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Leaf Rumours

I just don't get the hatred vs Wilson ... actually I do ... he's a dick in front of the camera and the TO media hates him. But if you look at the facts - for the first time when he gets average goaltending, his team is doing pretty well in defense and PK, the 2 areas the coach has control over.

We know it's Burke's idea and not Wilson's to go with this top 6 + bottom 6. We know Wilson's fighting hard to go back to 3 offensive lines, and that's why he's sending Zigo back down, may not take long for Brent to go down neither. If I have to take a guess, I'd say Kadri continue to average 1 PPG on this ridiculous 11 games road trip and he's called up when he returns to TO in a couple weeks.

Everything Wilson has control over as a coach, he's making the right calls and getting the result this season. You can't blame him for Bozak's 1G or Versteeg's 1G or Kulemin's 1G ... and I don't believe these guys will produce on such a pathetic pace the rest of the way neither.

The fact is, you look at our top 6, and I don't think any coach can get much more out of this group especially when they're off to a slow start.
 
He makes terrible line decisions at critical times. You made some good points, but do not forget him trotting out guys who can't score at critical times. That is a punch to the stomach to every guy who can score on the bench.
 
I hate Wilson too, but at least he's moving guys around instead of being the stubborn tool he was last year. Now if we can only get him to play Gus a bit more.
 
Well, I dunno about that teeds. As much as I didn't want to see the Mitchells and Brents on the ice in dying minutes of a 0-2 game, the fact is you can only play your top 2 lines that much. Plus, if they aren't scoring, then you might as well give you other lines a try right? I mean, Orr did score the winning goal in the W over the Panthers.

At the end of the day, while it's somewhat questionable who Wilson puts on the ice in critical times of the game, he only has so many options with this roster. Hey if he can put Kessel on the ice for the entire 3rd period, I'm sure he would too ...
 
The Leafs may have only 23 GF(tied with Phoenix, Nashville, and Columbus), but they also have 23 goals against, which is 7th best in the league. If we can maintain the defensive situation, we'll get our fair share of wins...even if they are the 3-1(with EN goal) variety.
 
Burke's idea of team building has always been built from the net out. And looking at our GAA, and also the way we play, I'd say he's got solid (though not spectacular ... not yet anyways) goaltending, and a defense that is mobile and effective. The team's by no means a finished product and Burke's still got a lot of work to do up front, but at least I can be happy with what he did in goal and in net thus far.

You know Versteeg, Bozak, Kulemin and Grabs can and will produce better than this, it's just a matter of time before they start scoring. Still, even when they do, we'll have an average minus offense. And I believe that's what we'll have to live with, for most of this season ... at least until the trade deadline.
 
BTW, I love reading articles where reporters from Western parts of the country tell us that Leafs fans are turning on Phaneuf already....Eric Francis with another gem.
 
Spector had a blog about asking calgarians about Phaneuf's short comings.

Mike Ulmer actually wrote an interesting piece countering. Basically taking all of the comments made by others and actually looking at the facts behind them.

The greatest leader of the anti phaneuf parade is the senile bill watters
 
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axlsalinger said:
It's a bit silly to talk about these 4 players getting "regular" shifts, when 2 of them were on the 4th line (Zigo and Brown) all year, and one has already been sent to the AHL without protest. The other 2 are debatable whether they're 3rd or 4th line guys, I don't disagree that Sjostrom is a complete black hole offensively, although his work on the PK does serve a purpose and as Mbow pointed out recently, there's really no room for him on the 4th line at the moment.
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I don't think it's silly in the least.

These are all guys who should be fighting for the last 1 or 2 spots on an NHL roster. The fact that we've decided to make FOUR of them LOCKS for our roster is pretty close to insane, IMO.

My point is simply that people who are worried about goal scoring should worry less about blaming Tim Brent and Freddie Sjostrom, and more about blaming Kris Versteeg (1 goal), Tyler Bozak (1 goal), Nik Kulemin (1 goal) and Mikhail Grabovski (0 goals).
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Those guys deserve some blame, for sure, but not that much - they're not first line quality players. They're guys who should be expected to come in around 15-25 goals. That means 2-3 goals every 10 games on AVERAGE (2gls/10gms = 16gl pace, 3gls/10gms = 24gl pace), which likely means some 1 goal 10-game segments, and some 4-5 goal segments.

I won't criticize them too much, just like I won't praise MacArthur too much for having a hot streak early. MacArthur will also have his 1 goal in 10 game stretches this year, and that's expected for a player of his calibre.

I can't critize them too much because overall, the "top-6" we decided to make our only scoring options have overall produced about as much as we could reasonably expect. Take 2-3 goals away from Kessel and Macarthur, and spread them around the rest of the top-6, and you'd have all 6 of them producing at an expected level.
 
hockeylover said:
There's people who saw it coming that this group of guys would go through dry spells and thought it'd be nice to have three scoring lines instead of two right off the bat.
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I get that, but we are nowhere close to being able to dress 2 good scoring lines. What makes people think we can dress 3?
 
zeke said:
I don't think it's silly in the least.

These are all guys who should be fighting for the last 1 or 2 spots on an NHL roster. The fact that we've decided to make FOUR of them LOCKS for our roster is pretty close to insane, IMO.
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I'm still confused why you are criticizing the Leafs for making Zigomanis a "LOCK" on the roster, when he is currently on the Toronto Marlies. I would also agree that Brown and Sjostrom shouldn't be "LOCKS" on the roster, but be honest. Who exactly is banging down the door to replace them here?

