Sharks vs. Leafs - Oct. 19th, 7:30pm - SN+

[cabber24]

Shift chart

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Just an observation

After McKenna scored the go ahead goal about 5 mins into the 3rd
He and Lettieri saw less than a minute of ice after that
Blankenburg & MacEwen were similar

While protecting the lead
McCabe & Raddysh were used intensively followed by Rielly, OEL & Stecher
Ignoring the PP, Matthews, Sissons, Paul & Blueger seemed to get the bulk of the defensive effort and others to a lesser degree

Hate when teams play with the lead. If you're kicking ass, continue kicking ass and bury them!

 

[dappleganger]

The craziest thing to me is you can see what he's doing after the fact but a lot of the time players are either surprised he got them the puck or didn't go to the open area because they assumed he wouldn't be able to get the puck there. It's kind of wild to watch. I kind of wonder if in a way he should slightly dial back the creativity in order to make higher percentage plays because most of his linemates don't see the game as well as he does.

My assumption is that the pass or play isn't the "correct" one to make so it is catching his line mates off guard. Some of the plays do end up backfiring. Something McKenna will get better at.

 

[YYZ]

The craziest thing to me is you can see what he's doing after the fact but a lot of the time players are either surprised he got them the puck or didn't go to the open area because they assumed he wouldn't be able to get the puck there. It's kind of wild to watch. I kind of wonder if in a way he should slightly dial back the creativity in order to make higher percentage plays because most of his linemates don't see the game as well as he does.

McKenna is playing 5D chess, everyone else on the ice is playing Checkers.

 

[Frank E]

When on offense, I think McKenna looks like young Mitch Marner.

But he's no Mitch Marner on the defensive side of the puck. He may get there though...he's clearly got a lot of "hockey IQ" going on, and Marner's anticipation of where the play/puck was going is what makes him so good on both sides of the puck.

Mitch Marner rookie year (2016-17)

GP G A P +/- PIM PPG PPP SHG TOI/GP GWG OTG S S% FOW%

77

19

42

61

0

38

4

21

0

16:49

5

0

176

10.8

37.8

Gavin McKenna's first 10 games:

GP G A P +/- PIM PPG PPP SHG TOI/GP GWG OTG S S% FOW%

10

3

3

6

-5

4

1

2

0

14:06

1

0

18

16.7

0.0

Just for fun, I looked up Marner's first 10 games as a Leaf:

GP G A P +/- PIM PPG PPP SHG TOI/GP GWG OTG S S% FOW%

10

2

5

7

-3

12

0

0

0

16:43

1

0

25

8.0%

???

EDIT: sorry about the formatting guys, but you can figure it out.

 

[herman]

It's those new fandangled whippy sticks the kids are using these days.

 

[cabber24]

There's a lot of truth to this statement...according to TSN, the Leafs have killed 31 of 32 penalties thus far. I'm more comfortable watching their PK than their 5v5 lately.

Amazing!

You would think a team with a league-best PK would be higher in the standings. I think they're doing a lot right. The score could have been lopsided last night.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

You would think a team with a league-best PK would be higher in the standings.

5th best PP too. Just gotta figure out that pesky 5-on-5 play (where the Leafs rank 25th in GF%).

 

[herman]

Going into the draft, my concern with McKenna was not so much his ceiling, but whether or not his floor was juuuust solid enough that coaches would actually use him enough for his skillset to bear fruit.

The work that he put into his skating this offseason has paid off and raised his floor and ceiling substantially, in that he has the full set of tools to reach his potential. Whoever is advising him on offseason development did a bang up job building up one highly impactful skill. I would've expected a highly touted undersized playmaker to try to shore up the size weakness and add as much muscle as possible. Instead, they found a projectable element of his game that magnifies his strengths and mitigates weaknesses, and pushed it to another level (he actually lost weight).

McKenna is definitely not good defensively, but they're fixable issues over time and experience. At this stage of his career, it's on the coaching staff to try to best leverage his strengths as often as possible. Boy howdy does he have some standout game-breaking elements to his game.

I don't see the risk that he turns out like Patrik Laine given his abilities and maybe most importantly, his attitude.

 

[YYZ]

Going into the draft, my concern with McKenna was not so much his ceiling, but whether or not his floor was juuuust solid enough that coaches would actually use him enough for his skillset to bear fruit.

The work that he put into his skating this offseason has paid off and raised his floor and ceiling substantially, in that he has the full set of tools to reach his potential. Whoever is advising him on offseason development did a bang up job building up one highly impactful skill. I would've expected a highly touted undersized playmaker to try to shore up the size weakness and add as much muscle as possible. Instead, they found a projectable element of his game that magnifies his strengths and mitigates weaknesses, and pushed it to another level (he actually lost weight).

McKenna is definitely not good defensively, but they're fixable issues over time and experience. At this stage of his career, it's on the coaching staff to try to best leverage his strengths as often as possible. Boy howdy does he have some standout game-breaking elements to his game.

I don't see the risk that he turns out like Patrik Laine given his abilities and maybe most importantly, his attitude.

His game over game improvement is quite impressive. It's like he goes back to the Tavares Manor and re-compiles his entire hockey IQ with everything he just learned from the game. He seems exceptionally aware of what is going on around him.

The defensive side is there, we've seen him back-check and strip pucks. I think for a younger player it's trying to convince them they need to do that all the time. Thankfully he also has mentor in AM34 that is one of the best in the league at it.