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No Excuses No Limits! The mother fucking goddamn season thread

also the leafs have been maybe the most injured team in hockey this year considering the impact level of the injured players.

iirc the leafs were mostly healthy when they swandived under babs. I think maybe Hyman was injured but not much else.
 
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Definitely not pretty at the moment.

Things that need to happen or else we're in trouble:

1. Matthews has to get back to his usual dominance. Injury has been killer here but last night was a good step forward for him, despite missing 4 breakaways, because getting 5 breakaways is good.

2. McCabe has to get healthy pronto. He's our best D and plays the biggest and toughest minutes. Defense starts looking pretty sketch pretty quickly. (And if Benoit/Hakanpaa/Myers continue to suck then the Lilly decision looks hilaribad.)

3. The forward depth has to get healthy. Patches and Domi are finally back which is good, and hopefully McMann soon. Then we can see if a Minten or Holmberg can hold down that 3C spot with actual top-9 caliber linemates (and 2 legit very good lines ahead of them).

4. Reaves has to sit. I am still pretty sure that he does once we're healthy but yeah i'm beginning to worry a bit there now too. But playing him on the 4th line over a badly struggling Robby isn't the final word there for me yet. But if he plays on that 4th line instead of a guy who actually fits a defensive checking and pk role with speed and youth like a holmberg or dewar then we'll really have to worry cuz that means he'll never come out.
 
Lilly's 3 goals give him 3 goals more than McCabe, Benoit, Myers, and Cockinpaw combined.

Also ties him with OEL, Tanev, and Timmins - combined.

And has him only 1 goal behind Rielly.

It's already hilaribad.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
Lilly's 3 goals give him 3 goals more than McCabe, Benoit, Myers, and Cockinpaw combined.

Also ties him with OEL, Tanev, and Timmins - combined.

And has him only 1 goal behind Rielly.

It's already hilaribad.
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Also good nerdies considering his usage on a bad team. He's leading SJ in defensive zone starts by a fair bit, and is 2nd among their defenders in xG% since he got there.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
But he was "unplayable" as a Leaf. Go figure.
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I've already come to grips with the reality that we're going to move Robbie for nothing to a team who doesn't believe rush offence is a myth, and he's going to score 25+ for them every year.

We've decided as an organization that the way to win is to be big, physical, slow, and old. We don't do speed, rush offence, or puck possession anymore. We have 3-4 guys total who even attempt to gain the offensive zone with puck possession anymore. It's fucking gruesome to watch and isn't producing the results that we need if we're going to win in the playoffs.
 
It's kind of funny using the Line Combos Tools because you realize just how bad we've been ravaged by injuries.

There have been 104 line combos in hockey that have played over 76 minutes together this year and the Leafs only have one of them. We've got an unless list of lines that have played between 10-40 minutes with each other. Just nothing set at all.

The silver lining is that the numbers still look good for the most regular combos:

L1 Knies-Matthews-Marner: 153min, 58.4xgf%, 58.1gf%
L2 Patches-Tavares-Nylander: 75min, 64.2xgf%, 64.9gf%
L3
L4 Lorentz-Kampf-Reaves: 76min, 51.9xgf%, 49.3gf%

Those are the three most used combos and the first two should probably continue. The 4th line combo was actually fine for a 4th line but i'm pretty sure we could easily upgrade that with a Holmberg or Dewar instead of Reaves.

So that's still promising.

Line 3 is obviously a big issue because all of Domi, Holmberg, and Robertson have failed so far. At least McMann was pretty good (at least after a very slow start). Minten has also shown good stuff though his impact numbers aren't pretty so far.

The only way Robby gets back in to a healthy lineup again imo is if Domi plays C, and I'm not sure that'll happen. Here's Domi at C lines so faar:

McMann-Domi-Nylander: 52min, 37.0xgf%, 70.3gf%
Knies-Domi-Marner: 38min, 35.9xgf%, 0.0gf%
Knies-Domi-Nylander: 25min, 53.1xgf%, 39.5gf%
McMann-Domi-Robertson: 23min, 45.3xgf%, 50.0gf%

Actually kind of funny that the only line that's decent there in both xgf and gf is the combo with McMann and Robertson on the wings and without any of the guys currently in our top-6. Maybe coach should try that 3rd line again.

Of course Domi on the wing lines look better:

Domi-Tavares-Nylander: 21min, 63.5xgf%, 100.0gf%
McMann-Holmberg-Domi: 20min, 61.2xgf%, 50.0gf%

Though wait a sec - Domi might have been the C on that last line not Holmberg. Not sure. I seem to remember gameday lines putting Domi at C here but that wouldn't really make sense given that holmberg is better defensively at C. but i'm not sure.

Though now that I look at it it's funny that both combos that don't use any of the current top-2 line forwards look pretty ok actually:

McMann-Domi-Robertson: 23min, 45.3xgf%, 50.0gf%
McMann-Holmberg-Domi: 20min, 61.2xgf%, 50.0gf%

And I bet sticking Minten in between McMann and Domi would work pretty well too. Last night is the first game Domi and Minten played together and they stuck together all night and somehow posted a 74.1xgf% in a game we got walloped in xG.
 
I mean, Lilly certainly hurt himself with his late season wilting the past couple years, but also tough to argue that the team didn't dick him around to an extent, too.

Him sorting his shit out on another team is not a good look for us, though
 
frees up one spot - so one of McMann McCabe or Hak is ready to go at least.

and if it's more than one ready to go then they can just send down Rifai.
 
Wayward DP said:
dunno that he gets claimed, but I guess we'll see
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OilChange seems to be claiming anything that has a heartbeat these days.

And if Willy’s bro is to be believed, there were multiple teams that offered him an NHL contract in the off-season.
 
The move for me at the time was to trade Mo and hope Ras becomes an adequate replacement in the top 4 at a cheaper aav. Not sure if that was the right play but at least it would have been fun and creative. This roster building has been dull as fuck. The Alex Kerfoot/Calle Jarnkrok of management.
 
They could have yeah but I thought it was an interesting way to dump a guy that you're paying big bucks to till he's 36 in favor of someone younger with some upside + cash. Of course it would depend on what they'd do elsewhere with the bit of cap savings.

And with McCabe and Reilly on the left side in the top 4, there wasn't really a spot for Raz unless they traded Mo.
 
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