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2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

herman said:
If he wasn’t coming off multiple mystery wrist and back injuries, I’d say Matthews and the Leafs are idiots for trying to be Bergeron/Barkov when he has preternatural scoring ability. But since he is just scoring a pedestrian 40ish without doing anything on the PP, sure, why not strive to be a shutdown centre while doing it.
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This is why I brought up the Yzerman comparison. You know the lore that surrounds the transformation of Yzerman from perennial 40 - 65 goal scorer, to a dude who gave all that up to become a Stanley cup champion after a single conversation with Scotty Bowman..
 
herman said:
If he wasn’t coming off multiple mystery wrist and back injuries, I’d say Matthews and the Leafs are idiots for trying to be Bergeron/Barkov when he has preternatural scoring ability. But since he is just scoring a pedestrian 40ish without doing anything on the PP, sure, why not strive to be a shutdown centre while doing it.
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Kopitar and Toews were literally the two NHLers that Matthews was compared to the most as a prospect so it's not like this stuff is new or came out of nowhere.
 
mapleleafshotstove.com

The Maple Leafs' playoff prospects depend on solving these five-on-five structural problems

Given the Maple Leafs’ underwhelming possession metrics over 100 games into his coaching tenure, it’s interesting to revisit Craig Berube’s comments about puck possession when he was first hired in Toronto: Berube: “In St. Louis, we were one of the highest puck-possession teams in the league. We...
mapleleafshotstove.com mapleleafshotstove.com
So, what’s at the root of this team’s puck possession problems? There are many intricacies and factors involved, but at the most basic level, it’s the byproduct of the Leafs‘ inability to break out consistently as well as their inability to effectively forecheck consistently. Of course, both of those factors go hand in hand.
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The premise is sound, but the execution remains elusive, probably because the underlying tactics are not helping.
 
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herman said:
mapleleafshotstove.com

The Maple Leafs' playoff prospects depend on solving these five-on-five structural problems

Given the Maple Leafs’ underwhelming possession metrics over 100 games into his coaching tenure, it’s interesting to revisit Craig Berube’s comments about puck possession when he was first hired in Toronto: Berube: “In St. Louis, we were one of the highest puck-possession teams in the league. We...
mapleleafshotstove.com mapleleafshotstove.com


The premise is sound, but the execution remains elusive, probably because the underlying tactics are not helping.
Click to expand...

Well that team also had a defence that was made up of:
Alex Pietrangelo
Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn
Jay Bouwmeester
Joel Edmundson
Robert Bortuzzo

And extras of:
Carl Gunnarsson
Michael Del Zotto

Although Del Zotto did not play in the playoffs. But he was there man. He was there.
 
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