GDT: Babe Winkelman is back from his fishing trip (Leafs @ Canes)

[AD Skinner]

They’re hurricanes, it’s all wind

 

[Unhinged Finn]

I liked how Freddie played with a stick and on his skates. Without a stick and swimming, not so much. Pesce and a couple of leaves gave him swimming lessons but the water was solid.

 

[MinJaBen]

I'm going to need a second wind to just keep reading about second winds.

 

[Tryamw]

I'm going to need a second wind to just keep reading about second winds.

Too much work. Where are the cliff notes

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I'm going to need a second wind to just keep reading about second winds.

Careful, apparently mentioning the common idea of a second wind is complaining too much. Can't imply that a team playing 6 games in 9 days might be looking for a break to regroup.

 

[Stickpucker]

that's what you get with adding "BOOM" to your username.

Does this mean you two are related

 

[Lempo]

Any way the wind blows, doesn't really matter. To me.

 

[HisIceness]

I understand what @Blueline Bomber is saying because the last two years I feel the team was getting burned out by regular seasons end. We will see what happens with the rest of the regular season.

What concerns me are the number of missed shots on breakaways. Props to Woll but at least one of those should have been a goal. Feel like breakaways regardless of who is out on them aren't going to result in a goal.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I understand what @Blueline Bomber is saying because the last two years I feel the team was getting burned out by regular seasons end. We will see what happens with the rest of the regular season.

What concerns me are the number of missed shots on breakaways. Props to Woll but at least one of those should have been a goal. Feel like breakaways regardless of who is out on them aren't going to result in a goal.

Rod saw Jake score in the shootout in one of his first games and said:

Someone who has more time than me: Have we scored on a breakaway or shootout or penalty shot since Jake's shootout winner? Was one of the disallowed goals against Washington a breakaway?

 

[AD Skinner]

The answer my friend is blowing a second wind

 

[ndp]

Wonder if and when Rod starts to rest some guys, especially el capitan.

The big guy just hasn’t looked all that great this season IMO. Father Time is definitely lurking in the shadows. Regardless they’re going to need him playing his best hockey of the season when the games that actually matter start.

I’d say the same for Burns but we all know that ain’t happening with his iron man streak and all.

 

[WreckingCrew]

So, my girlfriend surprised me yesterday with tickets to the Canes game last night! She got them from a coworker who couldn't go, and we drove over from Greensboro (I live in Winston, so it was a very late night getting back). But some observations from last night:

We could have easily been up 6-0 after the 1st, some unlucky bounces, posts, failed breakaways, robbed a goal, etc kept it 2-0.

I was shocked we weren't down 6-2 after the 2nd...we came out completely flat and disorganized, polar opposite team that we saw in the 1st. So many unforced turnovers, failed clearings, bad passes, etc.

3rd was just a mess for everyone...Laughs were desperate for a goal, and we were just playing prevent defense (and not terribly well at times). It was a butt-puckering game, good win in the end but man that was stressful lol

Freddie was THE MAN last night! It was a bit of a goalie battle overall, Woll was playing very well after the 1st and Freddie was on it. Couple times he was floundering, but still kept it out. Only GA was some bullshit missed GI where (for the 2nd or 3rd time on the night) he had his stick ripped from his hands and kicked away by a Laugh player. He was pretty livid with the ref, and he is generally pretty cool and calm.

Speaking of which, the officiating was exactly what you would expect when a) one of them is f***ing French-Canadian (seriously why do those particular guys hate us so much?) and b) you're playing against Toronto. Pretty sure the one "trip" they called was a TML stick taking out a TML player, but Svech was nearby so ya know. And the "holding" on Burns was the Laughs player reaching over and grabbing him to push him back, and Burns trying to push his hand away. And of course Svech got that dumb boarding but somehow the Laugh who came up with both fists wasn't a penalty. And the GI is getting ridiculous, our goalies are getting run and interfered with 4-5 times a game and it's getting ignored (doesn't help when Pesce? bowls him over himself).

Speaking of Svech, boy is he snake-bitten...some of it is him just being"off", some of it being shit luck, which is all probably killing his confidence. Like having a one-timer and the puck rolled right over his stick.

Necas and Orlov were on the struggle bus last night, neither generated a whole lot and both made some horrendous unforced turnovers, or held the puck too damn long.

And Burns is brutal at keeping the puck in it seems...not sure if he's trying to make his next move before getting the puck but damn he loses it a lot back there.

GAJ is what we've always dreamed of for a 1st line, 3 guys who can playmake AND score, and they're generally clicking pretty well already! Would love to find a way (playoffs pending) keep them together in the future.