And don't say Mitchy.

That means 2-3 goals every 10 games on AVERAGE
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Aside from Kessel and MacArthur, the only guys to achieve this are Tim Brent and Colton Orr.
 
axlsalinger said:
I get that, but we are nowhere close to being able to dress 2 good scoring lines. What makes people think we can dress 3?
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I really don't know how to explain this without repeating what I've said on the subject for the millionth time. It's basically the lineup that Ron Wilson tried first coming into training camp. And something that they appear to be trying again now with Versteeg down there.
 
the fact that they can't even put together 2 good scoring lines is exactly why they need a third line that can at least produce a few goals here and there.
 
axlsalinger said:
I'm still confused why you are criticizing the Leafs for making Zigomanis a "LOCK" on the roster, when he is currently on the Toronto Marlies. I would also agree that Brown and Sjostrom shouldn't be "LOCKS" on the roster, but be honest. Who exactly is banging down the door to replace them here?
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Why are you confused?

I criticized them for starting the year with Ziggy, and praised them for waiving Ziggy.

Just like I am praising them for sticking Caputi and Hanson back in, and will continue to praise them for moving Hanson up the lineup as well, and moving Sjostrom and Brent down.

But I will continue to criticize them for starting the year with such a bad roster selection in the first place.


2 of Caputi, Hanson, or Kadri should have been in our top-9 from the start. Not Brent and Sjostrom.
 
The Leafs ****ed up the whole Kadri situation. He should have started the season with the team when there was little to no pressure on him and the team. If he showed he wasn't ready for the NHL, they could have easily sent him down for some seasoning.

Now, they can't even call him up given the Leafs performance lately. Idiot fans and media would act like he was a saviour -- and if he had a bad game or two, like all rookies do, everyone would panic.

They've created a situation where they have one of the best offensive prospects in hockey, and they can't even use him.
 
that's a load of bull.

They can use them in the Marlies and use him when he's ready for NHL action. They have created no situation whatsoever. Do you really think Burke bases his decisions on what media/fans think about what's good for the Leafs?
 
Can we beat up the deadhorse even more? Sure we can.

“I didn’t want to be cut,” the player said. “But it made me a better person and a better player.”

At first glance, you might figure that those words might have come from Maple Leafs prospect Nazem Kadri, who remains the cause celebre among both members of the media and of Leafs Nation these days.

They might have. But they didn’t.

No, the author of that statement was none other than Jason Spezza, whose Ottawa Senators meet the struggling Kadri-less Leafs At the Air Canada Centre Tuesday in yet another instalment of the Battle of Ontario.

As Spezza and the Senators arrived in Toronto Monday, they walked right into a market where the most heated debate around town revolves around why the goal-starved Leafs have not called up the talented Kadri from the farm, opting to go for more experienced prospects like Luca Caputi and Christian Hanson.

Even the always outspoken Don Cherry got into the act Saturday, telling a national television audience that he could not figure out the Leafs’ decision to leave Kadri on the farm when, in the opinion of Grapes, he is ready for the NHL right now.

Spezza, 27, has heard those words before.

Like Kadri, he was a highly-coveted prospect coming out of junior, eventually selected second overall by the Ottawa Senators in the 2001 entry draft.

Like Kadri, he harboured hopes of making the parent club as an 18-year-old, only to be returned to his junior team for one more year.

And, like Kadri, he came to training camp the following season with high hopes, only to subsequently deal with the frustration of being sent down to the farm.

Of course, when then-Sens coach Jacques Martin carried out the task of relegating Spezza to the team’s AHL Binghamton farm club, Cherry lit into Ottawa management for not giving the Mississauga native the proper chance.

...

As for Spezza, he certainly wasn’t happy when Martin gave him his walking papers to the farm in 2002-03. While he played more games for Binghamton (43) than for the Sens (33) that season, debate raged in the nation’s capital asking if the Sens were doing the right thing in their handling of Spezza, much like the argument going on involving Kadri right now.

As Spezza said afterward, the experience made him “a better person and a better player.” So much so, in fact, he made the decision to return to Binghamton to play during the 2004-05 lockout, going on to win the Les Cunningham Award as the AHL’s most valuable player after racking up 117 points.

In the meantime, Spezza can probably relate to what Kadri is going through.
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So here's another guy who, at the time, everybody but Martin thought was ready for the NHL, and he had to wait till his THIRD NHL training camp to crack the team.

And he looks back and said positively of the whole AHL experience, said it made him a better person and a better player.

So that's another player you can add to the list who thinks the AHL experience is a needed block for young player development. And Spezza is not soem mid-range talent neither. Spezza was as elite as it got.

I know a lot of fans have complained about the whole Kadri situation. That said, I've yet to hear 1 single person who's actually related with the NHL - players, ex-players, coaches, scouts, GM - who doesn't think the AHL experience is only going to help Kadri develop as a mature hockey player.

No one but Cherry I guess.

So I feel even more confident Burke's doing the right thing. :)
 
Nobody has said that playing in the AHL will hurt him.

The Leafs are only delaying his NHL learning curve and hurting themselves by playing inferior players over him.
 
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