3 years now.

You guys make it sound like ranger has not played a single hockey game before and we randomly signed ranger 2 days before the season started and put him in the lineup.

 

[samwitch]

Would Phaneuf and Franson be a horrible idea for a pairing? I don't know how it would work 5 on 5, but I think it's worth a shot.

Phaneuf - Franson
Rielly - Gunnarsson
Gardiner - Ranger
Fraser

 

[mikebel111*]

He hasn't been that good defensively.

At the current state he is at, he isn't particularly good at anything. Just mediocre defensively and honestly pretty bad offensively. There's no need to rush him, we have capable players coming from the IR and in the AHL.

if you think he is any of those things. than you don't who rielly is. His passes are elite level. skating is amazing, and his D game has looked above average.

 

[mikebel111*]

Seriously stop bringing that up. Its just a stupid excuse now.

REILLY who has played only 7 NHL games has looked better than ranger.

Ranger HAS played in the NHL before and has been playing hockey with marlies 2-3 years now.

You guys make it sound like ranger has not played a single hockey game before and we randomly signed ranger 2 days before the season started and put him in the lineup.

it was 1 year. look up the facts. and the AHL is different than the NHL. plus he is playing much better now.

 

[BonMorrison]

Assuming we keep Rielly up, I would be happy if we rotated him in and out of the line-up with Ranger depending on what teams we play. That's what Minnesota is doing with Dumba and it seems to working okay.

Phaneuf - Gunnarsson
Gardiner - Franson
Fraser - Rielly/Ranger

 

[Razz]

Forget fights

Ranger Doesnt clear the crease as well as fraser, doesnt block shots as much as fraser, doesnt bring the intimidation factor as much as fraser, doesnt hit as much as fraser, and fraser sure as hell doesnt turn the puck over as much as ranger.

Also, in a board battle in the corner, id say Fraser has a higher chance of winning it than ranger.

All of this is probably true however until the team starts losing or Ranger starts struggling, he's not going to be scratched. Fraser will get in the lineup but it won't be at the expense of players whom are doing their jobs well right now.

The Leafs are going to need to move a D man or send Rielly down. I suspect a trade is coming soon.

 

[SteveV*]

Depends if we are winning or not. If we are coming off a loss Fraser comes in, I think Carlyle really wants more physicality back there. If we are winning, he probably sits.

 

[sommervr]

Sit Fraser or trade him out west

 

[ACC1224]

Forget fights

Ranger Doesnt clear the crease as well as fraser, doesnt block shots as much as fraser, doesnt bring the intimidation factor as much as fraser, doesnt hit as much as fraser, and fraser sure as hell doesnt turn the puck over as much as ranger.

Also, in a board battle in the corner, id say Fraser has a higher chance of winning it than ranger.

Guess we'll see who is trusted with more minutes as the season goes on. I'm not sure you've seen much of Ranger.

 

[Frelimo]

Seriously stop bringing that up. Its just a stupid excuse now.

REILLY who has played only 7 NHL games has looked better than ranger.

Ranger HAS played in the NHL before and has been playing hockey with marlies 2-3 years now.

You guys make it sound like ranger has not played a single hockey game before and we randomly signed ranger 2 days before the season started and put him in the lineup.

He played one year for the Marlies, after several years off, and the NHL is a major step up from the AHL. Sure he's played in the NHL before, but I still expected it to take some time for him to get fully comfortable. He's not quite there yet, but I've seen improvements. He's much better now than that season opener.

 

[Asif16*]

it was 1 year. look up the facts. and the AHL is different than the NHL. plus he is playing much better now.

Yeah i get it.

How is reilly playing so much better though? Ranger has HAD past NHL experiences, reilly had none. Ranger has been playing in the AHL, reilly had being playing WHL.

Ranger had all of training camp and preseason just as Reilly. He should be NHL ready by now.

The excuse of "give him type to adjust to the NHL game" should be over by now

 

[glg51*]

if you think he is any of those things. than you don't who rielly is. His passes are elite level. skating is amazing, and his D game has looked above average.

Why is it that every time we get scored on, it seems that Rielly is on the ice?

It started out with the Ranger-Rielly pairing and now its the Franson-Rielly pairing.

 

[Asif16*]

Guess we'll see who is trusted with more minutes as the season goes on. I'm not sure you've seen much of Ranger.

Yeah i guess we'll see. I wouldnt be surprised if its ranger. Because i can certainly see that he has it in him.

And yes i have seen ranger and i agree that he has been better the last few games.

But not to warrant sitting over fraser when he comes back. Fraser's game is more needed than ranger right now

 

[Durrr]

Yeah i get it.

How is reilly playing so much better though? Ranger has HAD past NHL experiences, reilly had none. Ranger has been playing in the AHL, reilly had being playing WHL.

Ranger had all of training camp and preseason just as Reilly. He should be NHL ready by now.

The excuse of "give him type to adjust to the NHL game" should be over by now

Pretty awful logic here lol. It's going to take him probably half a season to get back to original form, just get over it.

 

[ACC1224]

Yeah i guess we'll see. I wouldnt be surprised if its ranger. Because i can certainly see that he has it in him.

And yes i have seen ranger and i agree that he has been better the last few games.

But not to warrant sitting over fraser when he comes back. Fraser's game is more needed than ranger right now

Ranger is a pretty physical player and a very good skater. I just don't see how Fraser is that needed.

 

[Asif16*]

Pretty awful logic here lol. It's going to take him probably half a season to get back to original form, just get over it.

Yeah so if he costs us some games until 40-45 game mark, it will all be good because he's still adjusting to the NHL level.

 

[CreeksideStrangler]

Minus fighting, Ranger does everything better than Fraser.

This

 

[mikebel111*]

Why is it that every time we get scored on, it seems that Rielly is on the ice?

It started out with the Ranger-Rielly pairing and now its the Franson-Rielly pairing.

if you looked at the games, franson has been leaving morgan in tough spots. it's really franson who is leaving him out to dry.

 

[glg51*]

if you looked at the games, franson has been leaving morgan in tough spots. it's really franson who is leaving him out to dry.

I've seen Rielly leave Franson out to dry many times, and you know why nobody brings it up? Because Franson has the ability to bail out his partner when his partner makes a bad decision. That's why Franson and Fraser made such a great pairing.

Its as if every time Franson makes an aggressive play at the blue line, it ends up in the back of the net. Morgan doesn't have the ability to make big defensive plays yet.