Time to Revisit Nylander at C?

[Dog]

Do we have any player who can hit and possibly fight to insert into lineup other than Simmonds?

 

[ZEBROA]

He can play C but i would try Kerfoot Hyman. You only get Hyman if your line play good. So no Hyman for you line 1!

 

[sittler rules!!!]

11-34-16
12-15-88
65-20-71
97-19-24

Change 20 to 47

 

[cookie]

Lol if you wanna give up a lot of goals go for it. Nylander is a winger, he plays his best on the wing.

Nylander lead team Sweden and was the top scorer in the 2019 world championships, beating guys like Kucherov and Stone. He had almost twice as many points as his second-highest scoring teammate. If I recall correctly, he was playing LW and C for that tournament and the leafs could certainly use that firepower in addition to the Marner-Matthews duo.

Foligno Matthews Marner
Nylander Kerfoot Galchenyuk
Hyman Engvall Mikheyev
Nash Spezza Simmonds

Muzzin Holl
Rielly Brodie
Sandin Bogosian

 

[Hockey Crazy]

Going back to this failed experiment in the playoffs seems like it would be a bad choice. I’d put kerfoot there and add Hyman for a bit of additional horsepower on that line, then slot engvall on the 3Rw spot

 

[DcW]

Spezza as 2c with Matthews double shifting once in awhile

 

[Griffin76]

Galchenyuk Matthews Marner
Foligno Nylander Hyman

Three headed center line

I agree with this and could even swap Galchenyuk and Foligno if a little more grit was required for Matthews against Chiarot.

 

[123offtheglass]

Should have had him play center some during the season... better to keep him on the wing unless the “next man (center) up’ fails.

give that 2nd line a boost with Hyman, put Foligno back on the 1st because you know that works.

Foligno - Matthews - Marner
Hyman - Kerfoot - Nylander
Mikheyev - Nash - Simmonds
Thornton - Brooks - Spezza

Nylander can split duties with Kerfoot; he can dip his toe in the water rather than dive in the deep end. Take the right side draws too.

chucky has a case for the 2nd line, Engvall for the bottom 6 too though.

 

[sxvnert]

Galchenyuk Matthews Marner
Foligno Nylander Hyman

Three headed center line

Put foligno at center with those pairings and they're good to go.

 

[meefer]

Galchenyuk Matthews Marner
Foligno Nylander Hyman

Three headed center line

Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Galchenyuk-Kerfoot-Nylander
Foligno-Engvall-Simmonds
Thornton-Brooks-Spezza

Probably get Dermott in for Sandin too. Dermott is just sucha good skater and much harder to play against.

Mikheyev and Nash were very bad imo and need to come out, Engvall was good in last years playoffs and brings pace. Brooks was great with the two old timers they had amazing chemistry.

Nylander lead team Sweden and was the top scorer in the 2019 world championships, beating guys like Kucherov and Stone. He had almost twice as many points as his second-highest scoring teammate. If I recall correctly, he was playing LW and C for that tournament and the leafs could certainly use that firepower in addition to the Marner-Matthews duo.

Foligno Matthews Marner
Nylander Kerfoot Galchenyuk
Hyman Engvall Mikheyev
Nash Spezza Simmonds

Muzzin Holl
Rielly Brodie
Sandin Bogosian

Should have had him play center some during the season... better to keep him on the wing unless the “next man (center) up’ fails.

give that 2nd line a boost with Hyman, put Foligno back on the 1st because you know that works.

Foligno - Matthews - Marner
Hyman - Kerfoot - Nylander
Mikheyev - Nash - Simmonds
Thornton - Brooks - Spezza

Nylander can split duties with Kerfoot; he can dip his toe in the water rather than dive in the deep end. Take the right side draws too.

chucky has a case for the 2nd line, Engvall for the bottom 6 too though.