And for the love of dog can someone please figure out how to score a goddamn f***ing dumbass breakaway, penalty shot, or shootout goal? FFS I think Martinook is the only guy who can do it on occasion. Massive momentum killer when every PS or breakaway goal is an easy save for the goalie or completely misses the net. Other teams are better off with us getting awarded a PS than a PP...hell we probably have more SHG thank breakaway/PS/SO goals.

That place was on the verge of complete eruption if that ENG had gone in, like the collective disappointment was audible, you can't get any closer than that really unless it partially crossed the line and stopped.

Lastly, what was with the surprising number of TML fans there? Still only scattered blue in a sea of red, but shocked at how many Laughs fans were there. Do they just have a huge contingent of fans with the time/money to travel for road games? I understand Pitt, NYR, BOS, etc because we have so many relocated folks here, but Toronto? I don't think I've ever met a TML fan or seen a jersey in the area, ever. Or is it like a UNC game, bunch of bandwagoners? That said there was a young girl next to us in her Matthews jersey and it was good to see just how invested into the game she was, need more young fans (even if they're opponents)...can only help the sport grow!

 

[Unhinged Finn]

So, my girlfriend surprised me yesterday with tickets to the Canes game last night! She got them from a coworker who couldn't go, and we drove over from Greensboro (I live in Winston, so it was a very late night getting back).

She sounds like a keeper!

 

[HisIceness]

She sounds like a keeper!

And without reading/knowing anything else they should definitely get married.

Also, I can't speak for the number of Leafs fans there but I remember in the 2002 playoffs, Nortel had a lot of their employees either already living here or making the trip down thinking the Leafs would win the conference. I believe one of those games was also played on a Canadian holiday, like their version of our Memorial Day or something

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Wonder if and when Rod starts to rest some guys, especially el capitan.

The big guy just hasn’t looked all that great this season IMO. Father Time is definitely lurking in the shadows. Regardless they’re going to need him playing his best hockey of the season when the games that actually matter start.

I’d say the same for Burns but we all know that ain’t happening with his iron man streak and all.

Staal was on the slow side late last year, too. I wonder if some of it is on purpose in order to conserve postseason energy.

 

[cptjeff]

Staal was on the slow side late last year, too. I wonder if some of it is on purpose in order to conserve postseason energy.

Occam's razor here- ever since he hit his mid 20s he's been at least in the slowest quartile of the league and he's only getting older and slower. He might have a boost in effectiveness in the playoffs because the games tend to slow down and there's more rest between games, but there's no galaxy brain secretly resting up and only playing at 70% stuff going on here. He's just always been a slow player who's getting slower and getting fatigued at the end of a long season.

 

[chaz4hockey]

I agree with Staal slowing down comment but wow was his line fantastic last night.

They controlled the puck and made Leafs miserable.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

Occam's razor here- ever since he hit his mid 20s he's been at least in the slowest quartile of the league and he's only getting older and slower. He might have a boost in effectiveness in the playoffs because the games tend to slow down and there's more rest between games, but there's no galaxy brain secretly resting up and only playing at 70% stuff going on here. He's just always been a slow player who's getting slower and getting fatigued at the end of a long season.

yeah, I don't think people fully realize how much mileage he has... he's "only" 35 but has played 1245 career games which is good for 109th in league history and he'll be in the top 100 before this season is over.

that said, I don't think he's really "slowed" down all that much. He hasn't been anywhere near as good as the last few years but I don't think that's purely just physically slowing down or aging, I think it's somewhat being snake bitten, linemates changing around a lot, mental fatigue/not trying as much in the regular season, etc. At least according to my eye test.

He reminds me of 2019-20 where he had very similar stats (although his +/- was better by 17), and he still bounced back after that pretty well. I think he'll be able to continue to be an effective bottom 6 C and matchup guy for the rest of his contract and hopefully this year is a bit of an outlier and less of a sign of a significant decline. but we'll see. I'd feel better if he only had a year or 2 left rather than 3 but 2.9 cap hit is easily manageable even if he does decline further.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

yeah, I don't think people fully realize how much mileage he has... he's "only" 35 but has played 1245 career games which is good for 109th in league history and he'll be in the top 100 before this season is over.

that said, I don't think he's really "slowed" down all that much. He hasn't been anywhere near as good as the last few years but I don't think that's purely just physically slowing down or aging, I think it's somewhat being snake bitten, linemates changing around a lot, mental fatigue/not trying as much in the regular season, etc. At least according to my eye test.

