The Marlies In Context - A Playoff Primer

[CarltonTheBear]

Can we not.

He only had 1 more goal than Laine did in that series.

 

[crazyperfectdevil]

That was quick, here's the schedule for the next round:

I can't say I've ever seen a 2-3-1-1 series schedule before.

one of the quarter finals this round went 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

 

[herman]

There were a couple of times this series that I thought, if this was the Leafs of yesteryear, they would've rolled over and given up when the going got tough.

This is never-quit attitude is what we have to look forward to on the Leafs in the years to come. Kapanen is really starting to turn into Kaptain Klutch. Carrick is still making me swoon over the Winnik trade. Connor Brown really looks like Sean William Scott.

And the Dicky. Dicky loves Soup. Dicky is the best.

I was a bit wary of the Keefe signing over the off season (hmm, Dubas hires his former coach from the Sault... derrr), but listening to his post-game pressers, he is really a student of the game and a really good teacher for developing players (and humans).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3K5cOGXMuI[/youtube]

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

Only good things come out of the Sault herman, you should know this by now.  Dubas, Keefe, Andrew Campbell, Matt Murray, me.

 

[herman]

Only good things come out of the Sault herman, you should know this by now.  Dubas, Keefe, Andrew Campbell, Matt Murray, me.

Granted. I'm just gunshy about buddy hiring since the Burke era.

 

[Frank E]

Only good things come out of the Sault herman, you should know this by now.  Dubas, Keefe, Andrew Campbell, Matt Murray, me.

Granted. I'm just gunshy about buddy hiring since the Burke era.

I think you have to be careful describing a business relationship as "buddy".

You hire good people, you move to another organization, and you want to surround yourself with good people for your own success.  Recruiting someone from a company you used to work for doesn't necessarily make that person a friend.

I've hired people from my past because I know they're good, and they're not my friends. 

 

[Highlander]

Only good things come out of the Sault herman, you should know this by now.  Dubas, Keefe, Andrew Campbell, Matt Murray, me.

Some others,  The Esposito bros and Ken Danby (he did the paintings of the Goalie and the guy tying his skates). Also did portraits of Gretsky

 

[louisstamos]

So, if the Memorial Cup ends before this is series is over, any chance Marner sees some ice time?

 

[L K]

So, if the Memorial Cup ends before this is series is over, any chance Marner sees some ice time?

Honestly, yes.  If Marner wants to keep playing, they would absolutely find a way to put him in the lineup.  No offense to Andreas Johnson but Marner is 10X the prospect that he is.  The Memorial Cup at its latest will end on the 27th for the Knights.  Marner could be with the team as early as Game 5 (not realistic as that would be the 28th) and most likely could be around for Game 6/7 of this series.  If he's healthy and wants to play some professional minutes, Keefe would find a way for him to play.  You don't turn down that kind of skill.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Honestly, yes.  If Marner wants to keep playing, they would absolutely find a way to put him in the lineup.  No offense to Andreas Johnson but Marner is 10X the prospect that he is.  The Memorial Cup at its latest will end on the 27th for the Knights.  Marner could be with the team as early as Game 5 (not realistic as that would be the 28th) and most likely could be around for Game 6/7 of this series.  If he's healthy and wants to play some professional minutes, Keefe would find a way for him to play.  You don't turn down that kind of skill.

At the same time I wouldn't entirely be surprised if the Leafs just said "you've played a lot of games this season, start your offseason and focus on next year".

 

[Coco-puffs]

So, if the Memorial Cup ends before this is series is over, any chance Marner sees some ice time?

Honestly, yes.  If Marner wants to keep playing, they would absolutely find a way to put him in the lineup.  No offense to Andreas Johnson but Marner is 10X the prospect that he is.  The Memorial Cup at its latest will end on the 27th for the Knights.  Marner could be with the team as early as Game 5 (not realistic as that would be the 28th) and most likely could be around for Game 6/7 of this series.  If he's healthy and wants to play some professional minutes, Keefe would find a way for him to play.  You don't turn down that kind of skill.