I know panic is second nature to Leaf fans, but I look at the examples above and I'm ok with any of them. Sure, I'd prefer JT, but that's not going to happen. I look at these suggestions and I see a team with options, and pretty good ones at that. Well done folks.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Galchenyuk-Kerfoot-Nylander
Foligno-Engvall-Simmonds
Thornton-Brooks-Spezza

Probably get Dermott in for Sandin too. Dermott is just sucha good skater and much harder to play against.

Mikheyev and Nash were very bad imo and need to come out, Engvall was good in last years playoffs and brings pace. Brooks was great with the two old timers they had amazing chemistry.

I’d give Nash another shot at 4C over Brooks but otherwise this lineup looks good given the circumstances.

 

[Joey Hoser]

I'd just make Spezza the #2.

 

[Notsince67]

It’s clear that we have no one that can perform at a high level at 2C when looking at the other options like Kerfoot & Foligno at 2C.

This would also offer a winger position to someone like Gally or Engvall, that has shown scoring talents, to be put on Nylander’s wing. And it does stabilize the other lines by just needing to add a winger from the bench onto the 2nd line, instead of using a blender on the regular season lines that we did this game.

What does Leafs Nation think?

I don't believe Nylander is a high level 2c. I thought he had a pretty good game. We need to mess him around. Leave the kid be and allow him to be a high level winger.

 

[Super Mega]

Put foligno at center with those pairings and they're good to go.

This was my first thought, Galcheyuk-Foligno-Nylander as a way to preserve some of the offense after losing JT

in 2017 when he was traded to CBJ he was used at C quite a bit, as years went on it was just spot duty at best. So I am not sure how viable it is.

I don't hate the idea of using Spezza as well (with extra minutes for Matthews) but I absolutely hate Kerfoot at C

 

[Ashdown2]

Nylander lead team Sweden and was the top scorer in the 2019 world championships, beating guys like Kucherov and Stone. He had almost twice as many points as his second-highest scoring teammate. If I recall correctly, he was playing LW and C for that tournament and the leafs could certainly use that firepower in addition to the Marner-Matthews duo.

Foligno Matthews Marner
Nylander Kerfoot Galchenyuk
Hyman Engvall Mikheyev
Nash Spezza Simmonds

Muzzin Holl
Rielly Brodie
Sandin Bogosian

Nylander Kerfoot Galchenyuk
wow i can pretty much guarentee this line will end the night -3

 

[robertmac43]

Nylander was engaged last night, thought it was one of his better playoff games. I would rather keep him on the wing and let him focus on playing like he did last night.

 

[Wrong Wilson]

Do we have any player who can hit and possibly fight to insert into lineup other than Simmonds?

Sabourin

 

[Guy Boucher]

What I think Keefe will do:

Hyman - Matthews - Marner
Foligno - Kerfoot - Nylander
Mikheyev - Nash - Simmonds
Thornton - Engvall - Spezza

(chance he goes for Brooks over Engvall, given the fit he had with Jumbo & Spezza)

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Short answer - NO .. a centre has to go back behind net and take a hit to make a play in his own end .. any guy who sees a hit coming and shoots it high over glass for a penalty and then backpedals to avoid hit can't play centre in playoff hockey .. self explanatory

 

[saffronleaf]

Kerfoot sucks, would rather have Willy play C.

 

[Menzinger]

He'd be much better driving the line from that spot than Kerfoot but Kerfoot has clearly the more recent experience so he likely gets the edge

 

[Iapyi]

It's a relief seeing so many posters acknowledging that Nylander is NOT an NHL caliber centre after years of arguing with other posters that exact point.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Likely Willy moves up with Matty and Zach and we can create some offense .. those 3 should be able to create in da trap

 

[Willchel Marlynder]

If he had gotten reps during the season in that role, sure. But this would be a panic move and could likely blow up in our faces.

Have to agree with this. I think Nylander could do it, but with a couple games under his his belt. Don't think Playoffs are the time to try it out.

 

[Cypruss]

Nic Petan jumps into 2nd C spot.