He reminds me of 2019-20 where he had very similar stats (although his +/- was better by 17), and he still bounced back after that pretty well. I think he'll be able to continue to be an effective bottom 6 C and matchup guy for the rest of his contract and hopefully this year is a bit of an outlier and less of a sign of a significant decline. but we'll see. I'd feel better if he only had a year or 2 left rather than 3 but 2.9 cap hit is easily manageable even if he does decline further.

My point wasn't really about some galaxy-brained conspiracy theory about Jordo in particular. I feel like I see this with the Canes in general every year, but it's more noticeable with guys like him who are already a bit slow.

 

[cptjeff]

that said, I don't think he's really "slowed" down all that much. He hasn't been anywhere near as good as the last few years but I don't think that's purely just physically slowing down or aging, I think it's somewhat being snake bitten, linemates changing around a lot, mental fatigue/not trying as much in the regular season, etc. At least according to my eye test.

He's been a total black hole offensively most of his career, but recently, he hasn't had the speed to defend effectively either. And that's a lot less about linemates and snake bittenness, that's all about whether he can get himself where he needs to be. He knows where he needs to be, because he's Jordan Staal. No amount of mental fatigue is stopping him from knowing exactly where he needs to be defensively. But he hasn't been getting there recently.

It's really pretty easy to point to overwork and fatigue there- he's been getting way more minutes than he can handle with Kotkaniemi's total collapse this year. But that's part and parcel of aging, one of the things that'll bite you in the ass is that you don't recover anywhere nearly as quickly as you do in your early 20s. You might be able to still put up those efforts, but you're going to need more rest to do it. If you don't get that rest, your muscles are going to be swimming in lactic acid when you play that 3rd game in 4 nights.

 

[chaz4hockey]

He's been a total black hole offensively most of his career, but recently, he hasn't had the speed to defend effectively either. And that's a lot less about linemates and snake bittenness, that's all about whether he can get himself where he needs to be. He knows where he needs to be, because he's Jordan Staal. No amount of mental fatigue is stopping him from knowing exactly where he needs to be defensively. But he hasn't been getting there recently.

It's really pretty easy to point to overwork and fatigue there- he's been getting way more minutes than he can handle with Kotkaniemi's total collapse this year. But that's part and parcel of aging, one of the things that'll bite you in the ass is that you don't recover anywhere nearly as quickly as you do in your early 20s. You might be able to still put up those efforts, but you're going to need more rest to do it. If you don't get that rest, your muscles are going to be swimming in lactic acid when you play that 3rd game in 4 nights.

I’d like to see him at no more than 12-14 minutes for the rest of the regular season. We will need his line to soak up non-worrisome minutes during playoff games.

I was very worried about his line’s play in Jan and Feb in key games in which they were hemmed in a lot. However with Fast back they got back to their usual ball breaking ways lately.
Btw: Any points will be a bonus.

Unfortunately, the NHL has compressed the damn schedule tremendously this month (all teams are complaining) which doesn’t provide for much of a break until we get to the 5 days off after next few.

 

[Stickpucker]

Who wins the slowness competition old dawg Stall or young gun Coconut?

Isn't Stalls toi down this season as well?

 

[ndp]

Staal is on pace to finish the season with one of his worst PPG and double digit negative while playing almost a minute less per night than his past average.

If it were me I’d be resting him as much as possible while they’ve got 5 healthy centers. Let KK and Drury help carry that responsibility unless they’re dead set on trying to chase down the Rags. Bring him back for the last 3-4 regular season games so he’s in game shape. He’s such an important part of the way this team wins, especially in the playoffs, they need him to be better than he’s been for the majority of this season, again IMO.

We know Rod is going to lean on him in the playoffs, especially on the road where 37-92-88 has the potential to be somewhat of a defensive liability.

 

[Chrispy]

Who wins the slowness competition old dawg Stall or young gun Coconut?

Isn't Stalls toi down this season as well?

Staal's TOI has been dropping the last 3 seasons, although the biggest drop was after 2020-21. Also, most of the drop before this year was from reduced PP time.

2020-21: 18:29 TOI/G (2:34 PP)
2021-22: 16:38 (0:43 PP)
2022-23: 16:16 (0:15 PP)
2023-24: 15:31 (0:10 PP)

Staal's 5x5 TOI/G has been between 12:28 (this year) and 12:53 (last year) every season in the last 4.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Staal’s 5v5 expected stats were 44.8 GF and 26.2 GA his actual were 30 GF vs 41 GA. His on ice sv% was 4% lower than the rest of the team which goes with giving up 15 more goals than expected.

Edit: he hadn’t ended a season with more GA than expected the previous 3 seasons. This season is equal to his 2 worst seasons in the last 8 combined