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Canadiens @ Leafs - Sept. 29th, 7:00pm - SN

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
 
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
Re: the ads. You really have been away a while!
 
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
"- 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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"- 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)
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.
 
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.
 
Funny thing, my Rogers bare bones cable package does not have the Leafs game. It has Florida / Carolina but not the Leafs. Funny that.

Go Leafs!

Why would the company the owns the teams want you to watch said team on the cable provider they also own?
 
"- 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)
I don't think he's meant to be a top pairing guy. I don't think the Leafs think he's that either. Right-handed PP threat and a decent defender, not a +25-minute player.
 
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.
 
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