Pre-Game Talk: Leafs vs Blue Jackets

[613Leafer]

At least Panik gets an extended look

Yea, I'm pretty happy about that actually.

 

[Paradoc]

I was wondering why Santo wasn't back at C. Should have happened as soon as Holland was injured. Smith McKegg Carrick don't belong on a third line now.

Komo-santo-Clarkson was a great posession line to start the year. Makes sense to try it again.

Horachek seems to really like Panik. Hopefully Panik rewards him for giving him the chance.

Yeah he really does:

Hope_Smoke ‏@Hope_Smoke 4m4 minutes ago
Horachek "I think Panik was playing well. We moved him up & I thought he was playing well. You want to give him his due for playing well"

That was something Carlyle had a problem with. He would never reward his fourth liners with more ice time and would lean on certain guys more such as Clarkson, Bozak, Gardiner, etc even if they were having a bad night.

 

[diceman934]

Kadri's coming off a leg injury too. Needs to get back into the swing of things.

Still is injured.....he completed the game against Boston when he was injured and came back injured to play last night....look like he was wearing a knee brace....

 

[gabeliscious]

im digging those lines actually. panik looks like he has some potential. giving him too offensive players might help get it out of him.

 

[Stats01]

Tankers will want CBJ to win.

They beat us, and chances are up to 6 teams will pass us, by the all-star game, maybe earlier

If things continue this way, we are on a fast track to end the season with the 4th-6th Overall Pick, going into the lottery, which would give us a 7.5%-9.5% chance at the first overall pick.

Could you imagine if we won the lottery? ohh man..this year wouldn't be a disaster after all. Although getting a 3rd-5th overall wouldn't be bad either ..getting the 1st or 2nd overall is on another level with the 2 players available at those spots. The Leafs need something good to happen to them at the draft.

 

[wmark]

I can see why Bozak and Kessel have to be together.

Bozak is barely an NHLer without Kessel.

What are you going to do with a 4.2 mil centre who can only play with 1 person.

 

[Lauro]

Yes, Bozak needs to play with Kessel or can stay at home. Best defensive winger Winnik on the other side makes sense.

I love to see Komarov-Santorelli-Clarkson again, a very good line at the start of the season, actually the only time Clarkson looked kind of good.

 

[Pyrophorus]

Tankers will want CBJ to win.

They beat us, and chances are up to 6 teams will pass us, by the all-star game, maybe earlier

If things continue this way, we are on a fast track to end the season with the 4th-6th Overall Pick, going into the lottery, which would give us a 7.5%-9.5% chance at the first overall pick.

Still just one point back.

If we dominate CBJ, as we did the Caps (I didn't say win-still not), they'll eventually come.

The biggest problem right now....where the f is our offense?

 

[Suntouchable13]

Still just one point back.

If we dominate CBJ, as we did the Caps (I didn't say win-still not), they'll eventually come.

The biggest problem right now....where the f is our offense?

Come on, man, they weren't going to keep scoring at a 3.3gpg pace. Let's face reality here.

 

[Mystifo]

Horachek is anti Carlyle in a bad way. Carlyle = no changes whatsoever to top line. Horachek makes too many changes and has little patience thus far.

I like Horacheck though and hope he can remain at least an AC after we tank it this season.

The guy has coached a total of one game as the leafs head coach. I think it may be you have has the little patience thus far.

I mean make the claim if he does it for the next 8 to 10 games but come on dude be serious.

 

[The_Chosen_One]

When holland gets back I would like to see Santo beside JVR and Kadri on the 1st line. I thought they were very effective when playing together. Someting like this would be ideal IMO:

JVR-Kadri-Santo
Booth-Holland-Kessel
Komorov-Bozak-Clarkson
Winnik-Smith-Panik

I just wish we had a better center then Smith to help that 4th line which could be a very good one.

I'd rather see Booth on the fourth line and Panik take a top six role on Holland's line. Seeing that he's going to be on the top line this game, I can definitely see that occuring.

Speaking of Holland, he's probably more suitable at wing. However, I think he's a lot stronger than Bozak in the middle. As Leafstilldeath suggested, I think Bozak is going to be moved down.

 

[senor martinez]

Likely CBJ lines:

Hartnell - Johansen - Foligno
Calvert - Dubinsky - Atkinson
Skille - Wennberg - Collins
Boll - Letestu - Morin

Johnson - Savard
Tyutin - Goloebef
Connauton - Wisniewski

Bob most likely in net.

Scratched: Leopold, Prout, Tropp (I think he's still up)

Ignore the line order, as guys return to the lineup, Richards will try to roll the lines more consistently.

That lineup there is pretty tough nut to crack, especially after dubinsky got back. Foligno and Hartnell with Johansen are also playing fine seasons. We need our kessel and bozak start to produce if we want to win. Unless this happens, blue jackes will win for certainly.

