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The Leafs are getting slashed or hooked almost every time they touch the puck.

Glad to see that was a quick call. Looks like the NHL has more or less figured out goaltender interference. Last year was brutal.

It?s pretty wild that Babcock isn?t even trying Matthews with anyone else at this stage of the game.

More double standard reffing. Marner got ?hooked? just as much as the Blues players did in each of the last two Lead penalties.

Also, ever since Babcock "improved" the defensive core by reuniting the team's fifth best defenceman with Rielly and giving the him more ice-time than Muzzin, Rielly's possession-related stats and other advanced metrics have gotten worse across the board.

He looked better because he wasn't stuck with Zaitsev. Zaitsev, without exaggeration, makes every player around him worse.

Why can't Muzzin play on the right side with Rielly? Why doesn't the lefty/righty strong side rule apply to Hainsey? The bottom line is that the Leafs' 5th or 6th best defencemen (a lefty) is being played as a top pairing defencemen. To me that's almost impossible to justify. The same way it...

So Babcock has Hainsey back on the top pairing, rather than playing our newly acquired, actual top pairing defencemen there. Babcock sees this: Morgan Rielly without Ron Hainsey this season: 53.65 CF% Morgan Rielly with Ron Hainsey this season: 48.58 CF% ...and cannot wait to get back to that...

Marleau needs to spend some time on the fourth line: there are multiple better (and younger)  options for that spot and it?s clearly not working for Matthews.

Nope! Zaitsev has a relative Corsi of -12%. He is a straight up bad player, in all facets of the game. His contract is an albatross. Gardiner is a very good defenceman and has been for a long time,  as much as some fans dislike him.

I don't think anyone is unhappy that he signed and I'm pretty sure everyone is stoked that the team is doing well. Many are just questioning whether the deal could/should have been better. I agree with Carleton that the biggest problem(s) right now, as far as fitting all the important pieces...

True. I knew he had been fine in his rookie year but somehow forget when I was responding. I guess I'm mostly referring to the fact that he has gotten injured a number of times on relatively innocent looking plays in his young career. It's probably bad luck, but it's a bit weird.

I agree. But in Matthews's case, given his injuries in the minors and at the NHL level, I tend to think "injury prone" is the more appropriate descriptor. That could change if he manages to stay healthy for a whole season (or even the rest of this season).

I think people are focusing, not unfairly, on the fact that Matthews: (1) is injury prone; (2) would have been a restricted free agent; (3) has never gotten 70 points in a season; and (4) has a bit of a reputation for playing poorly in "clutch" situations, including in the playoffs and/or...

Muzzin is a stud. Kind of reminds me of McCabe for those couple years where he was a rock playing upwards of 30 minutes a game, except he doesn't have to rely on the can opener for his physicality. It's been a long time since we had a defenceman capable of taking a slapshot.

The amount of praise heaped on Marleau for a couple decent plays is astounding to me and shows how low expectations have gotten. He chipped in a bit tonight but mostly he skated around not doing much of anything in the offensive and defensive end, like most nights. Another disappointing...

Ron Hainsey is pretty bad. https://twitter.com/jewilbe/status/1090060354959269888

Hard to argue with this move. The addition of a physical defenceman with offensive upside and the reduction in Hainsey's icetime are two huge pluses. This clearly means Gardiner is out the door barring something unexpected, which is too bad. He's been underappreciated and his skillset will be...

Babcock still overplaying low skill character guys and forcing the team to play dump and chase hockey? What a shocker. The system is so predictable at this point that the worst teams in the league have very little trouble smothering the team at even strength and even with the man advantage. On...

The Leafs? pp has been really predictable for a long time. They?ve got everyone playing essentially stationary, which is both ineffective and crazy for a team with this much skill. Matthews and Marner should be constantly moving to open up seams but they aren?t. It?s a coaching problem.