Line Combos: What will the Leafs powerplay units look like?

[leaffaninvancouver]

Matthews and Marner need to at least play together on the power play this season.

 

[therealkoho]

Babcock might want to have a town hall meeting with LeaFland, just to make sure he keeps everyone happy and understands that the fans know what they're doing

 

[diceman934]

Its an easy debate to suggest having 2 strong balanced PP units covering the full 2 minute PP time is just as good an idea as stacking one and then wasting the last 30-45 seconds on a 2nd unit unlikely to score. The opposition might not have enough qualified PK units to defend 2 strong PP units creating a mismatch for your own team.

Leafs realistically could have a 1A and 1B units if they split Tavares/Marner and Matthews/Nylander on separate units and the one that starts the PP is the one that is fresh and rested.

Babcock deploys 2 units and utilizes the full 2 minutes and Leafs ended up #2 in the NHL with the 2nd best PP as a result. Don't mess with success or don't attempt to fix what ain't broken is the moral of the story here.

Bozak and JVR are gone. So this do not fix what is not broken stuff is silly. There now needs to be changes asa result. For me it is easy your replace the two players with JT and Mathews and call it a day!

 

[SHANNYPLAN]

Matthews - Tavares -Kadri/Nylander
Rielly - Marner

Marleau - Nylander/Kadri - Kapanen
Johnsson - Gardiner​

 

[Liminality]

Matthews - Tavares -Kadri/Nylander
Rielly - Marner

Marleau - Nylander/Kadri - Kapanen
Johnsson - Gardiner​

Going by Bab's set up on the powerplay. You'd have the following?
Tavares
Matthews-Nylander-Marner
Rielly

Marleau
Johnsson-Kadri-Kap
Gardiner

It's not the worst idea I'm just not sure if Nylander's been put in that center spot on the powerplay before.

 

[White Shadow]

The Pens top unit scored about 50% more PP goals than our top unit, though also played about 50% more PP minutes. Partly that’s because the Pens drew more PPs, but it’s also partly because the Pens were more willing to leave their top unit out for basically the entire PP. Babs was much more an “even distributor” of PP minutes.

IMO we have so much talent now, we should try the Pens approach, loading it all up on one unit, and if they’re great, play them like crazy. It’s not like our 2nd unit was effective anyways, and the top unit will need to be shaken up regardless with JvR and Bozak gone.

A top unit of Matthews, Tavares, Nylander-or-Kadri, Rielly and Marner would still leave a 2nd unit of Nylander-or-Kadri, Marleau, Gardiner, Johnsson and Brown, or something like that. If the first unit is killing it, play them huge minutes, and the second unit doesn’t matter too much. If the first unit isn’t clicking, then try something else.

I'm not sure where you pulled those stats from. I would love to know as I am having a helluva time finding PP stats per unit

Kadri/Marner/JVR/Bozak/Rielly = 35 PP goals last season

Crosby/Malkin/Kessel/Hornqvist/Letang = 44 PP goals last season

We had 220 PP Opps as a team and Pitt had 260. I can't find PP opps by unit but if you add up TOI by each unit you get Crosby unit with 1385 mins and the Marner unit 876 mins

Crosby unit = 1.91 GF/60
Marner unit = 2.4 GF/60

Myself, I would replace JVR with Tavares and replace Bozak with Johnsson

That would leave Matthews/Nylander/Hyman/Kapanen/Jake as the second unit. I would also keep Matthews and Willie on their strong side as opposed to playing on their off wing since neither has a one timer and the strong side makes it easier for them to make that angel pass across the seam.