I'd agree.  They make it deep into this series or into the Calder Finals, Marner gets added to the roster and assuming Keefe doesn't see something in practice that would hold him back, he gets a shot.  It will be the first opportunity to see how he handles playing against men- pre-season games are essentially useless compared to AHL playoffs.

 

[Highlander]

Hershey has some very tough goon like Bastedo's on their team. If they go headhunting Nylander and our boys?then I can see some new version of the Clune Wars starting up. Time to bring back Freezer McLarin for his fistlike skills. I wish the agression would stop and we can appreciate real hockey. However "Peace thru Superior Firepower" still rings true, unfortunelty.

 

[herman]

The Marlies had ample opportunity to stoop to the Devil's level (which was clearly their game plan). Even when Johnson was elbowed in the head the only fight we got in was Hyman being attacked (and getting a baffling instigator called for getting his face filled with knuckles).

http://theleafsnation.com/2016/5/17/rich-clune-the-playoffs-and-picking-your-spots

Let's state the obvious here; the Leafs organization, in any of the leagues that it operates in, probably won't see a series quite like this one for a long time. The veteran-led Devils came to play for keeps; for many of these guys, the Calder Cup would be their highest plateau on this continent. Often, too, it crossed the line. It felt like every other period featured a hit that would get the Player Safety War Room in the league above into panic mode, most of which came from their opponents.

Some of that comes with the nature of a competitive game. Some of that comes with the fact that the officials would, on occasion, take "let them play" to a level where players knew they could get away with anything. The Marlies weren't exactly future Lady Byng Winners either. It was, at times, awful brutalist hockey that didn't even feel old-timey; it just felt reckless.

Fans in Toronto hit their boiling point on the issue while the team was on the road. Stuart Percy suffered a neck injury from a dirty hit in a rough Game 3 that involved the Marlies giving up late tying and winning goals. Andreas Johnson was knocked out by a vicious hit in Game 4, and Graham Black tried to do the same to Brandon Leipsic in Game 5.

Suddenly, the questions became "Why doesn't this team have an enforcer?" "Why isn't anybody going back at them?" and "When is Rich Clune going to retaliate?"

The short answer to that question was "never". The long answer? He was retaliating the entire time.

In the pursuit of shutting down the tropes of old-time hockey, we tend to dismiss some things that still remain true. Take "leadership" and "being good in the room"; most of us agree that these types of traits aren't enough to dress a bad player, or give a good one elite money, but it would also be foolish to dismiss the fact that a strong mental mindset in a competitive sport will help you succeed.

Clune is one of those guys who brings that to the room. "He does so much for our team, on and off the ice," said Connor Brown, who scored the opening goal in Game 7. "He's a real leader by example with the way he works". Others throughout the year have echoed the same, along with praise for his ability to keep the mood of the group in high spirits. Clune, who started the season on an AHL-contract, used his relentlessness to earn multiple call-ups to the Leafs and, in Andrew Campbells absence, wear the C for the Marlies for a few games.

The strategy of Rick Kowalsky and the Devils was as clear as day. Get on the Marlies physically, get them angry, score a quick goal while they're distracted, and then slow the game down until the final buzzer. In certain moments, it worked, but they were never going to run away with the series if they couldn't get Toronto to completely lose their cool. Which they never did.

After all, if your leader and resident tough guy sees no reason to lose his mind, why should the rest of you? There were two fights in this series; Clune didn't throw fists in either of them. He had 16 penalty minutes; 10 were for continuing to bark at his opponents with 11 seconds left in Game 6, four were for routine minor penalties, and two were for embellishing a spear by Joseph Blandisi, a call that still mystifies me.

Beyond that, though, he focused on playing hockey. He forechecked, he cycled, he set up two goals, and he scored the series winner. Even when he lost regular-season linemates Nikita Soshnikov and Frederik Gauthier to scratches and injuries, he didn't look out of place. Given that he tied an AHL career high in goals and set one in points, this shouldn't have been a huge shock. The fact that he didn't get distracted was the bigger shock to some, but even then, he knew that veering from the game plan was the wrong way to go.

