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2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

Bender said:
I can understand Tanev and Stolarz but Carlo who's 29 with a plate infection? Willy with god knows what? The first two are injuries of players getting ground down due to age/injury history, but I just don't see it with the rest.
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It is not all encompassing. Young players get hurt too - they just tend to get hurt less frequently due to less wear.
An older team might have a Tanev-Stolarz pair while a younger team would be less likely to have as many age-wear related injuries and so not as many injured. Recovery time for older players is also longer. But of the 3 skaters you mention, Carlo has the least number of NHL games played at 657 which is in the top 16% all time for regular season NHL games played - so those three have had a lot of NHL wear.
 
Man what a season so far 51 points and still out, 51 points this time last year is 3rd in the Atlantic, Florida the defending champs only had 53 points this time last year, only when we get off to a rough start does the east become so competitive. :mad::ROFLMAO:
 
Relatively small sample size compared to the first half of the season’s parade of bad, but it looks like the late November road trip and then Christmas party/New Year break helped the team turn the corner on chemistry and confidence. Also getting healthy bodies back of course.

It is hard to overstate my satisfaction that following this tumultuous offseason, we are now seeing pretty much everyone on the team driving play within their roles, and some depth guys elevating their games to fill out special teams niches effectively, and just the general vibe of sticking up for each other on the ice and taking the piss out of each other off the ice.
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/2010819641271050646
Laughton’s monster 19-for-20 effort in the faceoff circle against Philly rightfully received a lot of attention. He has been a monster in the faceoff circle in general since arriving in Toronto after a 12-year run of fairly middling results on the dot in Philly. In 661 games with the Flyers, he won just 49.7% of his draws, and he topped out at a single-season high of 54.2%. Since arriving in Toronto, it has shot right up; in 20 games last season, he won 54.7%. In 26 games this season, he’s at 62.3%. As a Leaf, he’s won 60.2% overall in his 46 games.

Years ago, as Matthews’ game began to mature and Tavares came on board, the Leafs employed Manny Malhotra — an excellent faceoff man in his playing days — on their staff. When Malhotra eventually departed, I was curious to see whether his departure would negatively impact the faceoff results, as the Leafs finished 10th-1st-4th-4th in the category during his four seasons on the Leafs bench. Since Malhotra left, the Leafs finished second last season and now rank first. Obviously, personnel matters, but the Leafs have figured out faceoffs.

– Nic Roy is also winning a career high 54.3% right now. He has never finished above 48.8% in a full season. These are massive leaps for already established and experienced players.
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I never pay much attention to faceoffs, but this is pretty bananas. The skill dev team is building on established, veteran players.
 
I'm having a hard time reconciling what I've been watching compared to the lifeless garbage team we saw a month ago.

I wanted to rip this team to the core and start over and now they're playing like an actual team.

That being said, I still don't trust Treliving and I still want to send Domi absolutely anywhere else.
 
Haha yes. I'm really happy they're winning again.

But I don't think they're well constructed or well coached.

I just really hope they don't spend what few assets they have on trades etc now, led by Treliving.
 
Joe S. said:
I'm having a hard time reconciling what I've been watching compared to the lifeless garbage team we saw a month ago.

I wanted to rip this team to the core and start over and now they're playing like an actual team.

That being said, I still don't trust Treliving and I still want to send Domi absolutely anywhere else.
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I was re-reading this thread over the weekend (page 33ish is when it gets pretty dire)

I was pretty sure at the time that the personnel's level of commitment to the system was largely the cause of the result we were seeing on ice; out of sync, and they didn't have Keefe's systems of sit back and wait for Marner/Matthews/Nylander to do something anymore.

The coaching staff did make some adjustments (and the Front Office also fired a bit of a shot across the coaching staff and the star players' bow with Savard's dismissal) to make the dump and chase element less arduous by maintaining more puck possession and skater connection with the centre-lane breakout. Gives the wingers an actual chance at forechecking successfully and an option for the skill to carry as the situation allows.
 
I haven't watched a game since the Dallas loss. That means that the Leafs have not lost in regulation since I stopped watching them. I'm really starting to think it's me.

So for the next part of this experiment, I am going to continue to not watch until they lose in regulation. Then I will resume watching, and we will see what happens. I do miss Saturday night hockey a bit though.

As an aside, I had a thought about Matthews. I wonder if he wasn't pushing it as much because of the Olympics, and wanted to give other players a chance to shine and make the team. Part of it could have been caused by him knowing that he had make it, so he wasn't pushing himself as much as other players who didn't have a spot and did want to make it. I don't think it's a case of him saying "I'm not going to try", but again, maybe he was trying to put Knies in a position to shine more than him so he had a better chance to make the team so his decision making was a little different when it came to offense. Now that the Olympic rosters have been sorted, he's back to dominating on the offensive side of the puck. I guess the thing that always struck as odd with the injury reason was that his defensive game didn't drop off that much. It was just the offensive side.
 
Joe S. said:
I'm having a hard time reconciling what I've been watching compared to the lifeless garbage team we saw a month ago.

I wanted to rip this team to the core and start over and now they're playing like an actual team.

That being said, I still don't trust Treliving and I still want to send Domi absolutely anywhere else.
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I couldn't have predicted the last 11 or so games. Who could?
I did feel they were underachieving all season to that point.

I do still feel some concern that this current bubble might burst some.
However, as a Leafs fan, when they win, I'm pretty happy.

If they're a top 10 team with an outside shot, that is about where I had them and I'm ok with them taking their outside shot.
If they're fighting to make the playoffs, I could still become a seller at the deadline.

"I still don't trust Treliving" Neither do I.
 
Arn said:
Haha yes. I'm really happy they're winning again.

But I don't think they're well constructed or well coached.

I just really hope they don't spend what few assets they have on trades etc now, led by Treliving.
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I'm starting to think the forward group is constructed well. Having Maccelli show signs of life instead of being an overall negative has helped. He's providing a skill not found in the other forwards, specifically being able to enter the o-zone.

Goaltending is good. Still not satisfied with the make up of the defence.
 
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