This concept has been lost on this organization for some time. They are half and half now and they play like they are confused. I guess going bipolar extremes doesn't work. Took the players out of their comfort zone I reckon.
Having this split personality team is also bad because its hard to transition players to different lines incase of injury.
If they were uniform line templates you can slide players up and down more easily. What I mean is. Find me a line Clarkson fits...you can't really do it. I do know however if Kessel goes down his inferior replacement is Raymond. The replacement for Bozak is Bolland, the replacement for Kadri is nobody really so if Kadri is out they have to adjust the play style completely. Holland fits inbetween Bozak and Bolland which is good to have. JVR - Kules Is the guy, at any rate...
The team is built to many different ways and the coaching isn't matching that dynamic so they are confused, an play confused scatter brain hockey.
Completely agree.... although it's probably not as bad as you suggest right now.
The Leafs have 3 big wingers -- JvR, Kulemin, Clarkson, and the latter 2 should be able to move up into the roles of their superiors if/when injuries / poor play occurs.
They have 3 scoring / speedy wingers -- Kessel, Lupul, and Raymond. Again, these guys should be able to step up.
Our problem is at centre... where you've got an horribly inconsistent 1-way player like Kadri who just isn't good enough to be the 2nd line centre when we're healthy, or step up into the top line role, especially considering that top line role is basically to let JvR/Kessel do their thing.
On D, i don't see it as much of a problem of depth alignment, versus the fact that our depth just isn't good enough.
