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Preseason GDT #7 - babcock surprises me

so good to see the points come for Leivo. he's deserved to get more production this camp.
 
Tavares/Marner/Kapanen ~78% (what about hyman!?!?!!?)
Kadri/Leivo/Brown ~63%
Matthews/Marleau/Ennis ~40%
Lindholm/Johnsson/Goat ~35%

Dermott/Ozzy ~60%
Jake/Zaits ~55%
Mo/Ron ~50%
 
Leivo looks great! Matthews will be fine, I would swap Ennis with someone else until Willy is back
 
Marleau - Matthews - Nylander
Kapanen - Tavares - Marner
Hyman - Kadri - Leivo
Johnsson - Lindholm - Brown
 
Another stellar display of getting the puck out of his zone by Rielly. He's been pretty poor this preseason.
 
Takeaways:

- Josh Leivo picked a hell of a time to have a great game.
- Lindholm has looked like a NHL level player two games in a row now
- The Goat is bad at hockey
- Hainsey looks a lot more like 2nd half Hainsey than 1st half Hainsey.
- It will be national news every time our powerplay doesn't score a goal. Every time.
- How many times have we noticed that we're missing Nylander? I've counted none so far the last few games. I'm not saying Ennis is a substitute, but still.
- Same thing for Hyman. Haven't even noticed him gone.
- Dermott-Ozzy looks like it's going to be a thing, and it's easily the best 3rd pairing we've had in a long time.
- The usuals are all sick, sick hockey players.
 
that whole sequence by AM was just crazy.

AM - JT are going to win 3-4 cups here if the goaltending holds up.
 
In case there were any lingering doubts, Gauthier is not an NHLer.

Great to see Leivo step up in his most important game to make the lineup. I've heard Babcock say that's really important. Let's see if he sticks.

They really need to do something about that Rielly-Hainsey pairing. If they get top minutes, there's still gonna be a boatload of chances against.

That said, the team will be better defensively for sure. Demott-Oz is going to be very good (a huge improvement over anything involving Roman). And they've upgraded the defensive play on the forward lines as well. Tavares is a big improvement over Bozak in this regard and a full season of Johnsson and Kapanen over JVR/Leo is also going to be a step up defensively. Ennis seems to know his way around the NZ and DZ as well.
 
Random thoughts:

  • There were a lot of times watching these guys on the power-play where it honestly just made me laugh. They're going to score a hell of a lot of goals this year.

  • Another great game that Leivo. Hopefully that solidifies his spot in the lineup to start the year, even if Nylander does magically re-appear before then.

  • And yeah, my advice to Nylander is that he's probably going to want to sign soon. If there's a deal on the table that at all resembles 6 years/$40M, just take it. If this team starts the season scoring bucket-loads of goals, and it looks like they very well might, he'll be losing leverage at the same time he's forfeiting pro-rated salary.

  • If there's a cliff somewhere in Patrick Marleau's future, he hasn't reached it yet. He's been looking good again this pre-season.

  • Our top-6 on defense is set. Ozhiganov appears like he might be exactly the kind of big, steady, low-event player Babcock wants for his third pair. And it's been pretty obvious this camp that Calle Rosen isn't in the same universe as Travis Dermott. I'm pretty sure Justin Holl will be one of the top-7 as well.

  • If they carry eight defensemen, I'm not sure who #8 will be. Rosen had the inside track, but he's been horseshit the past couple of games. He's also waiver-exempt.

  • Kapanen looked great during his opportunity to play with Tavares and Marner tonight. I hope somehow Babcock finds him a spot in his top-9.

  • Five years after becoming the living embodiment of Dave Nonis's timid draft strategy, and after three seasons in the AHL and three separate stints in the NHL, it's clear The Goat isn't an NHL player. I doubt he's going anywhere, because I don't think he'd be picked up on waivers, but I can't see him making the team.
 
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