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The Motherfucking 2021 Season Thread

I can't believe Hutch has started so many games. We probably would have thought we'd miss the playoffs if we knew we'd have these kinds of injuries.
Leafs GA and defensive play is the most underrated thing in NHl this year.

The Leafs are an elite defensive team, full stop. We keep hearing how good the Oilers & Jets are offensively, and we keep shutting them down with a career backup and career #3 in net.

Over the last 5 weeks, we've played the Jets & Oilers 10 times and the only games we've given up more than 3 goals in...surprise, surprise, our "starter" was in net.

13 goals in Fred's 4 starts of those 10
8 goals in the other 6.

If Fred had just given us mediocre ass goaltending in his starts (let's say, .912...Hutch has a .915 ffs) that would take our 8th placed defence (2.49 GA/60) and bring it all the way up to 2nd, just behind Colorado.

Some of that would be goaltending driven, but so the fuck what. Colorado receives excellent goaltending and so do all of the top 5 defensive teams (Colorado, Vegas, Tampa, Islanders, Minnesota). Good goaltending is a feature of elite defensive teams, you don't get truly elite defence without better than average goaltending.
 
they're lower on the pecking order, but some tough luck with injuries for Joe and Simmonds.. both were looking good before they got hurt, and they've been ghosts lately that's got to be incredibly tough to handle for an older guy. and in Simmonds case, a guy who hadn't played a game in 10 months before he stepped on the ice for the Leafs.

depending on what happens at the deadline, the role for either could be scaled back and one of them might even be sitting out depending on how Galchenyuk finishes up the year.

One mild criticism I have of Keefe is that he's not resting these guys. Simmonds was off for weeks with the wrist injury so I get giving him a run of games to try to get him going, but Joe has been back from the rib injury for a long time now and would probably benefit from being treated his age. Spezza is awesome in his role but even he should draw out once in a while. It's not like we don't have a high skill kid who looks good in the AHL to give a look to either. Would be nice to know if Robertson can hack it before we hit the playoffs. One injury and he's probably who draws in, right? Why not give him some burn while resting the old boys down the stretch?
 
yeah Robertson has been hurt a couple times, but with his skillset and playstyle I really thought he would make an impact this season. same with Lehtonen. guess I was wrong on both counts.

Maybe it has to be next year for Nicky Bobby, with Thornton most likely done you'd think and Simmonds a major question mark to bring back.

I would rather see the kid in there now, but the team needed veterans/leadership to get over a playoff hump, so I get it.
 
One mild criticism I have of Keefe is that he's not resting these guys. Simmonds was off for weeks with the wrist injury so I get giving him a run of games to try to get him going, but Joe has been back from the rib injury for a long time now and would probably benefit from being treated his age. Spezza is awesome in his role but even he should draw out once in a while. It's not like we don't have a high skill kid who looks good in the AHL to give a look to either. Would be nice to know if Robertson can hack it before we hit the playoffs. One injury and he's probably who draws in, right? Why not give him some burn while resting the old boys down the stretch?


I think Dubas & Pridham’s cap machinations leading up to the deadline, a lack of waiver-exempt players at the bottom of the lineup and the need to carry less than a full roster all severely limit Keefe ability to do any kind of “load management” for the likes of Spezza, Thornton or Simmonds.
 
One mild criticism I have of Keefe is that he's not resting these guys. Simmonds was off for weeks with the wrist injury so I get giving him a run of games to try to get him going, but Joe has been back from the rib injury for a long time now and would probably benefit from being treated his age. Spezza is awesome in his role but even he should draw out once in a while. It's not like we don't have a high skill kid who looks good in the AHL to give a look to either. Would be nice to know if Robertson can hack it before we hit the playoffs. One injury and he's probably who draws in, right? Why not give him some burn while resting the old boys down the stretch?

Won't see resting til after the deadline when capspace no longer matters.
 
5v5

#5 gf% (#9 gf60, #7 ga60)
#4 xgf% (#3 xgf60, #8 xga60)

Even Strength

#4 gf% (#4 gf60, #7 ga60)
#4 xgf% (#2 xgf60, #8 xga60)

Power Play

#4 gf60
#1 xgf60

Penalty Kill

#18 ga60
#9 xga60


All Situations

#4 gf% (#5 gf60, #9 ga60)
#2 xgf% (#2 xgf60, #9 xga60)
 
But what's the problem with him? If it's one chronic thing, then presumably he'll get over that and we'll see what he can do with the workload.

If it's a series of health problems, then he's probably not durable enough.
 
A 1st and a prospect for a fringe 3rd liner just because he was drafted high.

We shall refer to this as the Bennett Syndrome.
 
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