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GDT #8: Flightless Birds @ Leafs, 7:00PM, TSN4

LeafGm

LeafGm

Well-known member
Well, our second big test of the season is coming up tonight, following the Leafs' game against the Caps on Saturday.

Like that game, we'll be playing a team that can match our three-line forward depth---as well as probably the only other team in the league with a better group of centers than the Leafs. Phil Kessel is also off to a Kasperi Kapanen-esque start to the season, with four goals and eight points in five games.

A somewhat banged up Freddie Andersen is starting, and Tyler Ennis is in for Andreas Johnsson, because as per Mike Babcock, "we have to keep him alive", and because he says Johnsson is still adjusting to changing from playing 20 minutes a night with the Marlies to 4th line minutes with the Leafs.

Here's the lineup:

Patrick Marleau - Auston Matthews - Kasperi Kapanen
Zach Hyman - John Tavares - Mitch Marner
Par Lindholm - Nazem Kadri - Connor Brown
Josh Leivo - Frederik Gauthier - Tyler Ennis

Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott - Igor Ozhiganov

Frederik Andersen
Garret Sparks
 
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Should be fun to watch Ennis blunder around for 6 minutes tonight.

Leivo must be duly impressed with the leash this guy has.
 
BeLeafer said:
Should be fun to watch Ennis blunder around for 6 minutes tonight.

Leivo must be duly impressed with the leash this guy has.
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Heh. I had a similar thought.

Leivo has to be wondering why Babcock didn't make a similar effort to keep him "alive" the past two seasons.

Not to mention the fact that Ennis got to start on the Matthews line for all of camp and the first couple of games of the season, despite looking very much like how you'd expect a bought-out player would look throughout the pre-season and regular season.
 
How hard is it to play your most skilled players together and see what happens? If you give that a whirl and it just doesn't work and you have to insert diggers/gud pros/veterans, etc onto those lines to get them playing well, okay I get it. But why not start from the default position that good, skilled players will have the puck more than they chase it, and when they have it, will do more good with it than a line with plumbers on it?
 
I will say that there likely isn't a player on the team that Babcock is more disappointed in than Johnsson.

remember, babs gave you in shifts on the first line LAST year, skipping right past the likes of Kapanen and leivo.

and I'm kinda thinking he was eyeing Johnsson for getting first dibs on willy's spot this year, which is why he held off on promoting kappy, to give AJ a chance to sort himself out.
 
I could be off base but I think Johnsson got stuck on the fourth line because of taking the bridge deal and his comments to the media afterwards. There does seem to be a relationship between guys talkiing freely with the media and Mike not liking them, particularly young guys who might sound like they feel entitled to a roster spot.
 
BeLeafer said:
I could be off base but I think Johnsson got stuck on the fourth line because of taking the bridge deal and his comments to the media afterwards. There does seem to be a relationship between guys talkiing freely with the media and Mike not liking them, particularly young guys who might sound like they feel entitled to a roster spot.
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I mean, maybe.

But I think the simpler explanation is the most likely one here. From the start of camp and the start of the season, Kapanen & Johnsson were both given the same opportunity. Johnsson actually got a better opportunity, since he's gotten power-play time and Kapanen hasn't. But at five-on-five, both started on the fourth line centered by a guy who'd never played in the NHL before.

And in that role, Kapanen made things happen and looked so undeniably good that he forced his way up the lineup.

While Johnsson's just been kind of "blah" so far, and as a result hasn't earned a move up the lineup or a regular place on the team. And the fact that some vets---Connor Brown & Tyler Ennis mainly---have been worse than Johnsson and gotten more opportunity I think can be explained away by Babcock's whole "tie goes to the veteran" philosophy.
 
he's been pretty meh, but it's only mid October. I really had Johnsson as my dark horse this year to, well, do what Kapanen's doing at the moment.
 
I seem to recall that at every level he's played at Johnsson has struggled a bit in his first year to adjust. I know his first season with the Marlies was not nearly as strong as his second, pretty sure it was the same in Sweden.

He'll be fine. We're lucky that we can keep him down on the 4th line until he figures things out.
 
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