GDT: GAME #14: LEAFS @ PENS | SAT, NOV 3 @ 7PM ET | PPG PAINTS ARENA | CBC HNIC, SN1

[Leaf Rocket]

BASEketball predicted it.

I feel like i need to watch this movie now o.o

 

[TheGreatOne11]

Marner and JT with a big game tonight.

 

[deletethis]

My (not particularly earth shattering) theory on how the Leafs have been so successful on the road and bad at home: There's a defensive strategy that works against the Leafs but it produces boring hockey. Home teams don't like to play boring hockey in front of their fans and can be goaded into a shootout with the Leafs.

 

[Gallagbi]

My (not particularly earth shattering) theory on how the Leafs have been so successful on the road and bad at home: There's a defensive strategy that works against the Leafs but it produces boring hockey. Home teams don't like to play boring hockey in front of their fans and can be goaded into a shootout with the Leafs.

What defensive system do you think team are using against the Leafs? And why are teams just starting this now after 2 years?

 

[Budsfan]

Saturday NHL preview: Toronto Maple Leafs at Pittsburgh Penguins
By Kevin McGranSports Reporter
Fri., Nov. 2, 2018
PPG PAINTS ARENA
FACEOFF: 7 p.m.

Saturday NHL preview: Toronto Maple Leafs at Pittsburgh Penguins | The Star

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby battles Leaf Josh Leivo when the teams squared off last month at Scotiabank Arena. They’ll meet again Saturday night in Pittsburgh. (Frank Gunn / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo)


TV: CBC/Sportsnet
RADIO: Sportsnet 590 The FAN
KEY PLAYERS
Crosby vs. Kadri
The Penguins will do everything they can to keep Sidney Crosby away from Nazem Kadri, who has a knack for getting under the skin of the Penguins captain. Crosby has six goals and three assists in his last five games. Kadri has three goals in his last four games.
NEED TO KNOW
The Penguins have lost two in a row … Evgeni Malkin is second in the league in scoring with 20 points in 11 games. Over his last six games, he has six goals and 11 points … Defenceman Kris Letang missed one game with a lower-body injury, but played Thursday … Pittsburgh’s Matt Cullen and Toronto’s Patrick Marleau are two of just four active NHLers who played against Wayne Gretzky. Boston’s Zdeno Chara and San Jose’s Joe Thornton are the others.
UP NEXT
Tuesday vs. Vegas Golden Knights, 7 p.m.

 

[Mess]

Leafs go from the 1st 6 games as the highest scoring team in the league
to
Playing the Pens and get shutout 3-0 as Pitt exposes the plan how to beat the skating only Leafs
t0
Leafs go to the 31st and lowest scoring team in the NHL in the last 6.

Now the Pens again.

 

[Canadian Finn]

I've only missed one game this year, and it was the first game against Dallas where we won.

I'm missing tonights game as I have a ticats game at the same time (season ticket holder).

That means the Leafs will win this one for sure!

 

[Mattavarner]

My personal theory for why we suck at home is Babs line matching
On the road he can't control it, so he just sends out his players and they can just play
At home, everyones so concerned with line matching with the last change that they aren't thinking about what they are doing, instead they're just trying to counter whatever the other team is doing

 

[SprDaVE]

Last time we played the Penguins it was one of the worst officiated games I've witnessed in a long long time. It was a close game otherwise.

I hope we can break out of the funk. We're not at home, so I fully suspect we'll be playing better.

Tavares needs to be an 11M player tonight.

 

[Liminality]

A good piece on how well Gauthier is doing in his role. I've tried to stand by him the entire time during his journey to the NHL and hope he sticks it out as our permanent 4th line guy for the future.

Also illustrates that the Leafs depth might not be a problem after all if they just shot their normal shooting %. They're shooting the same amount as when they were at the start of the season.
Probably a mix of unlucky and skill being taken out of the lineup, not sure how many posts they got last game but I bet Tavares gets those in more often than not.

Saying that, it's time for Johnsson, Leivo, Brown, Marleau and Hyman to step up. Maybe Moore can replace Ennis and help out this situation too.

 

[PuckMagi]

My biggest problem with Babcock's lines is that he always has at least one bad player on every line. He takes our two best players right now (Tavares and Marner) and puts them with Hyman who is one of our worst. So he handicaps our two best players right off the bat. Hyman has no goals in 13 games playing mostly with Tavares and Marner and getting a ton of ice time. Just not going to cut it for a first line LW.

The second line is our best line, but Marleau isn't great either. So our best line is basically our 3rd best center (behind Matthews & Tavares), our 3rd best winger (behind Marner & Nylander), and Marleau who kind of sucks now. Not exactly great for a top line.

The third line has Brown who is sucking bad now and Par who is a fringe NHLer at this point.

Fourth line has Ennis and the Goat who are also fringe NHLers. Leivo looks like our 3rd best winger right now (behind Marner & Kapanen) and he's stuck on a pretty bad 4th line. Goat is doing fine in his role, but again, not an amazing line by any means.

Babcock needs to do this:

Top 6: Tavares, Marner, Kadri, Kapanen, Leivo, Johnsson
Bottom 6: Marleau, Par, Hyman, Brown, Goat, Ennis

Obviously hurts without Matthews and Nylander, but we could still put together 2 pretty good lines. Better than having 4 meh lines. So many of our points come on the PP when things are stacked. At 5on5 with these horrible lines, we're not getting much offense despite having the best offensive roster the NHL has seen in decades (w/ Matthews & Nylander playing).

 

[PromisedLand]

I don't like that tavares and marner are on the same line; especially since both willy and matthews are absent from the line up.

would have preferred tavares driving his line and marner his line.

