How do we not have a defense?

[ToneDog]

Dubas to address the media soon. Practice was cancelled today and they held a team meeting according to Mark Masters.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

Barrie is the X factor here. The first few games he looked dynamite. But he looks flat out average at best. So much for the Leafs ending the season with two 60+ point d-men like many touted. I was super stoked for him, and thought he was worth the cost of Kadri, and was hoping the Leafs would make him their signing priority in the off-season over Muzzin. But none of those can be justified at this point.

Ceci I thought was awful when he was acquired. His play in the pre-season made me think he'd actually be at least subpar, and he too started the season out decently. Yeah, he still sucks.

 

[Jozay]

Dubas to address the media soon. Practice was cancelled today and they held a team meeting according to Mark Masters.

This will fix everything.

 

[ToneDog]

This will fix everything.

Probably not but let's hear what our boy wonder has to say.

 

[PromisedLand]

Is the forward group even stacked? I only see 4 forwards who belong in the top 6 of a good NHL team. Matthews, Tavares, Marner, Nylander are the only legit top 6 forwards on the team.

Taking almost 50% of the cap

 

[Trapper]

Dubas to address the media soon. Practice was cancelled today and they held a team meeting according to Mark Masters.

I would call a meeting and let the players sit there for a half hour and then walk in.
Oh, did you guys want to start on time?

 

[Trapper]

Probably not but let's hear what our boy wonder has to say.

Blah blah blah process, blah injuries, dance move, smile, blah blah.

 

[ToneDog]

Blah blah blah process, blah injuries, dance move, smile, blah blah.

Yeah I stopped believing anything these guys say, starting with Babs.

 

[PromisedLand]

The Leafs are playing exactly like they were built and assembled.

They're all offense and no defense and essentially they need to play Pond Hockey of last goal wins every night trying to outscore their mistakes and breakdowns.

Leafs have to try and win 6-5 or 5-4 as their GF vs GA are basically even and when that happens it becomes a coin flip 50/50 odds on a nightly basis as to which net the last puck goes in.

Live by the sword and die by the sword.

This!

#FireDubas

 

[PromisedLand]

I agree with the premise of this for sure. It is a total shock how poor Barrie has been.

That being said, Barrie was used in a very specific role in Colorado to get the best out of him. EJ took a huge defensive load and all the shutdown matchups while Barrie received insanely sheltered minutes for a top 4 defenseman. This year Barrie is playing with the leafs best shutdown defender and not receiving the near the same level of sheltering. It doesn't make sense and has shown. Barrie needs to play behind a shutdown defender not with one.

This could be a somewhat similar scenario to Shattenkirk whereby Barrie can only flourish in a highly idealized situation. Honestly may be worth throwing Muzzin and Ceci together as a matchup pair and just through Rielly/Barrie in the offensive zone an insane amount.

Ron Hainsey was seriously underestimated by the analytics crowd; and they are still adamant in not pointing out that this team is really missing Hainsey's play to praise their lord dubas

 

[horner]

Dubas to address the media soon. Practice was cancelled today and they held a team meeting according to Mark Masters.

dubi crying to the players you are ruining my vision .
Shanahan should step up .

 

[mulefarm]

Definitely miss Gardiner’s 22 minutes! Took a lot of pressure off Reilly.

 

[Mess]

Dubas to address the media soon. Practice was cancelled today and they held a team meeting according to Mark Masters.

Is there a link to this press conference to watch online?

 

[Menzinger]

Ron Hainsey was seriously underestimated by the analytics crowd; and they are still adamant in not pointing out that this team is really missing Hainsey's play to praise their lord dubas

Youve made this claim a few times, but the analytics writers really didnt harp on Hainsey all that much. They just felt he was likely over used

Though speaking of which, this season his age seemingly has caught up with him. His even strength play looks pretty ugly

 

[horner]

Barrie is the X factor here. The first few games he looked dynamite. But he looks flat out average at best. So much for the Leafs ending the season with two 60+ point d-men like many touted. I was super stoked for him, and thought he was worth the cost of Kadri, and was hoping the Leafs would make him their signing priority in the off-season over Muzzin. But none of those can be justified at this point.

Ceci I thought was awful when he was acquired. His play in the pre-season made me think he'd actually be at least subpar, and he too started the season out decently. Yeah, he still sucks.

both Barrie and Ceci get out muscled for the puck everytime.

 

[ToneDog]

Is there a link to this press conference to watch online?

Not sure, it was mentioned on Leaf Lunch. I thought they might cut in but not sure.

