News Article: The 2020 Defense.

[RoadWarrior]

I don’t think the Leafs’ defensive problems have been solely due to the personnel on the blueline. I think it is also due to a lack of defensive commitment and discipline by the forwards. There is good reason to hope the blueline corps will be improved this season, IMO. Not all the “ifs” will turn out as we hope, but the Leafs only need some of them to work in order to improve. That’s not an unreasonable hope. But the forwards still have to do their part.

They need coaches who can get the team committed to play defense. That was missing last season because of all the changes.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

They need coaches who can get the team committed to play defense. That was missing last season because of all the changes.

Yeah, plus tougher on pucks or puck carriers and lay the body on whether you are Marner or Muzzin. They have a idea to stay in position for offense all the time and don’t take themselves out of the play by full contact. Not sure how great a game plant that is. I like checks finished. Bottom six minimum plays like that but would like to see everyone start taking it serious

 

[Wafflewhipper]

Tyson Barrie played for my Kelowna Rockets so based on that how can you not like him?. However he was a high scoring Bantam/Minor midget Forward when drafted into the CHL that was turned into a Dman at the WHL level and so as a season ticket holder have seen him play 100's of times in action in person. So I've always seen him as a "Rover" and more high risk defensively as a result as his tendencies are to push or lead the offense up the ice. Leafs defense was going to take a hit and the goals against was going to go up and so Barrie was going to moved down the roster to shelter him defensively.

The Leafs swapping Barrie out and TJ Brodie in, even though Brodie is not a right shot and playing on his weak side this is a big upgrade defensively and he is a shot suppressor and going to be able to count on him positionally in his own end. I'm hoping that Reilly and him form a reliable D pairing together and it allows Mo Reils to excel offensively knowing his D partner has his back defensively.

Barrie was good under Keefe. He just can’t defend well enough. Brodie can and i wish Kadri had just gone to Calgary and we got Brodie in the first place. It would also mean no Kerfoot. Likely that same Kerfoot amount would have been spent anyways but I’m not a fan of his. That doesn’t mean I don’t hope he does great this season coming. If Dubas could trade him for picks or prospects i would complain any. Be nice to have some deadline money to spend.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

Let's not forget too many of or forwards didn't get the job done with their two-way play. I think it will be different this year. Better D, better two-way players and someone who won't ride Freddie until he's dead tired

Very true and they need to be coming out with a bad attitude to a man.

 

[The90]

Brodie didn’t shoot the puck enough last season also. Maybe playing with Rielly gets him shooting more too. I hope so. I think our offense runs in a way that under utilized our defense.

I always liked the element that Barrie wasn’t actually afraid to shoot the puck. We’ll miss that. When a pp goes dry, oftentimes you just need to shoot the puck.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

I always liked the element that Barrie wasn’t actually afraid to shoot the puck. We’ll miss that. When a pp goes dry, oftentimes you just need to shoot the puck.

Barrie really came on with Keefe. His defensive game just wasn’t what we needed. Brodie and Bogosian are both better than him and Ceci. Nice upgrade there with some jam add too.

 

[The90]

I don’t think the Leafs’ defensive problems have been solely due to the personnel on the blueline. I think it is also due to a lack of defensive commitment and discipline by the forwards. There is good reason to hope the blueline corps will be improved this season, IMO. Not all the “ifs” will turn out as we hope, but the Leafs only need some of them to work in order to improve. That’s not an unreasonable hope. But the forwards still have to do their part.

70% team commitment and play style 30% personnel. As much as anything they need to grow up and stop looking for cookies all the time

 

[mulefarm]

With a solid partner, I can see Morgan with at least 75 points and a top 3 in the Norris voting!

 

[Wafflewhipper]

With a solid partner, I can see Morgan with at least 75 points and a top 3 in the Norris voting!

I would like to see more scoring from our entire defense. Morgs healthy is unstoppable. If he is good to go he will likely be all ready to get his game back. I think the whole team will love tne new guys charisma. The team will have fun again and thats a plus

 

[Dayjobdave]

Reilly returning to form will be the biggest upgrade on D
Brodie over Barrie should be an upgrade.
Bogosian will add toughness that we need.
if either Lehtonen or Sandin push for top 4, this will be a nice upgrade.

 

[MapleLeafs9]

With a solid partner, I can see Morgan with at least 75 points and a top 3 in the Norris voting!

Let's just hope he settles into 2018-2019 form first lol

 

[DarkKnight]

Barrie really came on with Keefe.

That simply isn’t true, he came on for three games after the move and then was awful for the most part under Keefe. He sheltered the guy routinely, had no confidence in him whatsoever. I have no idea how anyone can say he did well under Keefe, he stunk. Let’s stop polishing turds and move on.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

That simply isn’t true, he came on for three games after the move and then was awful for the most part under Keefe. He sheltered the guy routinely, had no confidence in him whatsoever. I have no idea how anyone can say he did well under Keefe, he stunk. Let’s stop polishing turds and move on.

No he put up lots of points the following 20 games actually. I’ll follow that up with his game log here for substance.plz Don’t call me a liar. Tyson Barrie Stats, Profile, Bio, Analysis and More | Edmonton Oilers | The Sports Forecaster
16 points the 20 games following Keefe taking over. 11 the next 20. Why would you tell me I’m not telling the truth.

 

[Spargon]

I feel like it doesn't matter who we sign on defense the narrative will remain "oh Leafs weak d needs to be fixed"

We have gone from

Rielly-Hainsey
Gardiner-zaitsev

To

Rielly- Brodie
Muzzin-Holl

In the last 2 years but the way people talk they act like Leafs have dont absolutely nothing to change the D.

