Canucks @ Leafs - Feb. 8th, 7:00pm - SNO, TSN 1050

[Heroic Shrimp]

Random question... Vincent Damohousse is the youngest Leaf to 300pts. Was he underrated?

Put it this way: There are only 3 retired players (Turgeon, Roenick, Nicholls) with more career points than Damphousse that *aren't* in the Hall of Fame. And he was only 4 and 11 career points behind Nicholls and Roenick, respectively.

The only active players with more career points than Damphousse are Jagr, Thornton, Ovechkin and Crosby.

Damphousse was a very solid all-around offensive player for many years. Definitely underrated in my mind.

 

[Zee]

Matthews looked like the rest of them: fumbling bumbling outta sync major stink then KABLAMMO

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It's unreal how good he is and I still thank my lucky stars he's a Leaf. He's now dominating at both ends of the ice and is really reliable defensively. I hope plays his entire career here.

 

[bustaheims]

The list of guys I've seen in the NHL who were more dangerous as goal scorers than Matthews is right now is pretty short. Lemieux, Ovechkin, Crosby maybe at his best, flashes of McDavid, Lindros/Selanne possibly.

Brett Hull? At his peak, he could also beat you a lot of different ways.

 

[Kin]

The list of guys I've seen in the NHL who were more dangerous as goal scorers than Matthews is right now is pretty short. Lemieux, Ovechkin, Crosby maybe at his best, flashes of McDavid, Lindros/Selanne possibly.

Brett Hull? At his peak, he could also beat you a lot of different ways.

It's absolutely possible and the numbers are sure there but his peak is just a bit before my time so I can't claim to have really seen it.

 

[bustaheims]

It's absolutely possible and the numbers are sure there but his peak is just a bit before my time so I can't claim to have really seen it.

Fair enough. From 89/90 to 93/94, he was the best goal scorer in the league. 3 straight 70+ goal seasons, led the league by double digits in each of those seasons, including by an absurd 35 goals in 90/91.

At his peak, he was as dominant a goal scorer as anyone.

 

[herman]

Matthews could already score in pretty much any fashion in his first two seasons: heavy wrister, deceptive curl/drag wrister, catch and release wrister, tips, (creative) deflections, slapshots (not much back then), wraparounds.

Now that he has distilled down to a svelte 212 lbs thanks to training under Ian Mack, he even looks faster and more agile in getting around the ice to put his puck skills to use. Prior to coming into the NHL, Matthews looked like he could pull off any play he imagined, and now 300 pts later, it looks like he still has plenty of room under his ceiling.

I do think he slots in at the same tier as McDavid. He doesn't have that one overwhelming no-one-else-can-do-it thing that McDavid does on the rush, but he has a much broader base of well above average to elite skills in the toolbox that arguably is more dangerous.

 

[Kin]

Fair enough. From 89/90 to 93/94, he was the best goal scorer in the league. 3 straight 70+ goal seasons, led the league by double digits in each of those seasons, including by an absurd 35 goals in 90/91.

He was certainly the best goal scorer in the league when Lemieux wasn't healthy. Beyond that...I mean, if not for the Cancer diagnosis Lemieux very well may have scored 100 in 92-93.

 

[L K]

Something I noticed about Matthews.  He did take a penalty for crosschecking (called as interference but ironic that one gets called against him after some of the abuse he took earlier in the year) but Matthews got angry part way through the second period.  He started throwing a few hits and was doing things that try to change the game when the offensive game isn't clicking. 

On a side note Tyler Motte leads the league in hits with 70.  He supposedly threw 13 hits in the first two games of the series but went on the IR before the game last night.  Seriously?  I honestly don't remember seeing him flying around the ice hitting everything under the sun. 

 

[bustaheims]

On a side note Tyler Motte leads the league in hits with 70.  He supposedly threw 13 hits in the first two games of the series but went on the IR before the game last night.  Seriously?  I honestly don't remember seeing him flying around the ice hitting everything under the sun.

The only one I remember is the one he got injured on, when he pulled Nylander down on top of himself post-hit.

 

[bustaheims]

With Thornton and Robertson nearing returns and guys like Engvall, Anderson, Boyd, and Petan all outperforming him to various levels it might be getting time to end the Barabanov experiment. He's arguably 17th on the forward depth chart now.

The team gets pretty caved in defensively when he's out there - at least, so far in his limited minutes. There's more to his game than we've seen, but he's not NHL calibre yet.

 

[cabber24]

2021 Berezin you dummy!

Ah, Sergei.  Pavel Bure without the talent.

Berezin donated to this site in the old penalty box days I believe

Awesome. I liked Berezin. Remember when he fooled everyone by passing to Thomas in OT?

