The Star: Maple Leafs: Shanahan's gut tells him to go slow: DiManno

[Donald McRonald]

You're not wrong in your belief as management as stated publicly it plans to play the 3rd and 4th lines more this year.

a) By process of elimination it means Leafs top 2 lines get less ice time.

b) Can the top 6 forwards be as productive with less ice time by being fresher and c) can the Leafs be better defensively by keeping its weakest defensive players off the ice more?. That is the million question as to how it will effect team results.

a) yes it does, don't panic
b) yes, fresh legs are conducive to late game heroics
c) of course they can, Robidas and Polak, I think you'll be impressed Mess.

 

[realgoodleafs]

Well it's better than the crap we heard from Burke.

 

[Maple Leaf]

Hope Shanahan tanks for the next 5 years

 

[Mess]

When it comes down to it, fans just want to see a team that is competitive every game. You can't burn out your top line and expect them to win games for you at the end of the season. Hopefully the attack will be more balanced now.

Well Kessel #2 (17:30), Bozak #4 (17:03) and JVR #9 (16:27) in ES TOI/g in the NHL last year.

All 3 in the top 10.

So how many less goals or points will they score if 2 minutes is deducted and how many less goals against will they be on for also via less TOI/g.

Will the 3rd and 4th liners be able to compensate for the losses of offense?.

 

[Donald McRonald]

Well Kessel #2 (17:30), Bozak #4 (17:03) and JVR #9 (16:27) in ES TOI/g in the NHL last year.

All 3 in the top 10.

So how many less goals or points will they score if 2 minutes is deducted and how many less goals against will they be on for also via less TOI/g.

Will the 3rd and 4th liners be able to compensate for the losses of offense?.

Mess, you're putting all your eggs in one basket.
That's why you're a 'mess'.

 

[Bomber0104]

Respect to Shanahan.

Has a good head on his shoulder and I'm more confident with him at the helm than I was with Burke.

Both were former employees of Gary Bettman.

Until Shanahan makes some meaningful change in the right direction (i.e. moving our rotten core players out), I remain suspicious of his motives here.

At this point, I'm pretty sure Bettman sent both Shanahan and Burke to sabotage the team to further subsidize and prop up his American teams.

 

[UllmansTiger]

Rosie DiManno's articles make my skin crawl, I think I hate her more than Simmons.

While I don't hate either of them, I will avoid reading their material if I can.

PageclicksR'us....

 

[Mess]

Mess, you're putting all your eggs in one basket.
That's why you're a 'mess'.

Those aren't my eggs .. I just pulled those figures straight from NHL.com as to what actually happened last year.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats....=avgEvenStrengthTOIPerGame&viewName=timeOnIce

Being too tired might be the very reason why no NHL line gets more scored against at ES than Leafs top trio does.. 82 ES goals against in 82 games last year.

 

[Mystifo]

Rolling 4 lines means more icetime for role/support players and less icetime for star players.

More Holland and Komarov and less Kessel and Kadri etc.

That will be interesting to see how it effects the team results and the individual players stats.

At the same time it gives a real chance to kids such as Holland and Ashton to contribute.

 

[Northern Dancer]

both were former employees of gary bettman.

Until shanahan makes some meaningful change in the right direction (i.e. Moving our rotten core players out), i remain suspicious of his motives here.

At this point, i'm pretty sure bettman sent both shanahan and burke to sabotage the team to further subsidize and prop up his american teams.

lmao!!!

 

[Donald McRonald]

Those aren't my eggs .. I just pulled those figures straight from NHL.com as to what actually happened last year.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats....=avgEvenStrengthTOIPerGame&viewName=timeOnIce

Being too tired might be the very reason why no NHL line gets more scored against at ES than Leafs top trio does.. 82 ES goals against in 82 games last year.

uh huh, nice....and how many of those top 30 play on a cup contender. Matt Stajan is on that list holy.

 

[Eb]

Both were former employees of Gary Bettman.

Until Shanahan makes some meaningful change in the right direction (i.e. moving our rotten core players out), I remain suspicious of his motives here.

At this point, I'm pretty sure Bettman sent both Shanahan and Burke to sabotage the team to further subsidize and prop up his American teams.

This is great.

 

[hotpaws]

Is Shanny being cautious or is he simply in a position where he has few options?

Why sign a 37 year old for 3 years at 3 mil. per when TO's cap situation is so dire?

