[Mirtle] Oui, il est tôt. Mais les Maple Leafs sont en difficulté et doivent apporter des changements
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StatGAF
@Maple Leafs de Toronto
[Mirtle] Oui, il est tôt. Mais les Maple Leafs sont en difficulté et doivent apporter des changements
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StatGAF
16 Comments
Normally, Mirtle provides pretty level-headed takes but I was surprised to see how all in-he goes on on how bad they’ve been and how much of a disaster its been.
Let’s be real, the Montreal and Tampa Bay come-backs could easily have been losses and the under the hood numbers, the « process » is really bad right now.
This is a great article that makes reasonable statistical arguments, but also very doable ways that the Leafs can get better. I hope to see some of these changes happen with the team.
They need to make tweaks to their existing system before they consider new bodies.
Everything Treliving touches, dies.
Practicing their playoff exit strategy.
Can you imagine taking over this team and your first “major” signing is John Fucking Klingberg. I remember texting my buddy saying wtf as soon as the news broke. Easy first take this wouldn’t end well. I actually don’t mind the Bertuzzi and Domi signings. The forward group as a whole is fine but man signing Klingberg and adding him to this aging D core is the kind of stuff that can tank a season. Need to find a way out and see if you can move on from Brodie as well. Something major is needed on the back end.
God if we could find a way to dump Klingberg and get Timmins in the lineup full time we’d immediately solve most of our issues lol.
I read that the team has a 58 or 64% xG% without Klingberg or Reaves in the ice.
The fix looks fairly simple. Luckily Klingberg is on a 1 year deal and Reaves makes 300K above minimum. Shouldn’t be hard to fix. Klingberg will be the salary filler in a deal for one or more of Calgarys D (Hopefully Hanifin and Weegar).
OMG.. Treliving getting torched. Fucken guy has been on the job 4 months. He walked into an absolute shitshow too. Everyone was loving the “snot” brothers Domi and Bertuzzi, now they were huge mistakes.
Klingberg is terrible and Reaves comes as advertised so not sure what the hoopla is about. His contract can be buried anyway. Took Sammy to arb and looks like the right move now. He signed Matthews to a decent deal and is playing hard ball with Willy cause the last fucken GM left the team in a mess with a shit farm system to boot.
How about giving the new GM more than 4 months to correct the mistakes of 5 years?
So what I’m gleaning from this article:
– Leafs advanced stats are mediocre – Puck possession: 48.7% (17th), Expected goals: 46.3% (25th), Scoring chances: 46.6% (23rd), High-danger chances: 44.0% (27th).
– Sit Reaves and Klingberg, possibly make trades/waivers to open up capspace and get some Marlies to come in
The main difference is simply that the Leafs have never been this horrific defensively. And these players like Klingberg and Reaves, it’s not a new thing where you think maybe they’ll bounce back.
Both guys have sufficient history to say they won’t. So they absolutely need to shore that up.
Reaves isn’t even the main problem here, he’s a fossil that makes 1.3 mill, that’s manageable to just keep scratching him.
The problem is definitely Klingberg who’s only good game of the season so far was Game 2 against Minnesota. Unlike Reaves he counts for a not insignificant chunk of the cap and has been an even worse net negative as a defenceman.
At least with Reaves we could probably do the early retirement but not really and just scratch him constantly, but with Klingberg that 4 mill could have gotten us a lot more than a serviceable 4th liner like Reaves’ contract could have been
They have been bad and Klingberg has been one of the worst, but a team made up of 20 + players needs to have some accountability as a whole before we jump all over 1-2 players, they just have to be better.
They were a top defensive team last year and there have only been a handful of personalle changes….
> I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself: « Is life worth living? Should I blast myself? »
-Shakur, Tupac, noted Leafs fan
No they just need to play better. Don’t make panic moves. They have the talent. Make it work.
Mirtle for our new GM. He’ll fix everything. Shanny would be in agreement. At least special advisor to the GM. He certainly has all the answers. As he always does.