Injury Report: Jake Gardiner

[Bluelines]

It's not just the Leafs, it's an NHL thing!

It a way it is a Leafs thing,PPat Quinn started this lower / upper body thing when he was coaching the Leafs. there ya go Leaf nation your useless fact for the day that you will probably never need to know. Yer welcome

 

[Bluelines]

Firstoff I didnt hear the lower body till after my post. Nor what you stated. Many thought a trade.

And now how stupid does that sound..a leg spasm really? They hurt like a B ive had many but to miss the rest of the game? I could see a period..but oh well

Its probably not as much as a spasm that kept him out of the game but the underlying existing condition that kept him out, IE dehydration. the sports medical team have real time monitors like O2/SpO2 /Heart sensors hooked up to the players, they may have not like what they saw. Speculation of course. What ever it was it was severe enough to keep one of our better players out of the line up, that tells me it was not just a little spasm.

 

[Slot]

It a way it is a Leafs thing,PPat Quinn started this lower / upper body thing when he was coaching the Leafs. there ya go Leaf nation your useless fact for the day that you will probably never need to know. Yer welcome

By the end I'm not sure he remembered more than upper or lower body, or cared to find out.

 

[Al14]

It a way it is a Leafs thing,PPat Quinn started this lower / upper body thing when he was coaching the Leafs. there ya go Leaf nation your useless fact for the day that you will probably never need to know. Yer welcome

It has been adopted across the League! The reasoning is to avoid opposing players from targeting the injured players specific injury location upon their return.

 

[BertCorbeau]

If Gardiner is out for en extended period of time, it would be a huge opportunity for Dermott. If he is able to succeed in Gardiner's place in the top 4, it could mean Gardiner is moved in the off-season.

 

[Morgs]

He's 26 and signed for $4.5/season. Even if you only see him as a #4, you absolutely keep him at that cap hit. He's been bad but he's coming off an injury and is still fairly new to the league. Trading him would be unwise IMO.

Disagree. This is Zaitsev's second year of not only poor play, but also the 2nd year he's bringing down his partner. The time to trade him is now before that contract is looked at as a disaster (which it slowly has become)

So Zaitsev is having a down year but I think it's also attributed by not having any PP time, he's at 0:16 per game instead of 2:00 last year. Rielly really has taken all of it off his plate since Babcock only uses one dman per PP unit and has been having a lot of success with it. Zaitsev's transition game and outlet passes have been bad recently but I don't think they were this bad last year. Got to hope he steps back up if Gardiner misses any time cause we don't have that kind of depth to replace a top 4 d like that.

They were bad last year, and they're bad this year. He played well above his head on the top-pairing last season, and I personally hoped that with a reduction in comp he would get better. He has been worse.

 

[Morgs]

His analytics don't tell the whole story for him IMO, and often for guys like Gardiner, Demers, etc as well.

His game is like a supportive, defensive d-man with Gardiner (who sometimes decides to stop skating with the puck and starts throwing telegraphed stretch passes from his own end with great frequency), when his game should be ideally more of a puck-rushing d-man.

I don't think he's bad at all. Still growing, has those Jekyll/Hyde games like Gardiner. Didn't think he was that bad tonight either. I thought Hainsey, in particular, was awful tonight.....and whoever played with Polak suffered a similar fate. People just see the game differently I guess a lot of nights.

I thought we were awful defensively, but that doesn't hang on the d-men as much as our neutral zone play tonight. Nylander floated twice on a goal- on the neutral zone and soft on the side walls, Kadri gave up a shooting lane on the Jack Johnson goal randomly.....Hyman lost about every loose puck battle in the neutral zone tonight and flubbed more clearing/breakout chances than I could count. It was a awful game defensively for a lot of players (Sidenote: I generally think Bozak can have a bad night with some odd regularity but I was surprised he, of all players tonight, got the doghouse treatment by Babcock).