 

[MattySnipes]

Who really knows with Babcock honestly, so far, in his time here he's pretty much divided up the time between 2 units. Personally, i'd like him to load up one unit and try to cash in on the PP right away (within 30-50 seconds) but he might not change from last year and stick with the same plan. Below are our PP leaders from last year (*Note: JT's totals are obviously from NYI)

2017-2018 PP Leaders

Name	PPG	PPA	PPP	PP SOG	%PP	PP TOI
Tavares	12	18	30	77	62.4	03:10
Marner	8	19	27	50	50.9	02:12
Rielly	1	24	25	26	50.8	02:12
JvR	11	9	20	68	53.2	02:17
Kadri	12	7	19	46	48.6	02:05
Gardiner	1	14	15	16	48	02:04
Bozak	3	10	13	35	50.7	02:11
Matthews	5	8	13	30	48.1	02:09
Nylander	5	7	12	37	46.8	02:01
Marleau	5	4	9	36	46.2	01:59
Brown	1	1	2	8	27.1	01:10
Carrick	1	1	2	4	7.2	00:18
Johnsson	0	1	1	2	37.3	01:17

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

*No longer on team (left via UFA)

Setup for NO MERCY on opponents:

	Net Front: Tavares
Left Wall: Matthews		Right Wall: Marner/Nylander
Left Point: Rielly		Right Point: Nylander/Marner

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

• This setup consists of JT providing the net-front presence along with deflections, working behind the net to make passes out front, hovering around the slot waiting for passes from other options, etc. He will also be setup to move the puck back-and-forth to both wall options (Matthews & Marner/Nylander).
• Based on set-plays and other creative options Marner and Nylander can both interchange between those two spots on said powerplay, since both love the right-wall option and can make deft seam passes.
• Once this unit has played about 1:30ish of PP time, we can swap them out for a 5-man unit of Kadri, Marleau, Kapanen, Gardiner, Johnsson/Carrick/Zaits.

Setup for 2 Units:

Unit #1:

	Net Front/Slot: Tavares ​	​
Left Wall/Slot: Matthews​	​	Right Wall: Nylander​
Left Point: Rielly​	​	Right Point: Marner​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Unit #2:

	Net Front: Johnsson​	​
Left Wall: Marleau​	Slot: Kadri​	Right Wall: Kapanen​
​	Point: Gardiner​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

• A powerful 1st unit consisting of the Big 4 and Rielly.
• Second unit isn't scraps either. Johnsson brings the hands, tenacity and fearlessness required to play in front of the net, Kapanen with his speed and hands can race up the right wall, pull up, make plays, can man the right-wall and Gardiner the main point presence.
• With Marleau (left shot) & Kappy (right shot) on the sides this frees up Kadri (left shot) to hover around the slot and receive a pass which he can either redirect to the net or pass back to an open option.

 

[Mess]

Matthews and Marner need to at least play together on the power play this season.

They never played together last year so no reason they will be together this year if Babcock's early lines are Marner with Tavares and Nylander with Matthews.

If however at ES 5v5 Marner played with Matthews and Willie played with JT instead then I could see Matthews and Marner together on the same PP unit, as I'm expecting just like last year that even strength lines will determine PP units with the Kadri line the one being cannibalized to fill out the 2 units up front.

 

[IPS]

Who really knows with Babcock honestly, so far, in his time here he's pretty much divided up the time between 2 units. Personally, i'd like him to load up one unit and try to cash in on the PP right away (within 30-50 seconds) but he might not change from last year and stick with the same plan. Below are our PP leaders from last year (*Note: JT's totals are obviously from NYI)

2017-2018 PP Leaders

Name	PPG	PPA	PPP	PP SOG	%PP	PP TOI
Tavares	12	18	30	77	62.4	03:10
Marner	8	19	27	50	50.9	02:12
Rielly	1	24	25	26	50.8	02:12
JvR	11	9	20	68	53.2	02:17
Kadri	12	7	19	46	48.6	02:05
Gardiner	1	14	15	16	48	02:04
Bozak	3	10	13	35	50.7	02:11
Matthews	5	8	13	30	48.1	02:09
Nylander	5	7	12	37	46.8	02:01
Marleau	5	4	9	36	46.2	01:59
Brown	1	1	2	8	27.1	01:10
Carrick	1	1	2	4	7.2	00:18
Johnsson	0	1	1	2	37.3	01:17

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

*No longer on team (left via UFA)

Setup for NO MERCY on opponents:

	Net Front: Tavares
Left Wall: Matthews		Right Wall: Marner/Nylander
Left Point: Rielly		Right Point: Nylander/Marner

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

• This setup consists of JT providing the net-front presence along with deflections, working behind the net to make passes out front, hovering around the slot waiting for passes from other options, etc. He will also be setup to move the puck back-and-forth to both wall options (Matthews & Marner/Nylander).
• Based on set-plays and other creative options Marner and Nylander can both interchange between those two spots on said powerplay, since both love the right-wall option and can make deft seam passes.
• Once this unit has played about 1:30ish of PP time, we can swap them out for a 5-man unit of Kadri, Marleau, Kapanen, Gardiner, Johnsson/Carrick/Zaits.

