The coach hates Skinner and refuses to play him with Eichel or on powerplay 1.

Every other forward has played with Eichel this year, except Skinner. Its so damn odd.


So its going well.
- ImThatGuy

Said it in the Sabres thread. I think Krueger hates Skinner for the same reasons Brind'amour hated Skinner.

"Which is the way he wants it! Well he gets it!"

But agreed. Team defence has been the issue for years.
- Fakepartofme

1st year D, how may do we have?

It’s like we have Ferrari’s up front and a couple Pinto’s - a Tonka truck and a Tacoma on D 🤷🏻‍♂️

He went from strong prospect having an off year to AHL lifer very quickly.
- AdamFrench

Weird, same thing just happened to Mason Marchment

Weird, same thing just happened to Mason Marchment
- senstroll

BOS' defense is excellent and, when you do manage a shot, you're often trying to get past Rask.

👉saved almost 18 goals more than expected based on the quality of shots faced

👉worth 5.7 wins above expectation for a full season

i hate Boston

Said it in the Sabres thread. I think Krueger hates Skinner for the same reasons Brind'amour hated Skinner.
- BINGO!

They hate baby faced cuties who figure skate?

He went from strong prospect having an off year to AHL lifer very quickly.
- AdamFrench

their 2nd assessment was probably more on point, they were severely over valuing him if they said he was a strong prospect.

the guy is already 24, and was a fairly regular healthy scratch in Belleville. He has the potential to maybe become an NHLer, but average 4th liner is probably his ceiling. every calling him a strong prospect was sheer homerism on their part. I'm not even sure he would have cracked the top 15-20 prospects in Ottawa's system

this is an AHL deal, nothing more.

Trade Tyson Barrie, please.

One of my very first comments about the whole Corsi rage

Goaltending >>>> Corsi

Seems like the more I pay attention to Advanced stats based on shot metrics, the more true that statement becomes.
- Aetherial

Yep, it’s ok to peek at it. But in the end the coaches watch the tape and know what’s what for the most part.

They hate baby faced cuties who figure skate?
- AdamFrench

Trade Tyson Barrie, please.
- Steven_Seagull

Trade Dubas

Trade Tyson Barrie, please.
- Steven_Seagull

we'll give you Reilly for him, then you can have a rielly/reilly pairing

Try the Goat on the wing and tell him to lean on people should be fast enough there and move Clifford with Marner and Tavares, don't care where Nylander plays there are other teams

we'll give you Reilly for him, then you can have a rielly/reilly pairing
- sensarmy_11

Better than letting him walk for nothing...

their 2nd assessment was probably more on point, they were severely over valuing him if they said he was a strong prospect.

the guy is already 24, and was a fairly regular healthy scratch in Belleville. He has the potential to maybe become an NHLer, but average 4th liner is probably his ceiling. every calling him a strong prospect was sheer homerism on their part. I'm not even sure he would have cracked the top 15-20 prospects in Ottawa's system

this is an AHL deal, nothing more.
- sensarmy_11

Exactly.

Dubas needs to be held accountable for how he built this team, from the massive contracts he gave (which has really handcuffed him--by his own doing), to trying to build a team, purely off of skill.....to not really addressing the defensive needs. Not to mention, failing to address his back-up goalie issues, until now...pissing away a lot of points

I am sorry to say, but Kyle Dubas is NOT the right guy for the GM job here in Toronto

Better than letting him walk for nothing...
- Steven_Seagull

Dubas is really backed into a corner with him....

you can't trade him if you're still fighting for a playoff spot, but at the same time you gave up kadri for him, so really sucks to let him walk for nothing.

has he really been that bad (haven't seen enough leaf games to judge)......he's on pace for about 45pts, which is good for a 2nd pairing guy.

Dubas needs to be held accountable for how he built this team, from the massive contracts he gave (which has really handcuffed him--by his own doing), to trying to build a team, purely off of skill.....to not really addressing the defensive needs. Not to mention, failing to address his back-up goalie issues, until now...pissing away a lot of points

I am sorry to say, but Kyle Dubas is NOT the right guy for the GM job here in Toronto
- Sandro

cool, I’m glad idiots like you have no real say in the matter

They hate baby faced cuties who figure skate?
- AdamFrench

Brind'amour didn't like that Jeff had so much handed to him so early. Thought that it resulted in him never really "buying in" to play as part of a system. When the goals aren't coming he doesn't really do anything else out there for you, mostly because he refuses to.

Dubas is really backed into a corner with him....

you can't trade him if you're still fighting for a playoff spot, but at the same time you gave up kadri for him, so really sucks to let him walk for nothing.

has he really been that bad (haven't seen enough leaf games to judge)......he's on pace for about 45pts, which is good for a 2nd pairing guy.
- sensarmy_11

Yes you can. St. Louis did it with Shattenkirk.

Deal Freddie.

Weird, same thing just happened to Mason Marchment
- senstroll

Except Marchmant will probably be on Florida's second line.

Somewhat.
Good D can make an average goalie look good.
Horrible D can make a good goalie look bad.
Horrible D and a goalie not playing as well as he good, can make a great goalie look really bad.

The team doesnt go anywhere until they clean up the mess in their own end. Bring in Brodeur, Hasek or Roy in their prime and they wont do as well behind this garbage team D.
- Fakepartofme

The "this team needs to learn D" narrative is kind of tiring to be honest. It's like saying, "this team needs to be better at hockey". Well no poop.

This team hasn't been good at D for as long as I can remember (and no, Sundin's teams weren't particularly good at D; maybe Dougie days, but my memory is fading there).

Two things are different this year over last few years, years where we were locks to make the playoffs (I don't really buy "contenders": if you're in the playoffs, you can do damage; it's that simple):

1. Goaltending has been bad.
2. We've had more injuries than we've ever had since the Matthews era.

I don't even really consider this a Babcock vs. Keefe thing either, although I did like how they were playing the first 20 odd games under Keefe.

Other than that, this team is full of inconsistent young players. Hell, our D corps has been basically rookies with Holl, Sandin, Liljegren, and to some degree, Dermott, who hasn't even played two full seasons yet.

The rest of the team needs to learn hard lessons and there is no shortcut to doing so.

Play the games, the sky isn't falling, stay the course and don't make any stupid moves.

Yes you can. St. Louis did it with Shattenkirk.
- Steven_Seagull

sure, but when STl traded him they still had Pietrangelo, Bouwmeester, and Parayko...........that's 3 guys who were, at the time, better than the leafs best dman this year (considering that Rielly's been having a rough year).

even without Shattenkirk, the Blues had a GREAT top 4......even with Barrie, the leafs top 4 isn't that strong, trading him (without replacing him) would make it significantly worse. Sandin and Lillejgren (sp?) will be great, but probably not ready to be top 4 guys on a playoff team yet.

I think trading barrie essentially means throwing in the towel on the season....without subsequent moves to bolster the top 4

Trade Tyson Barrie, please.
- Steven_Seagull

Timmins 👍