Stephen
Moderator
- Feb 28, 2002
- 78,675
- 53,150
Is it safe to say a big part of the reason why the Leafs struggle year after year is due to their lack of hockey sense and intelligence? It seems like as a group we have an inordinate amount of guys with very poor vision, creativity and brains, especially under pressure, which leads to boneheaded meltdowns the moment they collectively sense a little bit of adversity.
Maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise to find a team built by a guy who valued belligerence and truculence over intelligence on the big roster for so many years. I do remember Burke, Nonis, Loiselle and Morrison talking about how they were specifically targeting intelligent hockey players at the 2012 draft in Finn and Rielly, so maybe they were conscious of rectifying the flaws of the current group for the next generation...
When you look at guys like Grabovski, Phaneuf, Kulemin, MacArthur and even Kessel and Gardiner, I can't help but think none of them are very smart savvy players.
Grabovski is just dumb as bricks. For a centerman, you rarely see a top sixer with such tunnel vision and inability to really find his teammates crisply and efficiently. He likes to push the puck ahead with his straight away speed, make an energetic, sloppy play in the offensive zone, nothing dangerous happens and the puck goes the other way. You rarely ever think, wow, Grabs really slowed down the play and set up _____ there.
Maybe it's a function of playing with a guy like Grabovski so much, but Kulemin seems to go go go with his hard work and then nothing dangerous happens in the offensive zone. Isn't he supposed to have very high intelligence? Didn't some people foolishly refer to him as someone who reminded them of Datsyuk once upon a time?
MacArthur also seems plagued by tunnel vision, elects to shoot the puck too much in low percentage plays and floats around a little too much for his abilities to justify.
Phaneuf is a moron. He can't correct his flaws, always makes dumb stretch passes to nowhere like he's pretending to be Scott Niedermayer and doesn't think before he shoots the puck. The guy makes Bryan McCabe look like Raymond Bourque.
Kessel is a thoroughbred, which is both a blessing and a curse. He uses his athletic gifts to create when he's on, namely his explosive speed and wrist shot, and actually is a great passer but suffers from Ovechkin's disease where he does things more on muscle memory than being able to read the play and make the proper adjustments, like when he beats a guy to the outside only to cut back inside for no apparent reason.
Gardiner, though we haven't seen much of him this year, also seems to be a bit of a thoroughbred. The guy can wheel like the best of them but he also seems like a guy who thrives going full throttle than making those smart little plays to get things done.
Then you have your revolving cast of players like Kostka, Fraser and Holzer who don't seem to always be able to think at the NHL pace, which is fair since they're recent AHL graduates.
Anyway, it doesn't really ever seem like we have a lot of smart players who can read the play properly, pressure other teams to make those subtle little mistakes or adequately take advantage and exploit situations when they arise. We are really dying for a couple of smart players like a Kimmo Timonen on defense or a Patrice Bergeron at center.
Maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise to find a team built by a guy who valued belligerence and truculence over intelligence on the big roster for so many years. I do remember Burke, Nonis, Loiselle and Morrison talking about how they were specifically targeting intelligent hockey players at the 2012 draft in Finn and Rielly, so maybe they were conscious of rectifying the flaws of the current group for the next generation...
When you look at guys like Grabovski, Phaneuf, Kulemin, MacArthur and even Kessel and Gardiner, I can't help but think none of them are very smart savvy players.
Grabovski is just dumb as bricks. For a centerman, you rarely see a top sixer with such tunnel vision and inability to really find his teammates crisply and efficiently. He likes to push the puck ahead with his straight away speed, make an energetic, sloppy play in the offensive zone, nothing dangerous happens and the puck goes the other way. You rarely ever think, wow, Grabs really slowed down the play and set up _____ there.
Maybe it's a function of playing with a guy like Grabovski so much, but Kulemin seems to go go go with his hard work and then nothing dangerous happens in the offensive zone. Isn't he supposed to have very high intelligence? Didn't some people foolishly refer to him as someone who reminded them of Datsyuk once upon a time?
MacArthur also seems plagued by tunnel vision, elects to shoot the puck too much in low percentage plays and floats around a little too much for his abilities to justify.
Phaneuf is a moron. He can't correct his flaws, always makes dumb stretch passes to nowhere like he's pretending to be Scott Niedermayer and doesn't think before he shoots the puck. The guy makes Bryan McCabe look like Raymond Bourque.
Kessel is a thoroughbred, which is both a blessing and a curse. He uses his athletic gifts to create when he's on, namely his explosive speed and wrist shot, and actually is a great passer but suffers from Ovechkin's disease where he does things more on muscle memory than being able to read the play and make the proper adjustments, like when he beats a guy to the outside only to cut back inside for no apparent reason.
Gardiner, though we haven't seen much of him this year, also seems to be a bit of a thoroughbred. The guy can wheel like the best of them but he also seems like a guy who thrives going full throttle than making those smart little plays to get things done.
Then you have your revolving cast of players like Kostka, Fraser and Holzer who don't seem to always be able to think at the NHL pace, which is fair since they're recent AHL graduates.
Anyway, it doesn't really ever seem like we have a lot of smart players who can read the play properly, pressure other teams to make those subtle little mistakes or adequately take advantage and exploit situations when they arise. We are really dying for a couple of smart players like a Kimmo Timonen on defense or a Patrice Bergeron at center.