Setup for 2 Units:

Unit #1:

	Net Front/Slot: Tavares
Left Wall/Slot: Matthews		Right Wall: Nylander
Left Point: Rielly		Right Point: Marner

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Unit #2:

	Net Front: Johnsson
Left Wall: Marleau	Slot: Kadri​	Right Wall: Kapanen​
Point: Gardiner​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

• A powerful 1st unit consisting of the Big 4 and Rielly.
• Second unit isn't scraps either. Johnsson brings the hands, tenacity and fearlessness required to play in front of the net, Kapanen with his speed and hands can race up the right wall, pull up, make plays, can man the right-wall and Gardiner the main point presence.
• With Marleau (left shot) & Kappy (right shot) on the sides this frees up Kadri (left shot) to hover around the slot and receive a pass which he can either redirect to the net or pass back to an open option.

So Marner averaged 58 seconds less of PP time per game than Tavares and was only 3 points behind him.

Marner is insanely good on the PP.

That should also be the last year ever where Bozak has as many PPP as Matthews

 

[ACC1224]

I'm guessing they will spread the wealth again this year but if it were up to me I would stack one unit and let them play the entire two minutes.

Matthews Tavares Nylander/Marleau
Rielly/Gardiner Marner

 

[member 262271]

In a word, ridiculous.

 

[REALTALK81]

Matthews Tavares Nylander
Gardiner Rielly

Marleau Kadri Marner
Johnsson Zaitsev

 

[1specter]

I wouldn't move Kadri off the first unit. He has fantastic chemistry with Marner and Rielly on the PP and has been very productive there the last 2 years. I think I'd keep Nylander on unit 2 if anything .

 

[Apotheosis]

I wouldn't move Kadri off the first unit. He has fantastic chemistry with Marner and Rielly on the PP and has been very productive there the last 2 years. I think I'd keep Nylander on unit 2 if anything .

There has to come a point where you or anyone else have to stop being married to the idea of "chemistry" as a merit to keep something together versus a potentially better option. I like Kadri in his role, but Tavares has better hands, better shot, better hand eye and is bigger, making him infinitely more suited for the role that Kadri plays. Same with Matthews.

 

[1specter]

There has to come a point where you or anyone else have to stop being married to the idea of "chemistry" as a merit to keep something together versus a potentially better option. I like Kadri in his role, but Tavares has better hands, better shot, better hand eye and is bigger, making him infinitely more suited for the role that Kadri plays. Same with Matthews.

Except I am not arguing to not have those guys on the top unit. Nylander is the one who I would keep on the second unit. If we're assuming that the PP format remains the same (I doubt it does) then if anything Tavares simply plugs into JVR's spot and Matthews plugs into Bozak's spot. Babcock even made a comment after they signed Tavares about how Tavares has played JVR's position on the power play before.

The results speak for themselves, Kadri has scored 60+ goals over the last 2 seasons and 80-90% of those have been within a few feet of the net on quick one-touch rebounds/passes. He's excellent at that and I haven't really seen Matthews score that way as he's more of a shooter. Tavares has an argument but again if he is taking JVR's role then there is room for both.

 

[ER89]

How would you folks construct our powerplay lineups?

Would you go heavy for PP1 and give them the bulk of the powerplay or would you balance it both our units?

I want your opinions, not what you think babs might do.

Personally what I would want purely for my entertainment is to see JT, Mitch, AM, Willy and Naz as our first pp unit and give them pretty much the entire two minutes. Stupid idea? Probably, but it would be glorious to watch.

Cheers!