JoeSchmoe

There goes my enthusiasm! Thanks!

Improving our bottom 6 is the low hanging fruit that we can most easily cover through through FA. If we upped our spending there and spread it around across 3 or 4 players that are better than Robinson, Jost, Girgensons, etc we can really improve vs previous years. Our top 6 still needs improvement too. Let's do that by trading picks and prospects.

Maybe it went bad. I've had that happen to me before. One time I emailed the brewery and got 2 free cases.

That's true. I think what Taro said is right too. Players get better with more strength and experience as well as learning more tactics. Kind of like how most MLB hitters don't even get into the league until well into their 20s. It just takes time to learn the skill. I just wouldn't sell the farm to get better at this. Much wiser use of cap to focus on scoring rather than face-offs.

I feel like he did in the early days, but then stopped. The same story goes for his concept of practicing hard. The first year or two, you heard about him pushing the 💩 out of them in practice. Last year, the story was the opposite.

Average guy wins 50% of draws. ROR wins 55%. Game is on the line. The takeaway is only ROR cares in that situation and he'll win nearly every time because he's that much better than the average guy who somehow manages to win 50 out of 100 draws, as opposed to ROR's 55 out of 100. I feel like this is the same kind of logic that keeps casinos in business.

So it's a key faceoff with Crosby vs ROR. Do they both win 100% of the time? I agree you put your best guy in there to get your extra couple % odds at winning. You just don't give up a roster spot for a face-off specialist a la Paul Gaustad for a 1st round pick.

Everything you're saying is predicated upon thinking there's a unicorn that gets you 100% face-off winning percentage at key times in a game. ROR's career average is 55.7%. Sending him out there in crunch time gives you a 5.7% better chance of winning the puck vs the league average guy. You'll take that chance every time, but realistically it's not that much. EDIT- at key times, the other team is probably going to send out their top guy too. So if their guy is a career 53% guy, you'll win about 3 more faceoffs out of a 100 with ROR.

Beer is like pizza. Even the low quality stuff is still good. I'll drink any beer and enjoy it, whether it be cheap-swill North America macro, high hop craft beer, Euro pilsner... It's all good. That said, a grapefruit radler is the Hawaiian Pizza of beer. Again, I'll still drink it, but it would be much better without the grapefruit, just as the pizza would be better off without the pineapple.

The issue is that the difference between a good face-off team and a bad one is pretty small. The very BEST teams in the league will win about 1 more face-off out of 10 vs the very WORST teams. If there was a way to win 100% of face-offs you could really make a difference. But the reality is A VERY GOOD FACE-OFF TEAM WILL WIN ABOUT 3 MORE FACE-OFFS OUT OF 100 VS AN AVERAGE FACE-OFF TEAM. The advantages of this is pretty negligible compared to going out and getting better players that score more.

He sets up goals though. Many of our goals over the last couple of seasons don't get scored without him on the ice. Losing him means less goals scored by our goal scorers.

I'll summarize what I said in the posts I made above. 1- Trade picks and prospects to get a guy who can replace Mittelstadt's production. 2- Stay out of the bargain bin, and spend the necessary $$$$ to pick up legitimate NHL players to replace Girgensons, Robertson, Jost, KO, & VO. If they do both of these, they will get more goals next season. Adams said he's in win now mode. Let's see if he puts his money where his mouth is.

Maybe, but first you have to get them agree to come here, and history has shown that high priced free agents underperform their contracts more than they live up to them. If there's a guy at the right price, then sure. If it's me though, I'm trading our overabundance of picks and prospects for the Mittelstadt replacement, then using FA as the Girgensons, Robertson, Jost, KO, & VO replacement. We can upgrade from them without breaking the bank.

All this need to happen, especially the bolded. That said, the elephant in the room is replacing Mittelstadt. Without him we're worse offensively going into next season. Hopefully we get a legit scorer in exchange for picks/prospects. If we don't replace Mittelstadt's production, I'm predicting even less goals next year.

Can we all agree that the IIHF website is dog 💩 ?

You trade for Matthews and his $13.25 million contract, every future contract negotiation on the team will be benchmarked against that, instead of the $7 or so million we're paying Thompson. On the Leafs, the Tavares contract set the stage for their overpayments thereafter. We'd be handcuffed by the cap just like the Laffs are.

This is 100% correct. Anything without the plural sounds try- hard / trendy.

Sabres training camp, where he ups his value and we package him for an NHL ready contributor.

Again... Though highly favoured, the Leafs lost this series. Contrast and compare with real leadership. At $13+ million, AM is not worth it.

1G 4A in 7 games vs MTL in 2021. Vintage Matthews in this clip (fast forward to about 1:50). Vintage series loss to MTL. Same went for Gretzky.

Not at his cap hit.

Now 'splain this guy as a leader in our locker room.

Bravo! 👏 Now 'splain us about his contract.

Or his contract and lack of playoff intensity.

My 16 year old put it perfectly. While watching the games so far this postseason, he said playoff hockey is almost like a different sport than regular season hockey. If teams could play with that intensity all season, they would barely lose. Matthews playoff mode is no different than his regular season mode. When everyone else goes up a level, he's still the same guy. Hard pass.