54 Game Mark, The Second Period of the Season is Over.
DEFENSE
During the second period of the season, this defense has gone from bad to worse. Individually, I feel that certain players have taken some positive strides, however, the coaching strategy and players being asked to fill the roles are so wrong for the team, it makes it increasingly difficult for success, and the results in the last 27 games speak to that.
Kubina continues to be the best defensemen on this team at both ends of the ice, he lost a step since returning from that knee injury, but over the last month or so, while playing consistent minutes with Tomas Kaberle, we have seen how valuable this giant in the back is, and why he was an instrumental piece to the Tampa Bay Stanley Cup run. A lot has been made of his 5 million per year, but when compared to his peers around the league, there are no better bigger defensemen, more experienced, with a ring, have an ability to be both a powerplay and penalty kill specialist in the entire league.
6 million Blake
5.5 million Hamrlik
5.4 million Souray
5.26 million Schneider
4.85 million Johnsson
Kaberle has been good, but not his usual great, my initial theory was based on bulk, but after focusing on his game for another 27 games, I have to put the blame on over coaching. Throughout this season, I have noticed Kaberle be continuously caught out of position while pushing up on a rush. I have never seen this before, and can only attribute it to Maurice wanting Kaberle to push up more and be more involved in the offence. A talent as great a Kaberle, both skill and brains does not need a coach telling him how or where to play. Throughout his entire career, he reads the play and reacts accordingly, only players of such great skill can garner success this way, which is why I am attributing his struggles this season to the fact that he has been told to do otherwise.
Hal Gill has seen his production and performance drop during this second period of the season. After half a season of attempting to play a shutdown role with Ian White as his partner, in the last few weeks Anton Stralman has taken up this position. During this time, Stralmen has struggled with some of the same mistakes that have plagued White; defending the blueline on a rush, as well as his down low coverage, the only difference is that White has had close to two years to figure it out, while Stralmen is nearing two months as an NHL pro. As absurd as using White in a shutdown role is, another significant factor in Gill`s demise has been the constant shuffle between White and Stralmen. Two offensive minded Dman in the role is counterproductive, however, Stralmen is a much better skater, has better hands and has a longer reach to White, to therefore make him more effectively defensively. Back to my point, the continual flip flopping of these two does effect the continuity and comfort level of Gill. Being a methodical intelligent defensemen, who because of a lack of speed plays on angles more then most D do, constantly changing his partner, and these changes occur mid-game, it will dramatically effect his game and angles negatively.
I have seen improvements to Ian White game, but nowhere near the level that would make him competitive this or next season. He has used his body more, but he is consistently out of position, and that limits what he can do physically and more importantly defensively. His down low coverage is very poor, and he is caught chasing forwards around the ice with little impact. Playing him 20 minuets a game will do wonders in improving his overall game, but it is not worth throwing away an entire season for the rest of the team. Ultimately, with White on, this means that for a period a game, this team has to take extra precautions defensively; I will speak more on this later. Let us not forget that with White being so close to the 180 game mark, once over it, it will make him available to the rest of the league if indeed he is put on waivers. I will never understand with the players the Leafs have, the struggles they have defensively, why White was given the free ride he got, while players like Belak, Kronwall, Harrison, and Walsner were never given an opportunity.
15 31
25 8
3 36
FROWARDS
Throughout the second period of the season, much has been made about the improvements to the defensive side of the puck. That said, the improvements defensively had come at the expense of goals for. With the forwards having to overcompensate for the pinching defensemen, or the D who cannot play D, the forwards found themselves too deep in their own end, ultimately slowing down the speed of a rush the other way, and keeping them far away from effective offensive positions on the ice.
Injuries, especially in the last few weeks have been a factor, but as a result we have finally seen the likes of a Robbie Earl, and more of Juri Tlusty, as Maurice now has given him a spot on the top line. Tlusty has had 2 goals in 3 games up there, a spot that I felt he should have been playing since he was first called up. Don Cherry dropped the name Jeremy Williams, here is a guy that will make this team next year, with 2 goals in 2 NHL career games, Williams hasn’t yet cracked this lineup, but he is close. Earl was outstanding in his first NHL game versus a depleted Ottawa lineup, he was strong, fast, intelligent and worked tremendously hard each shift. Earl has even more to offer with a great shot and nose for the net, I will be looking forward to his development as the season progresses.
