I swear this is the only team that can be top 5 all year, top of the league defensively all year, go out and acquire a bunch of players known for their ability to play in physical games and then say we have no identity. Reading this thread you'd think we were barely holding onto the last wildcard spot.
This is a symptom of not watching other teams I think. Our fan base thinks other teams play perfectly in every situation and never have breakdowns. They think teams are throwing bone crushing body checks every shift for 82 games.
Anyways, the identity of the team is pretty simple. Defensively responsible team that can score. Our depth players all have 1 of 2 qualities. They are either defensively elite or physical or both. Our defense are all shutdown defenders first outside of Rielly. And our core up front now has ROR giving us the ability to create matchup nightmares regardless of who we play.
Yep this is not the soft , no defense, run and gun rush team from 5 years ago. Back in 17-18 you could call the leafs a soft, off the rush scoring, offense-first ,porous defensively team with a bandaid defense corps. Our forward depth had very little physicality/grit/two-way play/lunch pail mentality except Kadri, bozak, and hyman. We had soft ass, loser ass old ass Marleau, and one dimensional « 30-goal scorer » and defensive liability JVR as our veterans/leaders up front
Remember when the leafs blueline had Ron Hainsey, Tyson Barrie, Travis dermott, Roman polak, Jake gardiner, Nikita zaitsev, and Martin Marincin as regulars
now that’s a legit bad defense.
Our d now is far superior.
