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Preseason: Leafs @ Habs - Sept. 22nd, 7:30pm - TSN4, TSN 1050

CarltonTheBear

CarltonTheBear

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Bibeau and Sparks will split the goaltending duties tonight. Very likely that Marner makes his Leafs preseason debut as well. We'll have roster/line-up notes closer to around the morning skate.
 
This is who's making the trip to Montreal:

Arcobello
Bailey
Boyes
Frattin
Froese
Gauthier
Glencross
Holland
Hyman
Kapanen
Komarov
Leivo
Lepisic
Marner
Nylander
Soshnikov
Timashov

Campbell
Dermott
Fraser
Gardiner
Harrington
Loov
Nielsen
Valiev

Bibeau
Sparks

A lot of young guys and players on the bubble. Could be fun if Kapanen, Marner, Nylander, Soshnikov, and Timashov all play.
 
Mark Masters tweeted these lines from the morning skate:

Komarov-Leipsic-Marner
Glencross-Kapanen-Hyman
Leivo-Gauthier-Bailey
Frattin-Froese-Soshnikov

He mentioned that some players who will play were resting from their game last night and weren't at skate. The team also needs to have a minimum of 8 "veteran" players in the line-up, and as it stands there's only 4 (Komarov, Glencross, Frattin, Marner). Gardiner and Fraser will probably play on defence so that's 6. Expect 2 of Holland, Arcobello, and Boyes to play as well to get that number to the minimum requirement.

Also, Marner said that he'll be playing wing tonight with Nylander, so expect Leipsic to get the bump from that line.
 
Hm, so Komarov-Nylander-Marner?  Should be fun :-)

Wonder if that also means Glencross-Holland-Hyman (to get enough veterans in the lineup, also Kapanen is a winger, right?)

Hope that Leivo-Gauthier-Bailey stays intact for gametime (and kicks ass).
 
The Habs penalty in overtime made the 3-on-3 into a 4-on-3 advantage for the Leafs leading to Gardiner's game winner.

"It?s exciting as it is," said Gardiner. "It?s great for the league, especially when you can start on the power play. You?re pretty much expected to score."

Babcock had praise for several Leafs:
...Gardiner was "our best player by a mile," and also had praise for Nylander, Nikita Soshnikov and young defencemen Travis Dermott and Andrew Neilson, among others.

"It?s not an NHL game, but our guys hung in there and we found a way to win in Montreal," Babcock said.


http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/gardiner-scores-in-overtime-as-leafs-beat-canadiens/
 
It'll be tough for players like Frattin, Fraser, and Arcobello to make this team. The puck just dies on their sticks, whereas players like Nylander, Timashov, Dermott, Marner can really hold it to develop plays. Their play without the puck will send them back down to juniors/Marlies though.
 
Bender said:
Yeah I'd say Nylander and Soshnikov looked very good.

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Nylander was less tentative than his first game, and yeah, Soshnikov looked pretty good. Dermott and Nielsen looked good on D too. ( Gardiner was the best player overall I thought tho )
 
Tigger said:
Bender said:
Yeah I'd say Nylander and Soshnikov looked very good.

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Click to expand...

Nylander was less tentative than his first game, and yeah, Soshnikov looked pretty good. Dermott and Nielsen looked good on D too. ( Gardiner was the best player overall I thought tho )
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Babcock agrees.
 
herman said:
It'll be tough for players like Frattin, Fraser, and Arcobello to make this team. The puck just dies on their sticks, whereas players like Nylander, Timashov, Dermott, Marner can really hold it to develop plays. Their play without the puck will send them back down to juniors/Marlies though.
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I got a kick out of the game review (Montreal) on MLHS the other day:

Not much has changed in the world of Mark Fraser. Besides his obvious mobility limitations, his stick is where plays go to die. He was fighting it all game and at one point got turned inside out by Zack Kassian. At another point, behind the Leaf net, Fraser lost the puck in his feet briefly before firing a simple D-to-D pass knee high at Travis Dermott, who did well knock it down out of the air, settle it down, and get it moving up ice.

Wasn't the knee high pass a Ron Wilson thing?
 
I'm excited to see what Gardiner and Rielly can do with a coach that really understand how to use them and how valuable their skills are.
 
bustaheims said:
I'm excited to see what Gardiner and Rielly can do with a coach that really understand how to use them and how valuable their skills are.
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I agree.  It's going to be great when Babcock reigns in Gardiner's stupid skate the puck up the ice approach.  I want him hitting center ice and dumping it into the offensive zone like a good like soldier.  None of this puck possession nonsense.
 
I'm as big of a Gardiner fan as anybody here, there's one play that I see him doing all the time that bugs me though and I wonder if it gets corrected. When an opposing forward dumps the puck into our zone and engages in a chase for it with Gardiner, he often lets up and almost allows the forward to get the puck first. Instead of trying to get to the puck first he tries to put himself in a better position to defend a 1-on-1 scenario with the forward having the puck in the corner.

Now, this is a play that I see defencemen making fairly often. Phaneuf does it too quite a bit. But the thing is Phaneuf has to do it because he's often not the first to the puck in those races. Gardiner's in the upper-echelon of skaters in the league so I'd rather see him more focused on being first on the puck and either skating away with it behind the net or ringing it around the boards to his partner or winger. Anyway, something I'll definitely be keeping an eye on. I always wondered if it was strictly a coaching thing, but I've seen him do it a few times already in pre-season.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
I'm as big of a Gardiner fan as anybody here, there's one play that I see him doing all the time that bugs me though and I wonder if it gets corrected. When an opposing forward dumps the puck into our zone and engages in a chase for it with Gardiner, he often lets up and almost allows the forward to get the puck first. Instead of trying to get to the puck first he tries to put himself in a better position to defend a 1-on-1 scenario with the forward having the puck in the corner.

Now, this is a play that I see defencemen making fairly often. Phaneuf does it too quite a bit. But the thing is Phaneuf has to do it because he's often not the first to the puck in those races. Gardiner's in the upper-echelon of skaters in the league so I'd rather see him more focused on being first on the puck and either skating away with it behind the net or ringing it around the boards to his partner or winger. Anyway, something I'll definitely be keeping an eye on. I always wondered if it was strictly a coaching thing, but I've seen him do it a few times already in pre-season.
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Well I think there's a reason for that.  The removal of the goalies' ability to play the puck outside the trapezoid area, and removal of the red line, have meant that forwards are coming in on D faster than ever.  Unless it's a clear cut situation where he can grab the puck and go away from the oncoming player, if he doesn't engage and "pick" (or whatever you'd like to call it) the oncoming player then he's leaving himself open to being creamed.  It feels at least like there have been a ton of injuries as a result of D retrieving pucks and getting crushed.

Not saying he's right to do this in every scenario, will of course be context-dependent.  I'm sure there are situations where he could better use his skating ability to get it away from a forechecker.  But I can see the reasoning.
 
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