Even with the injuries I still don’t agree with limiting the 4th line to fewer than 4 minuets a game. It is embarrassing to the players involved as well as too the rest of the team who has to face their peers day in day out. Matt Stajan, here is a guy that I doubted at the start of the season http://leafstown.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html. After his season last year, I knew he had improvements that needed to be made; the good news is that he has improved tremendously, more so then I would have ever guessed. Credit has to be given to Stajan for persevering after a terribly disappointing season, we should also acknowledge what Doug Gilmour has done, it was reported that Gilmour worked with Stajan over the off-season in an attempt to sure up some of his deficiencies. He had struggled with face-offs, while his overall percentage hasn’t improved that much, during the second period of the season he has had a much improved percentage, while taking many more draws. Currently playing a second line role very competently, Stajan should remain as a third line shutdown artist; this is where he excels and where he can contribute the most to a team, he proved it earlier in the season playing with Steen and Deveraux.
Blake is not doing anything different then he had been doing throughout the season, but he is finally getting good press due to the fact that the puck is going into the net. As for the rest of the forwards, playing a system that sees them as the fault to the down low defence problems, limits their ability to be effective offensively, and has ripped away any confidence to work through mistakes that are bound to occur playing for an inept coach.
11 13 16
42 80 55
22 14 18
26 19 54
GOALTENDING
Well, during this segment of the season, we seen Maurice overuse his number 1 goalie, and in this case a goalie with a history of groin issues was overused to the point of injury. From the 27th of November to the 22nd of December, 12 consecutive starts, some in back to back fashion, Maurice injured Toskala. At the conclusion of this stretch, Maurice was forced to go with a rusty Raycroft to pick up the pieces, a keeper that had zero confidence in himself and his coach. Obviously Raycroft was in no position to take the reigns, and it showcases another incompetent decision by the head coach.
35
1
During the second period of the season, this defense has gone from bad to worse. Individually, I feel that certain players have taken some positive strides, however, the coaching strategy and players being asked to fill the roles are so wrong for the team, it makes it increasingly difficult for success, and the results in the last 27 games speak to that.
Kubina continues to be the best defensemen on this team at both ends of the ice, he lost a step since returning from that knee injury, but over the last month or so, while playing consistent minutes with Tomas Kaberle, we have seen how valuable this giant in the back is, and why he was an instrumental piece to the Tampa Bay Stanley Cup run. A lot has been made of his 5 million per year, but when compared to his peers around the league, there are no better bigger defensemen, more experienced, with a ring, have an ability to be both a powerplay and penalty kill specialist in the entire league.
6 million Blake
5.5 million Hamrlik
5.4 million Souray
5.26 million Schneider
4.85 million Johnsson
Kaberle has been good, but not his usual great, my initial theory was based on bulk, but after focusing on his game for another 27 games, I have to put the blame on over coaching. Throughout this season, I have noticed Kaberle be continuously caught out of position while pushing up on a rush. I have never seen this before, and can only attribute it to Maurice wanting Kaberle to push up more and be more involved in the offence. A talent as great a Kaberle, both skill and brains does not need a coach telling him how or where to play. Throughout his entire career, he reads the play and reacts accordingly, only players of such great skill can garner success this way, which is why I am attributing his struggles this season to the fact that he has been told to do otherwise.
Hal Gill has seen his production and performance drop during this second period of the season. After half a season of attempting to play a shutdown role with Ian White as his partner, in the last few weeks Anton Stralman has taken up this position. During this time, Stralmen has struggled with some of the same mistakes that have plagued White; defending the blueline on a rush, as well as his down low coverage, the only difference is that White has had close to two years to figure it out, while Stralmen is nearing two months as an NHL pro. As absurd as using White in a shutdown role is, another significant factor in Gill`s demise has been the constant shuffle between White and Stralmen. Two offensive minded Dman in the role is counterproductive, however, Stralmen is a much better skater, has better hands and has a longer reach to White, to therefore make him more effectively defensively. Back to my point, the continual flip flopping of these two does effect the continuity and comfort level of Gill. Being a methodical intelligent defensemen, who because of a lack of speed plays on angles more then most D do, constantly changing his partner, and these changes occur mid-game, it will dramatically effect his game and angles negatively.