I feel like he Leafs could have the top 4 HF rated dman as our top 4 and people will still carry on with this bs narrative.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

With a solid partner, I can see Morgan with at least 75 points and a top 3 in the Norris voting!

We need him healthy but the defensive depth is better if he goes down again. Last year we all knew he was not moving/ skating well. We never did find out exactly what was wrong. Rielly just said he had nagging injuries he was playing with.
Skating is his game and we didn’t se it the entire season. Hopefully he didn’t do more damage by playing injured. His 72 points realistically was his career year but he could come close possibly again in the 60 range and I’m content.

 

[al secord]

I'm more interested to see if we can finally commit to team defense.

 

[Mentat]

Our left side looks solid. Lehtonnen is a wild card that, if he pans out, will make us even stronger.
Our right side has improved with Brodie and Bogo, but i still believe that our depth is not quite there yet. As long as the injury bug stays at bay, we should manage just fine.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

They need coaches who can get the team committed to play defense. That was missing last season because of all the changes.

Yes and an even bigger issue is overall team management philosophy to defense. This will take 5-10 years to implement due to very bad starting position and CAP. There are so many things to develop which Leafs have shown ZERO interest to develop past 60 years. Playing vets with rooks to teach rooks day-to-day no shortcut basics of pro defense. Playing hard defenders who live breathe and sleep stopping attackers from getting to our net with good hand puck movers who can transition and solid breakout. Having a solid shutdown pair who are reliable in key moments to win games. Scheduling team defensive practices ONLY which focus on dealing with scenarios in your own end- no forward ever likes them but team must buy in overall-forwards who won't take a hit to make a play on wall need to be rooted out of team. Having an overall defenseman mentoring system in place which can sometimes hurt you short term but pays long term dividends.

Key to remember in hockey in general is da golden rule which has not changed in a hundred years. Hockey teams are built 80% with drafting/recruiting/developing and 20% with coaching. Coaching can provide that little difference which is very important but coaching alone will not do it.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Yes and an even bigger issue is overall team management philosophy to defense. This will take 5-10 years to implement due to very bad starting position and CAP. There are so many things to develop which Leafs have shown ZERO interest to develop past 60 years. Playing vets with rooks to teach rooks day-to-day no shortcut basics of pro defense. Playing hard defenders who live breathe and sleep stopping attackers from getting to our net with good hand puck movers who can transition and solid breakout. Having a solid shutdown pair who are reliable in key moments to win games. Scheduling team defensive practices ONLY which focus on dealing with scenarios in your own end- no forward ever likes them but team must buy in overall-forwards who won't take a hit to make a play on wall need to be rooted out of team. Having an overall defenseman mentoring system in place which can sometimes hurt you short term but pays long term dividends.

Key to remember in hockey in general is da golden rule which has not changed in a hundred years. Hockey teams are built 80% with drafting/recruiting/developing and 20% with coaching. Coaching can provide that little difference which is very important but coaching alone will not do it.

The leafs are widely considered to have a very good player development staff and very few are criticizing Dubas for his draft record thus far.

The leafs blind spot is coaching. In terms of philosophy that is really the coaches job.

I like Sheldon Keefe but he lacks experience at the NHL level.

 

[Mess]

I'm also interested with this new player personnel on D that the Leafs implement a more structured defensive system that is more successful come playoff time and play less run and gun and last goal wins going forward.

Players like Brodie and Bogosian provide that opportunity to focus more on goals against reduction and prevention and not just have the pedal to the medal pushing the offense.

 

[moon111]

Rielly should have options now. The playbook with Ceci was much too simple for the opposition could just shut the Leafs down and to even be thinking how to exploit this for their own offensive as everyone knew what to expect. Hoping to see both offensive and defensive improvements.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

The leafs are widely considered to have a very good player development staff and very few are criticizing Dubas for his draft record thus far.

The leafs blind spot is coaching. In terms of philosophy that is really the coaches job.

I like Sheldon Keefe but he lacks experience at the NHL level.

Coaching only represents about 20% of any pro hockey teams success. So even da greatest coach in world can only have a limited affect. Recruiting/drafting/developing is 80% of the success ticket. It has been this way for over a hundred years. And that is straight from hockey's greatest mind Scotty and Sam before him.

 

[The Iceman]

I always liked the element that Barrie wasn’t actually afraid to shoot the puck. We’ll miss that. When a pp goes dry, oftentimes you just need to shoot the puck.

I think Lehtonen and MUZZ as PP2 point will shoot the puck

 

[hobarth]

The leafs are widely considered to have a very good player development staff and very few are criticizing Dubas for his draft record thus far.

The leafs blind spot is coaching. In terms of philosophy that is really the coaches job.

I like Sheldon Keefe but he lacks experience at the NHL level.

I thought how Babs coached showed that he could only coach certain players like Hyman, Brown, Datsyuk and Zetterberg, players that could or were willing to defend. Some of those players were/are great but TO would've needed to do a significant roster change over to accommodate Babs.

As far as TO drafting and developing well, since the Shanaplan began, the 2015 draft, TO has produced 2 bonafide NHL stars and 1 maybe d-man who is on a minimal NHL salary 5 years after being drafted. TO also has 2 maybe prospects in that time with not much else looking like true NHL players no matter how much development is being spent on them. The 2 star players drafted after the Shanaplan didn't spend any time in the TO system.

Sometimes experience and the narrowing of adaptability is worse, Babs wanted TO to become what he wanted, Keefe seems to be trying to adapt to the team he has.

 

[KyleDubasBoyGeniua]

Rielly will be a Norris finalist imo this year.