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BOOOOOOOOOM

Spezza or Mikheyev should play a few games with Tavares and Hyman.

5-on-5, not even strength. See here: https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/m/marnemi01-advanced-5on5.html Other points are likely with the empty net, 4-on-4, or 3-on-3. We need these guys to be able to create offence 5-on-5.

Just by way of example, Marner has 4 points 5-on-5 in 18 games this year. That is atrocious. Last year he had 58 points 5-on-5 in 82 games. Tavares has 4 points 5-on-5 in 16 games this year (and 20 shots!). Last year he had 60 points 5-on-5 in 82 games. Those numbers would be awful at any...

Oddly, that seems to be exactly why Babcock loves playing him so much.

If you do the numbers 5-on-5 I think you'll see an even starker difference.

The Leafs' penalty kill is a stagnant box. The Leafs' powerplay is also a box with minimal movement, which basically limits it to outside shots. At even strength, the Leafs' offence struggles mightily to generate quality scoring chances from the slot, and instead relies on low percentage shots...

Regressed is kind of an understatement. The lack of 5-on-5 production from that line is pretty mind-blowing.

And Tavares. And Marner. And Johnsson. And Kapanen. And Rielly. And (sort of) Matthews.

Barrie will be a new player under a different coach.

Why does Rielly kill penalties? How consistently terrible does the team have to be before Babcock adjusts his strategy?

Update: Ceci leads the team in icetime and is on pace for 25 minutes. Why? Nobody knows. We go out and get a first pairing offensive defenceman and also pick up one of the worst defenceman in the league. Babcock plays the latter like he?s a stud #1 defenceman and puts the former in the third...

Dump and chase and the odd weak point shot. That is the sum total of our offensive and defensive strategy.

We should we getting smoked. This is the first game I?ve watched in a while. Babcock has really neutered the team?s skill. They barely generate any chances at all. Mindless ?assignments? and ?matchups? and not enough hockey.

Ceci getting way, way too much icetime.

Double shift Rielly and Matthews. Petan and Hyman shouldn't get PP time even in their own imaginations. The powerplay needs players with skill capable of scoring. not people who finish their check against other third liners.

That?s been part of the problem for the past 3 years.

So Hyman and Kapanen both have way more ice time than Matthews. This is fine.

Agreed. Unless they go on an epic losing streak there is no way he'll be fired before the end of the season.

There seems to be a pattern that the Leafs play poorly out of the gate when they're forced to play Babcock's ineffective "system", which involves line-matching and set plays rather than letting their best players play. Once they are down by a goal or two (i.e. every game), they shift to a style...