GDT: Habs @ Leafs - Oct 2, 7pm RDS. SN1 (preseason)

[Tim Raines]

I wish there was just one major English Canadian sports outlet that didn't treat the Leafs as the center of the universe. The lengths that TSN goes to pump up the Leafs and generate hype around them is quite sad.

Even Sportsnet is a total Leaf propaganda machine.

Amen. SN is almost worse. Then again, both are in Toronto and most of their staff are Toronto people. They both are just fanboy networks now.

That article today is indistinguishable from something you'd find on mapleleafs.com.

And that's pathetic.

 

[sandviper]

Amen. SN is almost worse. Then again, both are in Toronto and most of their staff are Toronto people. They both are just fanboy networks now.

That article today is indistinguishable from something you'd find on mapleleafs.com.

And that's pathetic.

While I do find it depends on the on-air personas, this is generally true. I believe it was on TSN Overdrive though where they essentially admitted the majority of their staff is in Toronto, hence the slant towards all things TO. While I know plenty of non-Leaf fans, we're easily outnumbered in this market so yeah, not too surprising what we see and hear on TSN and Sportsnet.

I don't watch RDS, but I'll assume it's pretty much the same there as it is here? I guess they can minus any baseball discussion unless the Expos come back. Still, when I watch the hockey shows here, I wish they'd get off the pumping the Leafs and explaining to us what Auston Matthews watched on TV this morning and why he prefers one brand of cereal over another.

 

[covfefe]

TSN ownership:
- 80% Bell
- 20% ESPN

Sporstnet ownership:
- 100% Rogers

MLSE ownership:
- 37.5% Bell
- 37.5% Rogers
- 25% Larry Tanenbaum (most powerful sports figure in Canada)

 

[RandR]

Well, I just ventured over to TSN.ca to read the game story. What I saw was 500 words on the Leafs (about 400 of which were on Matthews) and at the very bottom was a one-line list of the Montreal goal scorers.

How do they even pretend to be a national media outlet?

TSN has been jokingly nicknamed "Toronto Sports Network" basically since it started, and for good reason.

Matthews looks like a good one, but the Toronto-based media are going to make it awfully difficult for non-Leaf fans to not get tired of all the hype about every thing he does.

 

[Tim Raines]

TSN has been jokingly nicknamed "Toronto Sports Network" basically since it started, and for good reason.

Matthews looks like a good one, but the Toronto-based media are going to make it awfully difficult for non-Leaf fans to not get tired of all the hype about every thing he does.

Well said.

And sandviper, I think my biggest issue is that they pretend to be a national outlet. I understand when the regional ones are biased, but let's give up the charade TSN and SN! I think foxygen spelled it out.

 

[sandviper]

Oh, I get your point. That is my frustration also since they are supposed to be a national outlet, or at least claim they are.

Anyhow, none of this matters since like the rest of Canada, I can't get through my day unless I know what Matthews is thinking about while washing his hands after peeing, so maybe it's better they stick to stories that matter and none of the other nonsense like what is happening to all the other Canadian teams.

 

[Tim Raines]

Anyhow, none of this matters since like the rest of Canada, I can't get through my day unless I know what Matthews is thinking about while washing his hands after peeing, so maybe it's better they stick to stories that matter and none of the other nonsense like what is happening to all the other Canadian teams.

Good point. Thankfully TSN and SN employ a staff of full-time writers to hide out in his bushes and report these things. God forbid a pane of glass breaks in his bathroom and we don't know about it.

 

[get25]

Yep Lindgren Matteau Audette Addison Gregoire Terry Scherbak and DLR should be cut tonight.

Keep 3G 9D and 16F and get ready for next game.

You were dead on for the prediction except for Hudon.

 

[get25]

Honestly, if you think it's some kind of "moral victory' to get to overtime against the worst team in the league with an "AHL roster" by all means, do your thing.

But don't expect to have a lot of people agree with you.

That was half of the last place team in the NHL with a back up goalie and a minor leaguer.