 

[Trapper]

Horachek is anti Carlyle in a bad way. Carlyle = no changes whatsoever to top line. Horachek makes too many changes and has little patience thus far.

I like Horacheck though and hope he can remain at least an AC after we tank it this season.

We don't know what standing orders Horachek received from Shanahan.
It could be accelerated evaluation in the sense of let's see what works together and how. Who should we keep and who should go. Kessel on the 2nd unit now but still paired with Winnik. That's telling. They want to weigh his ability to provide GF vs. GA. Same with Bozak. 2nd game out of the 1st line C. I would imagine they would like to acquire a top C and move Kadri into the 2nd spot.

 

[ShameOnYouZidlicky]

Not a fan of this hyper-line shuffling. Hopefully he proves me wrong.

 

[Suntouchable13]

Holy crap! We're the worst team in the NHL last 10 games. Even Edmonton has been better by squeezing a few more games into OT before losing.

EDIT: Sorry, not the worst. Buffalo has been worse.

Leafs should go on a run shortly. That's just the way it is, isn't it? Only to fold again in March. Oh well. I hope no one is fooled when they go on a run here, especially Shanahan.

 

[MajorLeaf]

Looks like Kessel got his wish to still be with his BFF Bozak. At least they are demoted to the second line.

I like BJ's for the win.

 

[Cor]

Could you imagine if we won the lottery? ohh man..this year wouldn't be a disaster after all. Although getting a 3rd-5th overall wouldn't be bad either ..getting the 1st or 2nd overall is on another level with the 2 players available at those spots. The Leafs need something good to happen to them at the draft.

Would be awesome if this year was the year the did a lottery for the top three spots.

Unfortunately, Tim Murray managed to get that pushed back until next season

 

[Leafs at Knight]

One of the worst teams of late vs. one of the best ? Good thing I won't be able to watch this one.

 

[ECanuck]

I like that Kadri got demoted. At least there is accountability. But it has to be consistent now
As Mike Johnson said " now it should be consistent, not just Kadri"

Kadri is the easy target. Coaches know he will respond well so might as well bench/demote him as an example to the other players.

 

[ECanuck]

Could you imagine if we won the lottery? ohh man..this year wouldn't be a disaster after all. Although getting a 3rd-5th overall wouldn't be bad either ..getting the 1st or 2nd overall is on another level with the 2 players available at those spots. The Leafs need something good to happen to them at the draft.

Can we rig the lottery machine? This is not the honest way to go about things but it's almost 50 years now.

 

[leafstilldeath*]

[nhl]720525[/nhl]

liking the friendly yet firm approach so far....

 

[AlexMo89]

I liked what I saw from practice today, Horachek seems to be a one-on-one type of coach so he helps the players individually on how to play certain scenarios. I think the line combos are intriguing but I want to see if they are the same tomorrow during the game day skate (afterall he did change them before). I think its smart looking for line combos that work.

I also thought it was pretty telling what Franson said in his interview i.e. that the players don't feel uncomfortable or embarrased about going up to Horachek and asking him what they should do in certain scenarios if they didn't understand - he didn't make them feel dumb or embarrased. I thought that was pretty telling.

Can't wait to see some of his new system's 5-man Dzone, 5-man neutral zone, 5-man Ozone. This next game will be very telling, I'm going to be optimistic

 

[Pyrophorus]

Come on, man, they weren't going to keep scoring at a 3.3gpg pace. Let's face reality here.

I wouldn't say 4 goals in 3 games, is particularly great at all.
I wouldn't say this is their reality either.

 

[ANDI P IS CUTE]

Yeah he really does:

Hope_Smoke ‏@Hope_Smoke 4m4 minutes ago
Horachek "I think Panik was playing well. We moved him up & I thought he was playing well. You want to give him his due for playing well"

That was something Carlyle had a problem with. He would never reward his fourth liners with more ice time and would lean on certain guys more such as Clarkson, Bozak, Gardiner, etc even if they were having a bad night.

you mean the same Jake that was benched several times?

 

[ANDI P IS CUTE]

I liked what I saw from practice today, Horachek seems to be a one-on-one type of coach so he helps the players individually on how to play certain scenarios. I think the line combos are intriguing but I want to see if they are the same tomorrow during the game day skate (afterall he did change them before). I think its smart looking for line combos that work.

I also thought it was pretty telling what Franson said in his interview i.e. that the players don't feel uncomfortable or embarrased about going up to Horachek and asking him what they should do in certain scenarios if they didn't understand - he didn't make them feel dumb or embarrased. I thought that was pretty telling.

Can't wait to see some of his new system's 5-man Dzone, 5-man neutral zone, 5-man Ozone. This next game will be very telling, I'm going to be optimistic

kind of a insult to Randy, w/o saying his name. I bet lots of players felt that way...........