Thorny

I wouldn’t underestimate the amount the players’ newly reinvigorated disdain for the fanbase might propel them to a few wins here. You heard Zucker. They care about wins now. The fans are wrong and folly

We are merely replicating the Quinn dialogue from last year And we’d be making the same mistake no matter how many “ES per 60 on Tuesdays since January 5th” advanced metrics posts on Kulich we see

Good or bad is a point of view…all I can say is that Chad has begun to fly the flag of Kevyn Adams

Cooooooooooooooooooooooo tes

Huge W. 10 back

How are the devils in a playoff spot

4 nations facing off

Coooooooootes

Who’s the Mittlestatish guy around 8 we are targeting?

It’s a little infuriating. Is that the quiet part out loud? Yes, after all this time, seeing them always seem to win only when it doesn’t matter is pretty annoying. It shouldn’t be, but we’ve never seen it translate going forward. I can’t help but feel it will be to our detriment by giving the GM a false impression of our actual aptitude i suppose this is what it means to be a broken fan

We’ve got our 1C for next year already, Kulich

Pressure off, the boys are ready

Just because he had to play the role of playmaker LESS here (but still the most) because he had to also be the one shooting as no one would covert his passes, doesn’t mean he *wasn’t a great playmaker.*. You are conflating role and ability. Besides - I was responding to this. You can’t remember when they had a good playmaker. It’s Eichel. He was a good playmaker with all due respect if what Eichel did here isn’t considered “good playmaker” you have a very weird definition of playmaker the entire offence was filtered through him. He quarterbacked the power play. A very good power play some years. Led the team in assists per game 5 of his 6 seasons played here - every year but his rookie. McDavid at times is shoot first. If the definition of playmaker needs to be guys who are exclusively pass first.. it’s really going to deplete the options. Can’t say Briere Hodgson?

Remember how low it took him to get his first assist his rookie year? Was maddening line mates failing to cash is exactly right You are doing way, way too much. he’s an elite playmaker

“I guess” dude come on. Eichel is a world class playmaker. World class. He’s near the top of the league in assists. He’s on pace for a whopping 77 assists this year. He led the playoffs in assists. I was calling him a playmaker the entire time he was here maybe I was just a little bit right about Jack Eichel. Ya know? Maybe just a tad

No, it doesn’t matter in the end. I think you need a good (pass-first) distributor on the line (or 3 50/50 players, I guess) but the distributor can line up at wing. It’s less common but it happens the thing with us is we are simply lacking distributors Who’s our best pure playmaker? Peyton Krebs? Tuch I guess. I mean it’s essentially Dahlin but when thinking about the F ranks we lack good playmaking and that’s a stylistic no no for me in addition to aptitude based and results affecting. I’m a little weary of the sick sniper mode we seem to be following a little closely

Makes sense, but I’ve heard from most Leafs fans Marner is commonly the primary puck carrier when playing with matthews. If the centre on our line is the primary carrier, I do think distribution is the most important skill. After we get past, say, hockey sense where the decisions you speak of apply. There’ll be a multitude of passing options at all times, but only one shooting

I’m nearly at the stage where I’m going to have to start laying off on management. How the heck could I be surprised or shocked when we line up an even younger team next year, with a rookie being counted on as a top 6 C, when the idea is essentially manifested by the fan base We just love the future I think. The promise of it. Is that really all we need, maybe? Kevyn and Co might be smarter than I’ve given them credit for. They really have changed the culture.

Whether to pass or shoot is a choice to be made by all players, that’s not a defining factor of what makes a good centre, particularly. That choice is as important and relevant no matter *what* the position. It’s simply a factor in what makes a good player, period Playmaking has historically been favourited for centres because traditionally they were essentially being positioned in zone as the point guard: the spot where facilitating is the most important. Now, that’s often still the case, but not always: often positions nowadays are more important re: the defensive zone. In which cases, players are allowed a more free-wheeling style in the offensive zone, and anyone can be the primary distributor, or it can be a combination but you still need the distributor. If you have 3 guys on a line who all always make the correct pass/shoot decision but none of the three are actually particularly adept at playmaking, the line would fail

Will fit right in with our other centres personally I much prefer playmakers as we lean so heavily so snipers across the board and that tends to dry up. But there’s no denying the skill

Weave forgotten why

What weave got here, is a failure to communicate

To weave or not to weave

That he did “It just seemed that we were heading towards another…I don’t want to say rebuild but, we weren’t really in a position that we were going to try and win. I went to the team and said I wasn’t really happy with the idea of that. If that’s the route they wanted to take, maybe it would be better to move me, to use me as a jumpstart.”

It doesn’t HAVE to be: but the team building aspects of this trade are up for debate as much as any, and we aren’t talking in general here we are talking about this deal specifically - the trade fails utterly on both sides of the equation -the actual production that has resulted since 2021 is heavily one-sided in their favour -MORE importantly, the actual strategy informing the trade (rebuild) was incredibly misguided. Adams electing for a long form build on the heels of missing 9 years has proven to be disastrous, already. We’ve missed the playoffs 5 years. His plan failed