I agree , we don't have many options so they've decided to lay down excuses for another failed season early.

 

[Leafidelity]

Is Shanny being cautious or is he simply in a position where he has few options?

Why sign a 37 year old for 3 years at 3 mil. per when TO's cap situation is so dire?

Dire? Huh?

We have five players signed to a one year deal and aren't even expected to hit the ceiling?

Dire is Boston and Detroit. We're sitting in good position.

 

[Tyler Biggs*]

Finally, the Leafs get it. Hopefully, we won't see too many deals in the future giving up picks in the top 3 to 4 rounds, to acquire some other teams' busted prospects. Build from within is the way to go. Not sure about their assistant coaches plan, but it does make some sense. If the kids are going to be given a shot at the big club, the Marlies coaching staff will be the ones that know them the best, and can probably get the best out of them. Carlyle is not a 100% players coach, and does seem to have a difficult time getting though to the younger players, who need to be coddled a bit.

 

[Hero]

When he says culture change I think Shanny is also thinking about how the team is run and structured as a whole.

This simple idea of putting a lot of thought and effort into drafting well and developing well is huge. It's the only thing you can rely on and invest in.

 

[Daisy Jane]

When he says culture change I think Shanny is also thinking about how the team is run and structured as a whole.

This simple idea of putting a lot of thought and effort into drafting well and developing well is huge. It's the only thing you can rely on and invest in.

exactly. it's not just the 2014-2015 Maple Leafs Shanahan is working on - and I've been saying that since Day 1 of the Shanahan regime. this whole thing isn't going to take one or two years - Shanahan in my estimation is trying to create/develop a program that we've got great drafting/development going on - start from now promoting from within, if and when moves are ready to be made that helps benefit the team (because I guarantee you for as much people are screaming trade everyone - if we DID trade most of our pieces for nothing people would be just as upset).

 

[WestCoastLeafs]

You're not wrong in your belief as management as stated publicly it plans to play the 3rd and 4th lines more this year.

By process of elimination it means Leafs top 2 lines get less ice time.

Can the top 6 forwards be as productive with less ice time by being fresher and can the Leafs be better defensively by keeping its weakest defensive players off the ice more?. That is the million question as to how it will effect team results.

Remember that McClement was sometimes playing 20 minutes a game. I think it's partly just about balancing the time between 3rd and 4th lines. Also, there will probably be about 4ish guys in the bottom six with some scoring ability, so it means the Kadri line is going to have to work that much harder for its minutes.

 

[dimi78]

Rolling 4 lines means more icetime for role/support players and less icetime for star players.

More Holland and Komarov and less Kessel and Kadri etc.

That will be interesting to see how it effects the team results and the individual players stats.

Actually no it doesn't... rolling 4 lines is a philosophy change in that your bench isn't micromanaged by the coach like he's playing a video game controlling the players . By rolling 4 lines you plan to be pro active and have the puck more, play with speed and instinct as the beneficiary from puck possession, an in your face forchecking team playing in the offensive zone forcing turnovers which is what a micromanaged bench playing a hard matchup game takes away from a team as it makes them reactive, slow defense first team ie rope & dope.

Offensive faceoffs you'll see the top lines take them, PP you'll see the offensive guys take them. TV time outs or any faceoff you can start your top guys at any zone depending on the score as the deciding factor. By rolling the lines between whistles means your keeping everybody involved feeling like they're part of the team creating depth, keeping shifts shorter that means the players stay fresh and can COMPETE HARDER.

LA, Boston, Chicago are 4 line teams that roll lines but there top guys still get more TOI cause it's not a TOI mechanism.

 

[Jani8]

A question: How do you change culture while keeping the face(s) of the franchise the same? Is Kessel going to miraculously turn into a 2 way player and not shy away from contact while sacrificing his personal stats in order to help the team win more hockey games? Is Phaneuf going to be responsible for carrying the defence and not just the remote control of the cd player in the locker room?

This is just pure speculation but maybe the reason quality free agents opt to not sign in Toronto is because the leadership is handed to people who are not leaders by example.

What I'm saying is, Bruins traded away Joe Thornton in his prime and signed Chara to be the new leader. Worked out pretty well for them.

