Pre-Game Talk: Leafs vs Vegas - Thursday at 10:00pm February 14th

[Torontonian]

Don't really like Ronald playing the top pair, but I don't hate the fact Moe gets to go back to playing his strong side again, our last pairing could be real good, or could be a real tire fire in our own end...

Go Leafs Go!

 

[ER89]

should be:

Muzzin - Rielly
Gardiner - Dermott
Hainsey - Zaitsev

Exactly. But nope, hainsey will get walked on but he's a gud pro. So you are wrong.

 

[ER89]

Yeah, the Stanley Cup winner (where he played top 4 minutes) can't possibly get ice time in the playoffs. Sure, makes sense.

Uh there's this thing called age. I'm not sure if you know how it works. But basically as you grow older you lose a step. Who would've guessed right?

 

[Burnie97]

I don't know about the pairings... but in my original post I just meant at least Babcock is willing to try out different pairings... I'm not saying they're the best pairings.

Probably not the case ... but maybe they're testing out Gardiner and Dermott to see how they work.... So
then they can put Zaitsev with Muzzin to showcase him (Zaitsev) a bit... to pedal him over to another team. Wishful thinking most likely.

 

[93LEAFS]

I'm not excited about the pairings, but I could see the logic behind it is that we have a very tight schedule this month with 15 games in 29 days, he may be trying to spread out the ice-time and have multiple effective but not elite pairings.

The other one is, we may be trying to see if we can get Zaitsev to a level of a competent top 4 player who can live up to his contract. Trying him with Muzzin who is an effective defensive defender and strong possession game, we get to see what he is with a more consistent partner compared to the more dynamic Rielly and Gardiner.

 

[Nineteen67]

Key to game is if we run into a the HOT Fleury or the Holy one. We should win this no problem.

Vegas is fast and big. The only thing that keeps this close is the fact they are in a slump.