• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

The 2019-2020 MotherFucking Season Thread

People have a tendency to fall in love with players who throw a lot of hits and are always involved in the play yet don't have much of an on ice impact

Nurse is a prime example of a d-man people think the Leafs desperately need yet when you watch his game closely you realize he can't make a pass, makes bad decisions with the puck and always ends up taking dumb penalties

But he is a good skater, throws a ton of big hits and is always up in someones face so it tends to cover up the bad aspects of his game
 
I seem to recall plenty of line-ups with Hyman on the 4th line.

Good on the coach(es) and GM for believing in the guy.

Looking back, Hyman was the first move that Shanny/Dubas made after Nonis was fired (and before Lou was hired in 2015).
 
What is toughness in today's NHL? Who were the tough players on St. Louis? or Boston, Tampa, Washington?

To me Hyman is the new NHL truculent. Fighting is irrelevant. Hitting is basically irrelevant. All the guys that consistently blow players up, like Wilson, always get suspended. There are no Scott Stevens, or Gary Roberts anymore. There is no one who makes you think you have to keep your head up when they are on the ice. The players that do hit a lot, like Matt Martin or Reaves, just "finish their checks" which really means hit players after the puck is gone. They are always behind the play.

Its not hard to go to the net anymore. Most people would call Nylander and Aho soft, but they lead the league in net front goals this year. A guy like Pronger couldn't be Pronger today.

You still have the tough defensemen like Polak, Gudas etc, but they tend to not be very good.

There are a couple of guys hanging around that are good and mean, like Getzlaf, Weber, Chara, Benn. But that is a dying breed. The only players under 30 like that are the Tkachucks and maybe Trouba.

But a guy that is fast, works is ass off every shift and makes you fight for every inch of ice is new NHL tough.

IMO its the Crosby effect. He changed the game. He plays like Hyman in terms of the effort level and grinding, which influenced the next generation of stars to play like that, which erased any chance for the truculent players to keep up and play with them. The only chance they had was out competing the skilled players. But now the most competitive players in the NHL are guys like Crosby, Toews, Bergeron, Matthews, Marchand, Couturier, Stone, O'Rielly etc. and not players like Tucker or Clarkson.

I fail to see how players like Gallagher, Domi, Anderson, Kadri etc. are any tougher than what we have. The reality is the Leafs wouldn't have nearly as much possession time, and shots from in close if they didn't have the requisite toughness for today's NHL. They are one of the best teams in front of the net in the league in the ozone.

The only place I could see it lacking is on defense with the way our guys play in front of the net. You can't hack and chop anymore, but you can be harder competing for space, and on players sticks. But again, that kind of seems like a league wide problem.
 
leafman101 said:
What is toughness in today's NHL? Who were the tough players on St. Louis? or Boston, Tampa, Washington?

To me Hyman is the new NHL truculent. Fighting is irrelevant. Hitting is basically irrelevant. All the guys that consistently blow players up, like Wilson, always get suspended. There are no Scott Stevens, or Gary Roberts anymore. There is no one who makes you think you have to keep your head up when they are on the ice. The players that do hit a lot, like Matt Martin or Reaves, just "finish their checks" which really means hit players after the puck is gone. They are always behind the play.

Its not hard to go to the net anymore. Most people would call Nylander and Aho soft, but they lead the league in net front goals this year. A guy like Pronger couldn't be Pronger today.

You still have the tough defensemen like Polak, Gudas etc, but they tend to not be very good.

There are a couple of guys hanging around that are good and mean, like Getzlaf, Weber, Chara, Benn. But that is a dying breed. The only players under 30 like that are the Tkachucks and maybe Trouba.

But a guy that is fast, works is ass off every shift and makes you fight for every inch of ice is new NHL tough.

IMO its the Crosby effect. He changed the game. He plays like Hyman in terms of the effort level and grinding, which influenced the next generation of stars to play like that, which erased any chance for the truculent players to keep up and play with them. The only chance they had was out competing the skilled players. But now the most competitive players in the NHL are guys like Crosby, Toews, Bergeron, Matthews, Marchand, Couturier, Stone, O'Rielly etc. and not players like Tucker or Clarkson.

I fail to see how players like Gallagher, Domi, Anderson, Kadri etc. are any tougher than what we have. The reality is the Leafs wouldn't have nearly as much possession time, and shots from in close if they didn't have the requisite toughness for today's NHL. They are one of the best teams in front of the net in the league in the ozone.