As he wrote, they had jvr, matthews, marner, nylander, kadri, rielly.
You can add Martin, Michalek, Bozak, Komarov, Zaitsev, Polak, Enroth, Manrincin and Humwick.

That's 16 NHL players right there and most would be part of our starting line-up.
On offense, they tested Hyman and Brown and on defense they tested Valiev.
The rest is pretty much their team next season.
As for these three, there are knowking at the door.
If you remove PAP (gone), they had 5 of their 6 best scorers for the game.

On our side, Petry, Beaulieu, Pateryn, Desharnais and two of McCaron/Ghetto/Carr/Lehkonen.
That's 6 NHL players. Desharnais was the best being our 6th scorer.

 

[Hackett]

As he wrote, they had jvr, matthews, marner, nylander, kadri, rielly.
You can add Martin, Michalek, Bozak, Komarov, Zaitsev, Polak, Enroth, Manrincin and Humwick.

That's 16 NHL players right there and most would be part of our starting line-up.
On offense, they tested Hyman and Brown and on defense they tested Valiev.
The rest is pretty much their team next season.
As for these three, there are knowking at the door.
If you remove PAP (gone), they had 5 of their 6 best scorers for the game.

On our side, Petry, Beaulieu, Pateryn, Desharnais and two of McCaron/Ghetto/Carr/Lehkonen.
That's 6 NHL players. Desharnais was the best being our 6th scorer.

Whatever the case, the only reason I would look at the score in a pre season is because I like to see the team win, no matter what....not that I have a good reason for it

But really, it meaningless to try and read into rosters that play these games. I don't care if you are a last place team or what, the pre season is very unpredictable. On paper, there was really no reason for Montreal to beat Ottawa on Saturday, but they did. It doesn't tell me anything about either teams' potential outcome from the upcoming 82 game regular season though.

Sure, Montreal played a team that will likely struggle this year to get out of the bottom tier of the league in Toronto, but if you are going to use that as a measuring stick, it's really a futile exercise.

The biggest reason I would watch a pre season game is to see some of the young talent, or new faces that I have not seen before. Aside from that, we shouldn't be reading a ton into these games.

 

[ChesterNimitz]

He was used. Made a great outlet pass.

The official game sheet seems to indicate that Lehkonen played a whole 34 seconds in overtime. Hardly a vote of confidence in this player's ability. I just don't see why people have such enthusiasm for this player. There is no dynamic element to any part of his game. Just compare his game (and upside) to players like Matthews, Marner and Reilly. These are the type of players to get excited about. They are game changers and who have the ability to positively affect the fortunes of their team. Lehkonen isn't the same species. He'll never be more than a marginal player in the NHL.

 

[Habs4ev*]

Well, I just ventured over to TSN.ca to read the game story. What I saw was 500 words on the Leafs (about 400 of which were on Matthews) and at the very bottom was a one-line list of the Montreal goal scorers.

How do they even pretend to be a national media outlet?

because just like the blue jays, the leafs are "canada's team"

hate to even say that but its true

 

[dackelljuneaubulis02]

The official game sheet seems to indicate that Lehkonen played a whole 34 seconds in overtime. Hardly a vote of confidence in this player's ability. I just don't see why people have such enthusiasm for this player. There is no dynamic element to any part of his game. Just compare his game (and upside) to players like Matthews, Marner and Reilly. These are the type of players to get excited about. They are game changers and who have the ability to positively affect the fortunes of their team. Lehkonen isn't the same species. He'll never be more than a marginal player in the NHL.

There's a huge gap between being a marginal player and being some of the best young talent in the game right now.

 

[LaP]

The official game sheet seems to indicate that Lehkonen played a whole 34 seconds in overtime. Hardly a vote of confidence in this player's ability. I just don't see why people have such enthusiasm for this player. There is no dynamic element to any part of his game. Just compare his game (and upside) to players like Matthews, Marner and Reilly. These are the type of players to get excited about. They are game changers and who have the ability to positively affect the fortunes of their team. Lehkonen isn't the same species. He'll never be more than a marginal player in the NHL.