Yes we were awful defensively tonight, but really Polak and Zaitsev have been terrible all season, and Hainsey has lost the ability to play over the last 20~ games.

 

[BertCorbeau]

I hope it's just Zaitsev feeling a little pressured and overthinking because of his contract, and not because of the concussion he had last season. The salary isn't bad but the term stinks. Wasn't a fan of the risk at the time.

Plus he lost that time this season from the broken foot. Just a tough follow up year.

 

[Morgs]

His game is like a supportive, defensive d-man with Gardiner (who sometimes decides to stop skating with the puck and starts throwing telegraphed stretch passes from his own end with great frequency), when his game should be ideally more of a puck-rushing d-man.

I don't think he's bad at all. Still growing, has those Jekyll/Hyde games like Gardiner. Didn't think he was that bad tonight either. I thought Hainsey, in particular, was awful tonight.....and whoever played with Polak suffered a similar fate. People just see the game differently I guess a lot of nights.

Sorry to quote you again, but I just wanted to say that Zaitsev has been bad defensively not only this season, but he was worse last season (but we can attribute that mostly to his ridiculous minutes).

The thing that kept him in my mind as a "top-4 defenseman" was how he was arguably the best offensive defenseman on the team last year (with a brutal transition game). Everything except his defense has gotten worse this season.

Tableau Public

 

[SprDaVE]

If Gardiner is out for en extended period of time, it would be a huge opportunity for Dermott. If he is able to succeed in Gardiner's place in the top 4, it could mean Gardiner is moved in the off-season.

I doubt it. Kapanen's emergence last year didn't stop them from signing Marleau and keeping every winger they had.

Gardiner just showed how important he is on this defensive core. As soon as he left, and this is not an exaggeration, the Leafs got destroyed in shots attempts.

Dermott is good, like really good, but his emergency won't change much.

Gardiner is the most underrated defenseman we have and I hope there's a way for the Leafs to keep him long-term.

 

[dubplatepressure]

Sigh. Gardiner is a huge loss if he is out for any extended period. I know people love to hate him but he eats up quality minutes that are hard to replace. Guess it's Dermott's time to shine.

I hate when people say this.

People don't love to hate Gardiner. People aren't shy in calling out how unbelievably frustrating he is to watch when he's not playing well. That's not hate, that's just not rose-coloured enough for some.

 

[Bluelines]

It has been adopted across the League! The reasoning is to avoid opposing players from targeting the injured players specific injury location upon their return.

Oh I get why teams do it but if you think about it, its kinda stupid cause in today's age, with social media its not hard to find out what a players injury is.

Austin Matthews injury was supposed to be a national secret and a reporter inadvertently let it slip out.

I guarantee you whatever team we meet in the playoffs will know every injury on the Leafs before the series starts and visa versa.

If you think about it the only thing the upper lower body routine does is hide it from the fans a little longer than telling us up front. Which TBH I really don't care, if I know or don't know.

 

[Bluelines]

I doubt it. Kapanen's emergence last year didn't stop them from signing Marleau and keeping every winger they had.

Gardiner just showed how important he is on this defensive core. As soon as he left, and this is not an exaggeration, the Leafs got destroyed in shots attempts.

Dermott is good, like really good, but his emergency won't change much.

Gardiner is the most underrated defenseman we have and I hope there's a way for the Leafs to keep him long-term.

You're assuming there is an indisputable correlation between Jake leaving and Columbus shot attempts, while ignoring EVERY other factor. Good job Detective Dave with that confirmation bias.

 

[Macallan18]

You're assuming there is an indisputable correlation between Jake leaving and Columbus shot attempts, while ignoring EVERY other factor. Good job Detective Dave with that confirmation bias.

that's right, lets not let the facts cloud the issues!!!

 

[1specter]

I hate when people say this.

People don't love to hate Gardiner. People aren't shy in calling out how unbelievably frustrating he is to watch when he's not playing well. That's not hate, that's just not rose-coloured enough for some.