The only place I could see it lacking is on defense with the way our guys play in front of the net. You can't hack and chop anymore, but you can be harder competing for space, and on players sticks. But again, that kind of seems like a league wide problem.
Click to expand...

giphy.gif
 
trujaysfan said:
You have the guys listed above but also guys like gallagher, domi, jenner, anderson etc.
Click to expand...

I guess my problem is that I really don't see guys like this as the type of player people think they want here. Gallagher is more of the competitive physical type of player that LM mentions in his post, same with Domi aside from the small detail that once or two a year Domi punches someone in the face. Both are small and scrappy, but aren't scaring anyone. They're similar to Kadri really, and I dug Naz a lot but aside from seeing the red mist every few weeks and throwing a blatant charge at someone, he wasn't really physical in the way that most people mean when talking about what the Leafs are missing. 27 yr old Uncle Leo? Yeah, I take that guy in a heartbeat, but 1) that guy struggles to make our top 9...as in, he doesn't 2) There aren't many guys out there like that, which is part of my point. Guys who throw high volumes of hard hits, but aren't completely useless hockey players are very, very rare in today's game. There's only a few guys throwing that type of volume right now. Ryan Reeves (can't play hockey), Tom Wilson (El Unicorn), Brady Tkachuk, Brandon Tanev (not much of a hockey player and being paid 3.5 million to be a bad hockey player) and Matt Martin (well...yeah). That's it, that's all.

Jenner and Anderson are ass. Both would be in damn tough just to make our top 12 when healthy.
 
Artnes said:
People have a tendency to fall in love with players who throw a lot of hits and are always involved in the play yet don't have much of an on ice impact

Nurse is a prime example of a d-man people think the Leafs desperately need yet when you watch his game closely you realize he can't make a pass, makes bad decisions with the puck and always ends up taking dumb penalties

But he is a good skater, throws a ton of big hits and is always up in someones face so it tends to cover up the bad aspects of his game
Click to expand...

Yeah, Nurse was a guy that was specifically mentioned by Toronto media earlier in the year but "they would have to give up Nylander" to get him. Nurse is shit. It's weird that most of these guys that are super physical key contributors are on bad teams.
 
Nurse cross checked Hyman three or four times viciously. Last time I watched us play Edmonton

NHL has cleaned up its act a ton, and I am grateful for it. But I want a penalty called on anyone, even someone from our own team, when I see a cross check.

That could screw up someones neck or back or both for life, its just a gutless play.

Zaitsev was painful to watch, he cross checked everyone. How he never got called for it, is another mystery of the NHL for me.
 
As much as I logically can see that toughness in the NHL has changed and for the better; I can't help but miss and feel nostalgic of the old NHL I fell in love with all the big hits and fights.

It just feels like the NHL is missing some of that to make the game that much more exciting. Maybe it comes back at some point but I doubt it.
 
I remember playing tennis in Florida all winter. And going out to watch jai lai and having some drinks, try to catch some tail etc...

Watching these guys do incredible, athletic stuff, and we were nonplussed. Heck, it seemed like a video game for us, to watch.

I can imagine, a lot of guys, watch the NHL nowadays and miss the "good" ole days when someone would cross check a guy in the teeth and you would see four teeth being picked up off the ice and a guy holding his mounth, as blood spewed out of it.

Me, personally, I hated that NHL.

I love seeing great athleticism, great plays, like Kapanen's last night.

Bullies are bullshit. And thankfully, we don't have many left.

I have fought bullies all my life. Thankless job, but I am glad to see schools separating age groups now. I mean duh, when I went to kindergarten, I remember fighting a guy in grade six, second day. How retarded is that? But it happened all the time.

Not happy about certain modern day things which I won't get into. But bullying? I think we have seen some progress there.

But I respect your opinion. All the same.
 
Just to give you a glimpse of the homerism that goes among other fan bases that we get labelled so badly for

 
leafman101 said:
Well according to Elliott Friedman Larsson or Dumba are worth an “elite center” or a “number 2 center and two first round picks.”

actually.
Click to expand...


The stupidity of this take rivals Dreger’s “Kapanen and/or Sandin might not be enough for Georgiev” argument.

It’s a shame, Friedman used to be one of the good ones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top