"Our coaches instilled a lot of structure in our game and the message was stick to the structure, stick to our guns." said Clune after Game 7. "It's a playoff series, Albany's a great team. I'd put us and Albany against any other team in the league, two good teams going at it. Playoff hockey is unpredictable and we trusted Sheldon's message, which was to just stick to the system, and we did that, and it paid off."

 

[ZBBM]

Why expose Marner to goonery?

 

[bustaheims]

At the same time I wouldn't entirely be surprised if the Leafs just said "you've played a lot of games this season, start your offseason and focus on next year".

I imagine that will be how things play out. By the time the Memorial Cup is over, he'll have played ~90 games this year - which isn't an especially large number for a pro, but it is a for a junior aged player. They may bring him in to practice with the team for a bit, but I doubt he gets into any games unless there are significant injuries.

 

[herman]

At the same time I wouldn't entirely be surprised if the Leafs just said "you've played a lot of games this season, start your offseason and focus on next year".

I imagine that will be how things play out. By the time the Memorial Cup is over, he'll have played ~90 games this year - which isn't an especially large number for a pro, but it is a for a junior aged player. They may bring him in to practice with the team for a bit, but I doubt he gets into any games unless there are significant injuries.

There aren't any official numbers on this, but he also plays what appears to be nearly 30 min a game.

 

[Kin]

I confess that I'm saying this having seen none of the series but just by going from what's been said it strikes me that there needs to be way more of a disincentive for gooning in what is ostensibly a developmental league. Player suspensions can't really cut it either, there needs to be something on an organizational level that curbs that sort of thing. I don't really care about the Marlies winning, I do care about prospects being hurt.

 

[Frank E]

I confess that I'm saying this having seen none of the series but just by going from what's been said it strikes me that there needs to be way more of a disincentive for gooning in what is ostensibly a developmental league. Player suspensions can't really cut it either, there needs to be something on an organizational level that curbs that sort of thing. I don't really care about the Marlies winning, I do care about prospects being hurt.

I don't want to see anyone getting hurt, but this is a tough physical sport.  The league suspended that guy that took a head shot at Johnson for 10 games, and I think that's a pretty tough sentence.

The NHL is a tough league that demands you keep your head on a swivel at all times.  I'm not sure there's any other way to teach these prospects that than to expose them to some tough competition that plays a physical game and is willing to take the penalties that come from that type of game plan.

Eric Lindros was a guy that never took much of a hit in his junior years because he was bigger than everyone else on the ice, and so he got into some bad habits.  He paid a pretty big price for that at the NHL level. 

 

[Kin]

I don't want to see anyone getting hurt, but this is a tough physical sport.  The league suspended that guy that took a head shot at Johnson for 10 games, and I think that's a pretty tough sentence.

The NHL is a tough league that demands you keep your head on a swivel at all times.  I'm not sure there's any other way to teach these prospects that than to expose them to some tough competition that plays a physical game and is willing to take the penalties that come from that type of game plan.

Eric Lindros was a guy that never took much of a hit in his junior years because he was bigger than everyone else on the ice, and so he got into some bad habits.  He paid a pretty big price for that at the NHL level.

WE're not talking about hockey plays, we're talking about the sort of goonery that the NHL has actually done a good job of stamping out and as a result, NHL players don't really have to play with their heads on a swivel looking out for meatheads solely looking to injure other players because more and more those players aren't in the league. That you'd shunt them off to a developmental league is insane. It's like if in AA baseball they decided to mix things up by not lettting players wear helmets or if the NBADL were cooler with flagrant fouls than the NBA.

A 10 game suspension is ultimately meaningless in terms of providing a disincentive to teams to employ these kinds of guys and you're kidding yourself if you think the reason there are still goons in the AHL in a way there isn't really in the NHL is for any kind of instructional purpose. It's a reality of the fact that it's hard to sell tickets for minor league hockey and throwing fists still has some appeal to some people.

Those two things are at cross purposes, the NHL is making less and less room for goons. If the AHL is going to be a developmental league, it needs to follow suit.

 

[Deebo]

Is Dermott AHL eligible next year?

He turns 20 this December.