I have seen improvements to Ian White game, but nowhere near the level that would make him competitive this or next season. He has used his body more, but he is consistently out of position, and that limits what he can do physically and more importantly defensively. His down low coverage is very poor, and he is caught chasing forwards around the ice with little impact. Playing him 20 minuets a game will do wonders in improving his overall game, but it is not worth throwing away an entire season for the rest of the team. Ultimately, with White on, this means that for a period a game, this team has to take extra precautions defensively; I will speak more on this later. Let us not forget that with White being so close to the 180 game mark, once over it, it will make him available to the rest of the league if indeed he is put on waivers. I will never understand with the players the Leafs have, the struggles they have defensively, why White was given the free ride he got, while players like Belak, Kronwall, Harrison, and Walsner were never given an opportunity.
15 31
25 8
3 36
FROWARDS
Throughout the second period of the season, much has been made about the improvements to the defensive side of the puck. That said, the improvements defensively had come at the expense of goals for. With the forwards having to overcompensate for the pinching defensemen, or the D who cannot play D, the forwards found themselves too deep in their own end, ultimately slowing down the speed of a rush the other way, and keeping them far away from effective offensive positions on the ice.
Injuries, especially in the last few weeks have been a factor, but as a result we have finally seen the likes of a Robbie Earl, and more of Juri Tlusty, as Maurice now has given him a spot on the top line. Tlusty has had 2 goals in 3 games up there, a spot that I felt he should have been playing since he was first called up. Don Cherry dropped the name Jeremy Williams, here is a guy that will make this team next year, with 2 goals in 2 NHL career games, Williams hasn’t yet cracked this lineup, but he is close. Earl was outstanding in his first NHL game versus a depleted Ottawa lineup, he was strong, fast, intelligent and worked tremendously hard each shift. Earl has even more to offer with a great shot and nose for the net, I will be looking forward to his development as the season progresses.
Even with the injuries I still don’t agree with limiting the 4th line to fewer than 4 minuets a game. It is embarrassing to the players involved as well as too the rest of the team who has to face their peers day in day out. Matt Stajan, here is a guy that I doubted at the start of the season http://leafstown.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html. After his season last year, I knew he had improvements that needed to be made; the good news is that he has improved tremendously, more so then I would have ever guessed. Credit has to be given to Stajan for persevering after a terribly disappointing season, we should also acknowledge what Doug Gilmour has done, it was reported that Gilmour worked with Stajan over the off-season in an attempt to sure up some of his deficiencies. He had struggled with face-offs, while his overall percentage hasn’t improved that much, during the second period of the season he has had a much improved percentage, while taking many more draws. Currently playing a second line role very competently, Stajan should remain as a third line shutdown artist; this is where he excels and where he can contribute the most to a team, he proved it earlier in the season playing with Steen and Deveraux.
Blake is not doing anything different then he had been doing throughout the season, but he is finally getting good press due to the fact that the puck is going into the net. As for the rest of the forwards, playing a system that sees them as the fault to the down low defence problems, limits their ability to be effective offensively, and has ripped away any confidence to work through mistakes that are bound to occur playing for an inept coach.
11 13 16
42 80 55
22 14 18
26 19 54
GOALTENDING
Well, during this segment of the season, we seen Maurice overuse his number 1 goalie, and in this case a goalie with a history of groin issues was overused to the point of injury. From the 27th of November to the 22nd of December, 12 consecutive starts, some in back to back fashion, Maurice injured Toskala. At the conclusion of this stretch, Maurice was forced to go with a rusty Raycroft to pick up the pieces, a keeper that had zero confidence in himself and his coach. Obviously Raycroft was in no position to take the reigns, and it showcases another incompetent decision by the head coach.
35
1
posted by LEAFER at
11:53 AM
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