Except that the Leafs under both Lou and Dubas have really lacked the grinders necessary to play this way, and Babcock was determined to fit a square peg into a round hole.
What I got out of this series is that the Leafs really, really could use a 21st century version of the old Zezel-Pearson-Osborne line that was HELL for opposing teams to play against most nights. They have lots of skill, but they really need that grinding line that wears down the opponent over time.
Agreed. When you look at a young team like the Canucks getting through to the playoffs, they have a bunch of "overpaid" guys like JT Miller, Pearson, Roussel who can give them a grinding dimension that Toronto has ignored.
When I look at Johnsson, Kapanen, Kerfoot, I see 3x middle six to top nine guys who can skate well, handle the puck, and generally do what the Big 4 do at a lower level. Then when you look at their AHL tweeners, you have a glut of less skilled players who are also skating, puck handling, offensively oriented guys like Malgin and Petan. But in terms of versatile guys who can play higher up in the lineup, we only have Hyman and maybe Mikheyev. But where are the all the role players, lunchpail guys, diggers, bruisers, etc?
I've never been specifically about nationalities, but I think we could use a line consisting of those general purpose working class Ontario players like a Tanner Pearson to give us a bit more of that nastiness and edge but at a higher skill level than a Kyle Clifford.