 

[gabeliscious]

Ron Hainsey was seriously underestimated by the analytics crowd; and they are still adamant in not pointing out that this team is really missing Hainsey's play to praise their lord dubas

Not going to debate hainsey but given his age, he isnt a long term solution for the leafs. I think the bigger miss was bringing in a player like barrie. offense is not the leafs biggest challenge. a pp specialist who doesnt play on the pp is a little silly of a purchase.

not sure who the leafs could have gotten instead but surely if they were willing to put kadri into play, some sort of quality defenseman would be made available?

 

[Menzinger]

On playoff points solely, here's your top 4 teams from last year (note Bozak top 5 on the champs):

O’Reilly
Schwartz
Tarasenko
Perron
Bozak
Schenn
Sundqvist
Maroon
Barbashev

Marchand
Pastrnak
Bergeron
Coyle
Krejci
Johansson
DeBrusk
Kuraly
Nordstrom

Aho
Teravainen
Staal
Foegele
Williams
McGinn
Svechnikov
Wallmark
Niederreiter

Couture
Hertl
Meier
Nyqvist
Thornton
Labanc
Pavelski
Kane
Sorenson

Yeah, folks around here really oh overestimate the depth of some.ckntending teams vs what the Leafs have.

Guys like Kapanen or AJ are above average for 2nd line forward quality guys. Even Hymans 5v5 scoring rates tend to place him in a higher level

 

[Menzinger]

Not going to debate hainsey but given his age, he isnt a long term solution for the leafs. I think the bigger miss was bringing in a player like barrie. offense is not the leafs biggest challenge. a pp specialist who doesnt play on the pp is a little silly of a purchase.

not sure who the leafs could have gotten instead but surely if they were willing to put kadri into play, some sort of quality defenseman would be made available?

Qe just looking at how rarely the top 4/top pairing rhd are moved is pretty telling at how difficult to bring a guy in.

Kadris NTC also was a further constraint- ie he vetoed a trade to the Flames for Brodie +

 

[ToneDog]

Is there a link to this press conference to watch online?

His address is going to be played on Leaf Lunch in a few minutes. You can listen live from the TSN web site.

 

[GoonieFace]

Dubas is giving the players a lesson on analytics and how to apply them on the ice. Followed by a trigonometry lesson, and a sensitivity training course and how to spot bullying on the ice. When someone smokes a player on your team, the best retaliation is pretend you didn’t see anything and than proceed to not scoring on the powerplay.

Of course lattes and vegan cookies will be served

 

[Daisy Jane]

We looked very similar with Kadri too. And he was quite overrated defensively.

The big issue is that we acquired a top pairing RD to solve our problems and he's proceeded to be one of the worst players in the league so far by many metrics. That wasn't exactly on the radar, and it's a huge blow to our game.

which hopefully will kill this whole thing that we need right handed defensemen.
we just need defensemen who can defend.

 

[Leafsfan74]

I would call a meeting and let the players sit there for a half hour and then walk in.
Oh, did you guys want to start on time?

I was thinking after the first period in Chicago, if I'm Babcock I don't even enter the dressing room in between periods. Grab a bite to eat during intermission, make a phone call or two, then head back to the bench. Let the players look at each other and decide what kind of players they are. No yelling, direction or criticism, save it for practice where orders will be barked.

It's a tough league, in a competitive sport and city. As Donaldson said about the MLB unapologetically "this isn't the try hard league, this is the get it done league". Their core is young, but once their core demanded pay for performance and success, they accept all the pressure.

In fairness. Leafs have not addressed their D since the time Carlyle was here. You would think it would have been a primary focus. Now with no cap room, it's exponentially more difficult and team D takes on a new meaning. Dubas has made some decent tweaks, and thus far Barrie has not found his groove, we must remember Karlsson also struggled for some time in SJ, but, they needed some stay at home D men. Nothing flashy, just solid, average players.

They have the talent. I still believe their best is yet to come, with age, experience and the like. However, it's tough to have confidence in this group.

 

[egd27]

Agreed. The team has no energy and no push back.

They need more character players who set the tone of the game and pressure on the forecheck. Having Hyman back is great but they need another 2 or 3 of these guys in the lineup and simply better defenseman. Ceci and Barrie are really 3rd pairing guys at even strength.

Kadri
Komarov
Martin
Marleau
Brown
Hainsey
Polak

Lots of character there.....oh wait, no room for them and the "Big 40".

Oh well. at least some of the goals we score are really pretty.

 

[Kamiccolo]

Not to stop the meltdown, but they have played more games than most teams.. Of course they will be higher in GA.

Also doesn't help that Hutch let in 4 goals every game he started. Plus October Freddy....

For once I think people are over reacting with this. Defense has been fine. Did we miss where last night there was 3 goals on 13 shots?