I guess match ups would be as follows:

Crosby line against Tavares line
Brassard line against Kadri line
Malkin line feasts on one of the 3rd or 4th line

Am not too optimistic about tonight given how pens choked the life out of the Leafs clogging the neutral zone and Leafs' breakouts still include stretch passes or rimming the puck around the boards only to give possession to opposition.

Unless Freddie goes beast mode tonight I don't have a good feeling about this game tonight

 

[Ratboy]

I feel like i need to watch this movie now o.o

everyone should watch it.

 

[PromisedLand]

Babcock's 5 game segments till now:

Segment	Game	Date	Opponent	Result	Points	Running Total	Babcock Requirement	Surplus/Deficit
1	1	03-Oct	MTL	W	2	2
1	2	06-Oct	OTT	L	0	2
1	3	07-Oct	CHI	W	2	4
1	4	09-Oct	DAL	W	2	6
1	5	11-Oct	DET	W	2	8	6	2
2	1	13-Oct	WSH	W	2	10
2	2	15-Oct	LAK	W	2	12
2	3	18-Oct	PIT	L	0	12
2	4	20-Oct	STL	L	0	12
2	5	24-Oct	WPG	W	2	14	12	2
3	1	27-Oct	WPG	W	2	16
3	2	29-Oct	CGY	L	0	16
3	3	01-Nov	DAL	L	0	16
3	4	03-Nov	PIT
3	5	06-Nov	VGK				18

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Budsfan]

 

[Ziggdiezan]

My personal theory for why we suck at home is Babs line matching
On the road he can't control it, so he just sends out his players and they can just play
At home, everyones so concerned with line matching with the last change that they aren't thinking about what they are doing, instead they're just trying to counter whatever the other team is doing

Agreed, I said at the start of the year that I think the leafs will have a better away record than home record due to Babcock OCD with line matching.

 

[Liminality]

Agreed, I said at the start of the year that I think the leafs will have a better away record than home record due to Babcock OCD with line matching.

What happened in 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 then?

Our home record has always been better than our away record under Babcock, I'm sure it'll come back to the norm over the entire season.
Heck we were one of the best home teams in the league last season.

 

[Mattavarner]

Also as if anyone needed a reason to avoid the main boards, right now Elias Petterson is beating Auston Matthews in a poll for who will be better, what a joke

 

[Liminality]

Oh well maybe next time.

 

[Critical13]

Bounceback game right here boys.

Im expecting us to play ridiculously fast, the offence will be back. I expect at least 4 GF tonight.

 

[saltming]

What happened in 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 then?

Our home record has always been better than our away record under Babcock, I'm sure it'll come back to the norm over the entire season.
Heck we were one of the best home teams in the league last season.

Please don't let facts get in the way! I mean really!!!

 

[zeke]

Also as if anyone needed a reason to avoid the main boards, right now Elias Petterson is beating Auston Matthews in a poll for who will be better, what a joke

Elias is pretty awesome.

 

[zeke]

My biggest problem with Babcock's lines is that he always has at least one bad player on every line. He takes our two best players right now (Tavares and Marner) and puts them with Hyman who is one of our worst. So he handicaps our two best players right off the bat. Hyman has no goals in 13 games playing mostly with Tavares and Marner and getting a ton of ice time. Just not going to cut it for a first line LW.

The second line is our best line, but Marleau isn't great either. So our best line is basically our 3rd best center (behind Matthews & Tavares), our 3rd best winger (behind Marner & Nylander), and Marleau who kind of sucks now. Not exactly great for a top line.

The third line has Brown who is sucking bad now and Par who is a fringe NHLer at this point.

Fourth line has Ennis and the Goat who are also fringe NHLers. Leivo looks like our 3rd best winger right now (behind Marner & Kapanen) and he's stuck on a pretty bad 4th line. Goat is doing fine in his role, but again, not an amazing line by any means.

Babcock needs to do this:

Top 6: Tavares, Marner, Kadri, Kapanen, Leivo, Johnsson
Bottom 6: Marleau, Par, Hyman, Brown, Goat, Ennis

Obviously hurts without Matthews and Nylander, but we could still put together 2 pretty good lines. Better than having 4 meh lines. So many of our points come on the PP when things are stacked. At 5on5 with these horrible lines, we're not getting much offense despite having the best offensive roster the NHL has seen in decades (w/ Matthews & Nylander playing).

what makes it worse is that babs simply refuses to even TRY anything else.

Hyman and Marleau and Brown are fixtures that can never lose their spot no matter what.

hell they may even end up being the best choices for those spots but we'll never know because we never have a chance to see something else.

 

[Melo Meds]

Wanted to see Ennis rocketed off the team, but I guess I'll have to wait until the Vegas game. He's too weak on his skates. Really wanted to have Leivo move up and take Babcocks second son in Browns place on the third line as well. Liking Leivo's game overall this year. He is great at winning puck battles and I thought he competed hard last game. Back checked hard to break up an odd man rush. Also agree with some other posters that we'd be better off splitting up Marner and Tavares since both should be able to drive their own lines.

I'd be interested to see Tavares Hyman and Leivo(three big guys that all play a similar cycle orientated game) and Kap Marner and Kadri(skill speed and finesse). Demote Marleau to the third line. His play has been unacceptable for a 6.25 million.

 

[Burnie97]

Oh well maybe next time.

Dumb as far as I'm concerned. Leafs aren't scoring so let's keep it the same boys.... derp derp

I hope I'm wrong and they score 8 goals now tonight.

I just wonder sometimes ... why are they so reluctant to try something new after being so stagnant on offence and someone like Moore working his butt off and has a bit of grit to him ... but nope... just come and sit.