Bill_Berg
Well-known member
Simpson is really annoying. Habs had a couple lucky ones and the Leafs looked to have more high damage chances. Sucks they still lost.
Canadiens @ Leafs - Sept. 29th, 7:00pm - SN
- Thread starter CarltonTheBear
- Start date
Nik
Active member
My Take
The Good:
- It is easy to see Marchenko is a very good player who plays with notable dynamism
- I was impressed by Roslovic's ability/willingness to be the gritty guy on a top 6 line
- I thought the 3/4th lines looked like appropriately scrappy/energetic fellas
The Bad:
- Boy, if Raddysh does anything worthy of being a top pairing guy, I didn't see it
- If you had told me that #34 was one of the top 10 or 15 players in the league I would probably not believe you based on tonight
- Mckenna scored 4 fewer goals then I am accustomed to from #1 picks in their debut
The Ricci:
- These Training Camp-Ass Numbers they're wearing
- The helmet ads look just awful
The Good:
- It is easy to see Marchenko is a very good player who plays with notable dynamism
- I was impressed by Roslovic's ability/willingness to be the gritty guy on a top 6 line
- I thought the 3/4th lines looked like appropriately scrappy/energetic fellas
The Bad:
- Boy, if Raddysh does anything worthy of being a top pairing guy, I didn't see it
- If you had told me that #34 was one of the top 10 or 15 players in the league I would probably not believe you based on tonight
- Mckenna scored 4 fewer goals then I am accustomed to from #1 picks in their debut
The Ricci:
- These Training Camp-Ass Numbers they're wearing
- The helmet ads look just awful
herman
Well-known member
L2 popped every time they put 53 on the wing. I don’t mind them alternating 92 off here and there.
Bender
Well-known member
But then you kind of wonder... Where does he play? L3? Seems like a waste no?
Nik
Active member
I'm sure I'll learn to live with it, especially after they call up Fraser Minten.
"- Boy, if Raddysh does anything worthy of being a top pairing guy, I didn't see it"
Neither did Tampa Bay really. He was a late bloomer 4/5 dman starting at age 27 for two seasons until last season when Hedman went down
He's arguably paid like a top pairing guy because of his Cinderella offensive season and the UFA bidding.
To me, he's typically been a 3/4 dman in his good years who has a great point shot on the PP and not the outlier from last season.
I think they would be wise to start him out playing that way and let him work his way into more ice time if it gets justified by his play.
Because he isn't as strong or gritty defensively, pairing him with a dman who is would probably be a better combination.
Tonight, that couldn't occur because McCabe got hurt and played 11+ mins and so they had to juggle.
It is also a little unfair to be too critical because there are so many new skaters and a new system.
EDIT: The 3/4 lines were getting clobbered in the faceoffs but I think some of that had to do with the new linemates (as did much of the teams sloppy play)
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ZBBM
Well-known member
Yeah, they got their timepieces cleansed in faceoffs.
Bender
Well-known member
To play devil's advocate, it's game 1. I didn't think any of Montreal's top guys looked that effective either. And by today's metric McKenna is a bust, so I'd rather wait before making any sweeping takeaways. Except other than maybe that Marchenko is really fun to watch.
herman
Well-known member
The Leafs didn’t lose systematically, is my takeaway from game one. Self inflicted turnovers due to early season slop and lack of team cohesion (there was zero time) in a new partially implemented system were the main issues and those are all within their control and solved with reps and time.
dappleganger
Well-known member
Why would the company the owns the teams want you to watch said team on the cable provider they also own?
Uncle Fester should stick to all black.
herman
Well-known member
Raddysh looked like he was trying to do too much and the bobbles happening everywhere made it harder. He probably had lots of family in the stands and suiting up for your hometeam at a big ticket has got to be quite the pressure difference from being essentially an undrafted UFA walk-on to the well-oiled Tampa system. I think it'll smooth out for him, but would be expedited next to McCabe or OEL instead of Rielly. And certainly not behind a leaky forward line like L2.
I thought they looked like a team that's never played together, which is exactly what they are. Some passes to nobody, and players not being ready for passes. Raddysh was all over the ice, not in a good way. Matthews zone entries on PP were garbage, just repeatedly skated into traffic and gave it away. I liked lines 3 and 4 for the most part. Need to get some traffic in front of the net. MTL had a couple of bounces we didn't.
rjd
Well-known member
I will reserve judgment till game 5.
L K
Well-known member
Honestly I think this is going to take way longer than 5 games to really know how this team will play. Usually October hockey is a sloppy mess. Now we had an even shorter preseason and essentially have an entirely new team and play style/coach.
We need to bank on our top end players carrying enough of the load until the team gels.
We need to bank on our top end players carrying enough of the load until the team gels.
herman
Well-known member
I think the most important things from game 1 are the habs falling all over themselves to watch William Nylander dance.
Dusted Suzuki on the most obvious cutback I've ever seen. I have no idea why Suzuki tried to apply pressure to the wrong side of Nylander. Maybe expected to jump on a bump back to the forwards changing on while the defense (Raddysh) was pinched? Insufferably, Willy is going to go shortside high on every rush down the RW for the next 10 games (always a free clear out the weakside if it misses) thanks to Dobes wiffing there.
Won a puck off a 50/50 wall play to keep it alive, and then just walked down mainstreet. If Cowan was a righty that'd be an easy one-time tap in, but he's a lefty that faded a bit too far out for a tap-chip and smartly made a clean return pass to the slot.
He's up against a 4-man box in each instance on a set goalie and just turns it into a silly circus for the defense.
Dusted Suzuki on the most obvious cutback I've ever seen. I have no idea why Suzuki tried to apply pressure to the wrong side of Nylander. Maybe expected to jump on a bump back to the forwards changing on while the defense (Raddysh) was pinched? Insufferably, Willy is going to go shortside high on every rush down the RW for the next 10 games (always a free clear out the weakside if it misses) thanks to Dobes wiffing there.
Won a puck off a 50/50 wall play to keep it alive, and then just walked down mainstreet. If Cowan was a righty that'd be an easy one-time tap in, but he's a lefty that faded a bit too far out for a tap-chip and smartly made a clean return pass to the slot.
He's up against a 4-man box in each instance on a set goalie and just turns it into a silly circus for the defense.
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Combining this with the fact that this is basically the Habs exact same team from last season I was kind of expecting a deflating blow-out here. So I'll take a close-ish loss.
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