Never happened, I am pretty sure he just hung onto the puck and curled 16 times until he lost it.

 

[cabber24]

Lehtonen's backcheck though... surprised by that speed.

 

[L K]

Lehtonen is definitely growing on me.  I see the NHL defenseman in his game.  There are still things that he needs to work on but I imagine he would have been a heck of a lot further ahead with a full training camp.  While he was in NHL conditioning shape by playing in the KHL that is probably a bit harder to shift to NA ice while playing in the the KHL just a month ago.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

With Thornton and Robertson nearing returns and guys like Engvall, Anderson, Boyd, and Petan all outperforming him to various levels it might be getting time to end the Barabanov experiment. He's arguably 17th on the forward depth chart now.

The team gets pretty caved in defensively when he's out there - at least, so far in his limited minutes. There's more to his game than we've seen, but he's not NHL calibre yet.

He seems like a guy who needed some AHL time before playing. That seems unlikely to happen, especially with what the AHL is going to look like this season. I wonder if the best thing to do would be to see if another team is interested in him and trading him there for futures. Might save some goodwill with future Russian imports.

 

[Bullfrog]

I missed the game, but just finished reading this thread and watching the game-in-six. Based on what they included, I'm guessing they had trouble finding six minutes of worthy material?

 

[Guilt Trip]

With Thornton and Robertson nearing returns and guys like Engvall, Anderson, Boyd, and Petan all outperforming him to various levels it might be getting time to end the Barabanov experiment. He's arguably 17th on the forward depth chart now.

The team gets pretty caved in defensively when he's out there - at least, so far in his limited minutes. There's more to his game than we've seen, but he's not NHL calibre yet.

He seems like a guy who needed some AHL time before playing. That seems unlikely to happen, especially with what the AHL is going to look like this season. I wonder if the best thing to do would be to see if another team is interested in him and trading him there for futures. Might save some goodwill with future Russian imports.

I think he could def use some AHL time but I wouldn't trade him. I can see them sending him to the Marlies only if they play in Canada. It's quite obvious though that Keefe doesn't trust him enough yet. He plays 6:20, 2 mins less then everyone else a game on the 4th line so I don't see him as underacheiving. He's been on the ice for 2 goals against, 1 goal for. I'd actually like to see him get a chance with JT's line just to see if there's anything there.
I think it's too early to throw in the towel on him. 43 games to go so lots can happen. I'm still hoping for Vesey to wake up and not fall down all the time.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I think he could def use some AHL time but I wouldn't trade him. I can see them sending him to the Marlies only if they play in Canada. It's quite obvious though that Keefe doesn't trust him enough yet. He plays 6:20, 2 mins less then everyone else a game on the 4th line so I don't see him as underacheiving. He's been on the ice for 2 goals against, 1 goal for. I'd actually like to see him get a chance with JT's line just to see if there's anything there.
I think it's too early to throw in the towel on him. 43 games to go so lots can happen. I'm still hoping for Vesey to wake up and not fall down all the time.

The problem is there's a clause in his contract that allows him to go back to Russia if he's not on the NHL roster. So sure, if he's fine either hanging out on the taxi squad all season long or playing for the Marlies, keep him around. But if we have to continue playing him every few games to keep him from bolting we're probably better off just cutting ties one way or another.

Again he's 17th on my depth chart for forwards right now. Even with 3 injuries he shouldn't really be in the line-up over more deserving players.

 

[Highlander]

KHL is winding down right now so I think he will stick around.

 

[Guilt Trip]

I think he could def use some AHL time but I wouldn't trade him. I can see them sending him to the Marlies only if they play in Canada. It's quite obvious though that Keefe doesn't trust him enough yet. He plays 6:20, 2 mins less then everyone else a game on the 4th line so I don't see him as underacheiving. He's been on the ice for 2 goals against, 1 goal for. I'd actually like to see him get a chance with JT's line just to see if there's anything there.
I think it's too early to throw in the towel on him. 43 games to go so lots can happen. I'm still hoping for Vesey to wake up and not fall down all the time.

The problem is there's a clause in his contract that allows him to go back to Russia if he's not on the NHL roster. So sure, if he's fine either hanging out on the taxi squad all season long or playing for the Marlies, keep him around. But if we have to continue playing him every few games to keep him from bolting we're probably better off just cutting ties one way or another.

Again he's 17th on my depth chart for forwards right now. Even with 3 injuries he shouldn't really be in the line-up over more deserving players.

Lehtonen has the same clause. He hasn't technically been on the NHL roster for most of the season anyway. He's been on the taxi squad earning AHL money. They're not playing him every so often to keep him from bolting. I think they're bringing him along slowly just like with Lehtonen. We'll see what happens with him.