Guy Boucher will take over the Maple Leafs' power play.
— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) July 20, 2023
—
rsyzygy
@Maple Leafs de Toronto
Guy Boucher will take over the Maple Leafs' power play.
— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) July 20, 2023
—
rsyzygy
12 Comments
Malhotra for faceoffs??? lmfao we were already a top faceoff team before he joined hahaha
Van Ryn running the defence is a bit concerning. He did a pretty bad job of that with St.Louis.
Malholtra has been such a wildcard. First we have him running a pp, then a pk and now it’s only faceoffs. He must be ready for a better opportunity if it arises.
Does this mean Keefe is in charge of forwards? His line combos have been a disaster for years. If Matthews and Marner are on the same line again to start the year I hope we start slow and Keefe gets fired. I don’t know how much longer I can watch him try and put a square peg in a round hole.
I felt like the Leafs had a garbage PP last year, but then the stats say they were second best?
Maybe it’s just that their play on the PP was so uninspiring but they somehow managed to convert despite themselves?
Anyone living in the same cognitive dissonance chamber?
We have the personnel to have an elite, consistent powerplay it’s just to predictable. The attack is linear and usually is:
Nylander zone entry -> cycle to Marner -> pitch and catch with Reilly/Marner/Willy off boards -> try to force a one timer to Matthews or bumper to JT / tip (we usually don’t shoot for tips cause it’s a possession strategy though). Teams read this easily, isolate Matthews for the shooting threat, and pressure Marner and it limits the PP tremendously.
Add Klingburg (who has a cannon of a slapper, and is right handed) to mix up a one time option from the point, add in a new mix on the strategy and we could see a lot of improvement. Also, this year we finally have the depth for a good 2nd unit (Domi / Bertuzzi along with Reilly or Klingburg, whoeever doesn’t play on PP1) could finally be an option for us.
Our pp has become extremely predictable so I guess changing the voice could help. The personnel likely remains similar just with a hopefully bolstered pp2. Should be interesting.
I’m not entirely convinced Boucher is the guy I want running pp over say defence but hey ho. It’ll be interesting to see what changes we make.
I think we have the personel to run a PP1a and PP1b. I’d imagine after 34/16, we’d have some combo of Mo, Klingberg, Bert, Domi, Tavares, and Willy and to a lesser extent Nicky Bobby/Knies/Lilli in case of injury or garbage time
keep the opposing PK on their toes and if someone goes cold in the playoffs, there’s at least 2 forwards to replace them
I really hope that means the drop pass entry strategy is no longer used 95% of pp entries. I hate that play so much now 😂
Man that’s crazy that you can be employed for such a long time focusing on face-offs. Like what additional info can you give the players after the first 10 minutes?
I know no one will care about this, but this is actually crazy for me cuz two days ago I had a conversation with a buddy where we were like “wtf happened to Guy Boucher the Bond villain?” and that we haven’t heard from him in a while. So it’s a crazy coincidence that he’s now AC lol
Hope this makes a difference on the PP!
I feel like Guy Boucher is there to warm up to the team and step in if/when Keefe’s let go as head coach.
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Dude’s only coached 6 seasons in the NHL and made the 3rd round twice. And that Ottawa team had no business going that far.