 

[hobarth]

Actually no it doesn't... rolling 4 lines is a philosophy change in that your bench isn't micromanaged by the coach like he's playing a video game controlling the players . By rolling 4 lines you plan to be pro active and have the puck more, play with speed and instinct as the beneficiary from puck possession, an in your face forchecking team playing in the offensive zone forcing turnovers which is what a micromanaged bench playing a hard matchup game takes away from a team as it makes them reactive, slow defense first team ie rope & dope.

Offensive faceoffs you'll see the top lines take them, PP you'll see the offensive guys take them. TV time outs or any faceoff you can start your top guys at any zone depending on the score as the deciding factor. By rolling the lines between whistles means your keeping everybody involved feeling like they're part of the team creating depth, keeping shifts shorter that means the players stay fresh and can COMPETE HARDER.

LA, Boston, Chicago are 4 line teams that roll lines but there top guys still get more TOI cause it's not a TOI mechanism.

Is it that simple, I would think you can only cycle 4 lines if you have the depth of personnel to do so. I would still think that the top 2 lines are going to get the majority of the icetime while the bottom 2 lines need to be able to contribute. TO's problem last year was having McClement who was all hustle and show but real results were hard to find, he was a possession black hole as were his linemates so whatever line he played with, the puck lived in the Leaf's zone.

TO needs McClement hustle but it also needs some talent so games are not constantly tilted in TO's direction. The reason the 1st and 2nd line were so bone tired game after game is because almost all faceoffs were in the Leaf zone which was the result of no possession time by players like McC and Kule.

I'll be surprised if TO can come up with a 4th line capable of being productive in the same manner as say Boston's 4th line has been, if TO can come up with a 4th line that doesn't scare us while on the ice for 5 minutes a game, I would say things are looking much better. I'd like to see some sort of narrowing of the gap between the abilities of the 3rd and 4th line then TO is making progress.

I think it's not realistic to expect a 4th line on any team to be able to handle another team's 1st hence the reason a coach is needed to manage the team and be proactive, rolling lines isn't realistic.

 

[dimi78]

Is it that simple, I would think you can only cycle 4 lines if you have the depth of personnel to do so. I would still think that the top 2 lines are going to get the majority of the icetime while the bottom 2 lines need to be able to contribute. TO's problem last year was having McClement who was all hustle and show but real results were hard to find, he was a possession black hole as were his linemates so whatever line he played with, the puck lived in the Leaf's zone.

TO needs McClement hustle but it also needs some talent so games are not constantly tilted in TO's direction. The reason the 1st and 2nd line were so bone tired game after game is because almost all faceoffs were in the Leaf zone which was the result of no possession time by players like McC and Kule.

I'll be surprised if TO can come up with a 4th line capable of being productive in the same manner as say Boston's 4th line has been, if TO can come up with a 4th line that doesn't scare us while on the ice for 5 minutes a game, I would say things are looking much better. I'd like to see some sort of narrowing of the gap between the abilities of the 3rd and 4th line then TO is making progress.

I think it's not realistic to expect a 4th line on any team to be able to handle another team's 1st hence the reason a coach is needed to manage the team and be proactive, rolling lines isn't realistic.

It would take a long essay form write out to explain to you how wrong you are that I really don't want to do. May I suggest if there's a way go back and watch the Leafs play against inferior opponents like Florida, Buffalo, Calgary. Those teams rolled lines as well yet they out played the Leafs, spent more time in the offensive zone, forchecked which lead to them outshooting the Leafs & even beat the Leafs with less talent due to them not being micromanaged.

This isn't new from Randy Carlyle teams. He was fired from Anaheim do to it was taxing & getting in the way from the players abilities to play with instinct. This game is way too fast as it is. When your instinct is taken from you, you become a reactive team that struggles with puck possession.

 

[Number13]

My gut tells me to go slow too shanny, just take two tums and you should be fine.

 

[The_Chosen_One]

I think Kadri and Holland have a good chance of competing with Bozak as our top centre. For Naz, it was his wingers and 50-points in a slump season is quite good. As for Holland, he wasn't well utilised and still had that all-round potential. We're selling him short while Kontiola may end up surprising us.

 

[thewave]

Both were former employees of Gary Bettman.

Until Shanahan makes some meaningful change in the right direction (i.e. moving our rotten core players out), I remain suspicious of his motives here.

At this point, I'm pretty sure Bettman sent both Shanahan and Burke to sabotage the team to further subsidize and prop up his American teams.

You just Nuked my mind!!!! Lol