At this point, Leo's advantage over Kapanen defensively is minimal. Your basically giving up all hope of that line producing anything offensively for a tiny upgrade defensively. Not to mention the lines looked like absolute trash with Leo this year, he belongs on the 4th line, plain and simple.
I'm trying to have a discussion and you bring out the Babcock koolaid gimmick. No wonder you have a Hyman avatar.
While I agree that Leo hasn't been effective enough this year, that line had amazing chemistry last season (Leo/Kadri, anyway - though Leo was on his strong side, admittedly), as well as the beginning of this year - It's not like they've never worked before, but Babcock is stubbornly forcing them together anyway.
Same here, thought he played well for his role. Guess it's just in the rotation.
Leafs lines in practice
Thank you!! Think Matthews will be back by Wednesday? I hope Leivo gets in tomorrow
I think Matthews is back Wednesday and looks like Leivo is in tomorrow.
Fair enough. It was mentioned earlier that we could see Leo and Kap switch places later on in the game, depending on the score - Perhaps Babcock will make some in-game adjustments and move some bodies around to optimize the offense a little better. In the meantime, at least having Kapanen with Leivo on the 4th line allows for a chance for us to create offense with any line we may roll out.
Kadri no longer being snake-bitten should help as well. A lot of people seem to forget that this line is very much capable of producing, and generated plenty of scoring chances, even when they were slumping. For a long time there it felt like Kadri couldn't buy a point, despite having seemingly countless opportunities each game, and Leo was still a part of creating those opportunities.