Lol @ rose coloured. Truly hate when people use that term along with snowflake. Leafs are much better with Gardiner than without, that's a fact and especially of late.

 

[ULF_55]

I hope it's just Zaitsev feeling a little pressured and overthinking because of his contract, and not because of the concussion he had last season. The salary isn't bad but the term stinks. Wasn't a fan of the risk at the time.

Plus he lost that time this season from the broken foot. Just a tough follow up year.

Rielly was off for a much shorter period of time and it took him a few games to get back up to speed.

Gardiner I'm not sure will need any time to get up to speed as he has his own mental agenda when it comes to playing the game. I think he borders on the genius / idiot from shift to shift and we just hope it is more genius for much of the game.

 

[CharlieKelly]

Gardiner just showed how important he is on this defensive core. As soon as he left, and this is not an exaggeration, the Leafs got destroyed in shots attempts.

Frankly, a lot of people here are more knowledgeable than I am, but I'm seeing this conclusion a lot. I would think that the mere mid-game drop from 6 defenders to 5 probably played a very large role in the overall disorganization of the Leafs D last night in the last two periods, and probably would have been similar regardless of which top-4 d-man left the game.

I mean we got outshot 57-28, and Gardiner missed maybe 12-14 minutes of ice time. I think we would've got destroyed in shot attempts even with him. Losing Gardiner for any period of time is going to be a step backwards, but I think its fairer to use the coming games where we actually have the appropriate amount of d-men dressed to evaluate his importance to the defensive core.

 

[Bullseye]

Jake Gardiner is a god. Game changed when he left. Dermott took over the vacancy though so all good.

 

[saltming]

You're assuming there is an indisputable correlation between Jake leaving and Columbus shot attempts, while ignoring EVERY other factor. Good job Detective Dave with that confirmation bias.

Occam's razor
Gardiner going out precipitated all the other factors defacto causing them

 

[DatSnipeMatthews]

If Gardiner is out for en extended period of time, it would be a huge opportunity for Dermott. If he is able to succeed in Gardiner's place in the top 4, it could mean Gardiner is moved in the off-season.

I totally 100% disagree. Gardiner is so integral to this defense. Gardiner should be re-upped long-term July 1st between 5-6 million a year.

The Leafs D will suffer immeasurably without Gardiner unless we pick up a better D, which would be super expensive.

 

[Ziggdiezan]

Remember seeing a tweet during the game saying he left due to a muscle spasm? Any update on that

 

[SprDaVE]

Frankly, a lot of people here are more knowledgeable than I am, but I'm seeing this conclusion a lot. I would think that the mere mid-game drop from 6 defenders to 5 probably played a very large role in the overall disorganization of the Leafs D last night in the last two periods, and probably would have been similar regardless of which top-4 d-man left the game.

I mean we got outshot 57-28, and Gardiner missed maybe 12-14 minutes of ice time. I think we would've got destroyed in shot attempts even with him. Losing Gardiner for any period of time is going to be a step backwards, but I think its fairer to use the coming games where we actually have the appropriate amount of d-men dressed to evaluate his importance to the defensive core.

Good points and I agree.

 

[hockeyes]

Gardiners play when he is on his game more than makes up for his down days. You need game changers in your line up even if they sometimes hurt you.

 

[therealkoho]

The Leafs playing 5D for 48 mins would have nothing to do with the increase in shot attempts

Conclusion: all Polaks fault

 

[ironrhcp]

If Gardiner is out for en extended period of time, it would be a huge opportunity for Dermott. If he is able to succeed in Gardiner's place in the top 4, it could mean Gardiner is moved in the off-season.

yea, i doubt it. Dermott is super good. But hes no Jake. At least not right now. Team is going to struggle while Jake is out. Maybe Rielly can step up, like Jake did wen Rielly was injured.