So i'm trying to follow the logic here. All our prospects should be at the same level as top prospects in the world. Like in 5 years we will have 20 Sidney Crosby in the lineup.

Honestly i'm kind of puzzled by what i read these days. I should not it's the same crap i've been reading for 20 years now. Kids are not good enough we should ice vets and not win a cup for another 20 years. Like if a prospect is not the next Gretzky then he is a bust and we should not waste our time with him. That's exactly because of this kind of mentality that we missed on players like Conroy and Beauchemin. Both were nothing special. Both were not as good as vets. Both were not good person. Both were not this and not that. But despite all the *** we could read about them they sure became pretty solid two way players and were far better than the vet scrubs we iced while they were rotting in the AHL before we lost them for nothing.

Is Lehkonen the next St Louis or Fleury. More than likely not. But he sure looks better than Brian **** Flynn despite what some people might say. At least with him there's some room for improvement. oh but ... but ... lap ... Flynn is having a good camp. I DON'T GIVE A ******* FLYING ****. Flynn is nothing. He should not play if there's no multiple injuries.

We already have Price, Weber, AG and the upcoming Sergachev. At one points you can't gave 20 franchise players in your team. IMO guys like Lehkonen and McCarron looks like guys who could become solid support players. We should believe in them and give them the chances to prove themselves outside of a stupid 2 or 3 games camp.

 

[NotProkofievian]

So i'm trying to follow the logic here. All our prospects should be at the same level as top prospects in the world. Like in 5 years we will have 20 Sidney Crosby in the lineup.

Honestly i'm kind of puzzled by what i read these days. I should not it's the same crap i've been reading for 20 years now. Kids are not good enough we should ice vets and not win a cup for another 20 years. Like if a prospect is not the next Gretzky then he is a bust and we should not waste our time with him. That's exactly because of this kind of mentality that we missed on players like Conroy and Beauchemin. Both were nothing special. Both were not as good as vets. Both were not good person. Both were not this and not that. But despite all the *** we could read about them they sure became pretty solid two way players and were far better than the vet scrubs we iced while they were rotting in the AHL before we lost them for nothing.

Is Lehkonen the next St Louis or Fleury. More than likely not. But he sure looks better than Brian **** Flynn despite what some people might say. At least with him there's some room for improvement. oh but ... but ... lap ... Flynn is having a good camp. I DON'T GIVE A ******* FLYING ****. Flynn is nothing. He should not play if there's no multiple injuries.

We already have Price, Weber, AG and the upcoming Sergachev. At one points you can't gave 20 franchise players in your team. IMO guys like Lehkonen and McCarron looks like guys who could become solid support players. We should believe in them and give them the chances to prove themselves outside of a stupid 2 or 3 games camp.

Remember when P.A. Parenteau and DD were tearing up camp with Pacioretty, and this was being used to argue that Galchenyuk shouldn't be given playing time with Pacioretty?

Pepperidge farms remembers.

 

[RealityBytes]

I wish there was just one major English Canadian sports outlet that didn't treat the Leafs as the center of the universe. The lengths that TSN goes to pump up the Leafs and generate hype around them is quite sad.

Even Sportsnet is a total Leaf propaganda machine.

You have to expect that and live with it. Almost half of Canada lives within 200 miles of the Air Canada Center and are primarily Leafs fans. It is by far the largest fan base population area by three times (11.5M people just in the Golden Horseshoe alone) versus any other Canadian fan base. Hockey is an entertainment business and the media will cater to the largest fan base. It's their business.

Expecting places like Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and so on who are much smaller to get the same national coverage is just not a good business idea for the national media and is just not going to happen. They are always going to cater to that area. We just have to live with it.

 

[FloJack]

TSN has been jokingly nicknamed "Toronto Sports Network" basically since it started, and for good reason.

Matthews looks like a good one, but the Toronto-based media are going to make it awfully difficult for non-Leaf fans to not get tired of all the hype about every thing he does.

I still always go to their website out of some old default that's existed for me since like 1995, and every time I do I'm like, why am I here?

They've made me sick of Conner McDavid, and the hype is already worse with Matthews.

And Toronto bias aside, those Travis Yost articles are the worst.

 

[LaP]

Remember when P.A. Parenteau and DD were tearing up camp with Pacioretty, and this was being used to argue that Galchenyuk shouldn't be given playing time with Pacioretty?

Pepperidge farms remembers.

Exactly. Personally i see a spot for at least Lehkonen.

Patch-AG-Gallagher
Lehkonen-Plek-Radulov
Carr/Gheto/McCarron-DD-Shaw
Danault-Mitchell-Byron

The Danault-Mitchell-Byron line has been so good no reason to break it to start the season. The only guy with a realistic potential to eventually become a 2nd line player is Lehkonen. He's been playing with adult pro players for the last 5 years. We have to do a leap of faith here. He's not been tearing the competition at the camp but it's the one who imo shown the best aptitudes to support this 2nd line. Yes Shaw could play there but it would give us a very weak 3rd line. Would not be ideal imo. I don't want a 3rd line made of Ghetto-DD-Carr. They looked awful at camp together and i really don't see this as a line that could work. The best of the remaining kids should have a shot on the 3rd line. If this kid is not Ghetto then Ghetto should become the 13th forward.

If at the deadline it's not working for Lehkonen then we can make a trade. If we miss the playoffs because Lehkonen has been playing on our 2nd line for 60 games then it means this team is not ready as a whole and loosing would not be bad. If it's not working for the other kid on the 3rd then you can promote Danult or Byron to end the season. So after the deadline if it's not working for the kids the lineup could become.

Patch-AG-Gallagher
deadline trade-Plekanec-Radulov
Danault-DD-Shaw
Flynn/Ghetto/Carr/BigMac-Mitchell-Byron

There's nothing wrong with that strategy and imo it's worth a try. No reason to ice a guy like Byron on the 2nd line we know he's not a 2nd line player and it's a waste of time. And i prefer to have Shaw on the 3rd personally to help this line compete.

 

[JLP]

Is TSN or RDS more homer?

 

[Tim Raines]

Is TSN or RDS more homer?

The difference is that despite being a sister station, RDS is very much a regional entity. Nobody outside of Quebec even gets it unless they make a point of paying extra. TSN is a national network. So it has zero excuse to be a homer. It's not supposed to have a home.

 

[FerrisRox]

because just like the blue jays, the leafs are "canada's team"

hate to even say that but its true

Except it's not true and there are plenty of surveys that has been done coast to coast to prove it.

 

[Tim Raines]

Except it's not true and there are plenty of surveys that has been done coast to coast to prove it.

Exactly.

I loved the CBC one a year or two ago where they asked fans in Canada and the Habs were right around 40% and the Leafs were about 21% if I recall correctly.

 

[Hackett]

You have to expect that and live with it. Almost half of Canada lives within 200 miles of the Air Canada Center and are primarily Leafs fans. It is by far the largest fan base population area by three times (11.5M people just in the Golden Horseshoe alone) versus any other Canadian fan base. Hockey is an entertainment business and the media will cater to the largest fan base. It's their business.

Expecting places like Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and so on who are much smaller to get the same national coverage is just not a good business idea for the national media and is just not going to happen. They are always going to cater to that area. We just have to live with it.

From the ratings and surveys that I've seen, it is debateable at the very least as to who has more fans on a national scale. The problem when it comes to the habs is that while they get big audiences, it gets diluted between English and French. After taking the dilution into account, you can understand why an English network may not give them as much attention.

Anyways, it's easier to filter your information these days, so it's easily possible to not rely on network television to get the information you desire. I simply watch the games on TV, and I usually don't pay much attention to the intermissions either. So you can shield yourself from maple leaf overload.