The Geekiing-Out Post
I was so giddy watching the Leafs' 5-2 win over the Avs today, and not just because of the final score.
We scored 3 power-play goals in the second period, including two just 22 seconds apart during the four-minute PP. The boys had been terrible on PPs for about two months now (and there's really no other way to put it) and it was really exciting to see them finally break through.
Our vaunted PP had a spectacular start to the season but has been barely watchable since December. It was downright mind-boggling to see so much talent on the ice together (Matthews, Marner, Rielly, Tavares and Kadri for the first unit) generate so little with man advantage.
The other day against the Rangers, we peppered their backup goalie, Alexandar Georgiev, with 23 shots on four power play opportunities alone. 23 shots!! And we didn't score any.
Against Montreal earlier, we never even properly set up in the zone. It got so frustrating that Babs and his assistant in charge of PP, Jim Hiller, were caught on camera doing this.
Having watched the rise and mostly the fall of our PP, I was really pleased to see these new setups work. I am going to geek out and try to break down the changes.
1st PPG by Matthews
The one thing that stands out from this goal is the movement of the guys without the puck. At the start of the clip, Kadri, who usually takes the bumper spot in the slot, skates all the way to the point to play the puck to Rielly, and then moves back into his usual area.
Rielly then sends it to Marner along the right half-boards, and from there, Mitch can make so many things happen.
Now, when our PP got off to a hot start, this is where Marner used to make cross-ice pass to Matthews on the left wing for one of his patented toe-drag-plus-snap-shot combo. He got a few goals on such plays early on, but the opposing teams figured things out and they've been collapsing on Matthews of late to keep him from taking even a decent shot.
Instead, Marner looks to Tavares, who is below the goal line. He used to position himself at the top of the crease, looking for tip-ins or rebounds, but in the past couple of games, he moved behind the net and tried to feed it out to the slot for Naz or Matthews.
It finally worked this time. Three Avalanche penalty killers are caught puck-watching and that leaves Matthews wide open inside the left circle.
The pass looked a little off, but Matthews took it and fired it home in almost one motion. Great job getting himself open like that, too.
The low-key great moment in this sequence is Kadri lifting the stick of Erik Johnson. Didn't have a direct bearing on the scoring play but probably distracted the D-man momentarily.
2nd PPG by Kadri
Again, the boys here are creating space by skating effectively without the puck. Tavares controls the puck along the right half-boards, and drops it to Marner as he glides into the top of the crease. Kadri sneaks out from near the top of the crease to the high slot, a bit farther from the net than usual.
Marner circles back and gives it back to Rielly at the point. And as he passes it to Matthews to his left, this is where things get really interesting.
This is basically the same play as the first PPG, except they're running it on the left side and Matthews is the passer from the left half-boards.
As soon as Matthews takes the puck, two PKers collapse on him. That leaves Tavares wide open, just right of the goalie Varlamov, as he receives the pass.
And Patrik Nemeth scrambles to cover Tavares, who ends up making a nifty one-touch pass to Kadri. Nemeth is caught going the other way as Kadri, who has now moved closer to the net, wastes no time firing it home.
A beautifully executed play. I can watch this all day.
3rd PPG by Kapanen
This came off a broken play by our second unit. Gardiner is now at the point. Marleau is perched at the top of the crease like Tavares. Nylander (more on him later) plays the Marner spot on the right wing.
He fires a shot through traffic with Marleau ready to pounce on a rebound. Johnsson is in the bumper spot and he wants to get in on the action, too.
So that leaves Kapanen wide open on the left wing. All four PKers are trying to clear the puck after Nylander's shot, and somehow it trickles out to Kapanen's stick for an easy goal. This was an unassisted goal, though I thought Marleau touched the puck during the scramble.
Willie's Back
Watch this play by Nylander to set up Kadri's second of the game.
A 3-goal lead in the third period, and no one would have said anything if Willie just gave up on the play and gone off for a change. It would have been perfectly normal.
Instead, what does he do? As the puck trickles into the Avs' zone, Nylander is sprinting from the center ice. Outskates and outworks Ryan Graves, and sees Naz charging toward the net, and makes an incredible pass for a tap-in.
That, ladies and gentleman, is our third line. And how many third line RW can score a goal like this?
It's nice to have scoring spread around all four lines. Our top-six guys will keep doing their things. Brown-Kadri-Nylander has been our most effective line in the past couple of games. And Johnsson has been lights out on the fourth line, too.
It's a good problem to have for Babs. To get ready for the playoffs, I would try to stagger all the skills in the top six and put our grinders in the bottom six. Big guns will have to play big minutes, and why not surround them with as much talent as you can?
Johnsson has earned at least an opportunity to see some substantial minutes. As the left-handed shooting LW with more grit than people think, I think he'd be a great fit in Hyman's spot on the top line. Johnsson would work in the corners just as well and bring more scoring touch.
If Nylander continues to get better, he should slide next to Matthews, with Hyman moving to his LW spot in a reunion from last year's unit. I love Kapanen as much as any Leafs fan, and Kadri has been playing really well together with Nylander. But having Kapenen and Marleau flank Naz will still give us a solid third line, better than most third lines in the league.
That leaves Lindholm-Gauthier-Brown as the fourth line. When the bench is shortened in the playoffs, they won't be playing much anyway. Brown has seen his production drop every year since his rookie season, and it's not as though he hasn't been given a chance to put up some numbers.
Tyler Ennis is finally healthy now after breaking a foot earlier, and maybe he should get a long look for a spot on the fourth line.
Anyhoo, the road trip continues in Vegas on Friday my time. Can't wait to see our power play again.
We scored 3 power-play goals in the second period, including two just 22 seconds apart during the four-minute PP. The boys had been terrible on PPs for about two months now (and there's really no other way to put it) and it was really exciting to see them finally break through.
Our vaunted PP had a spectacular start to the season but has been barely watchable since December. It was downright mind-boggling to see so much talent on the ice together (Matthews, Marner, Rielly, Tavares and Kadri for the first unit) generate so little with man advantage.
The other day against the Rangers, we peppered their backup goalie, Alexandar Georgiev, with 23 shots on four power play opportunities alone. 23 shots!! And we didn't score any.
Against Montreal earlier, we never even properly set up in the zone. It got so frustrating that Babs and his assistant in charge of PP, Jim Hiller, were caught on camera doing this.
Well, the two must have done something right after those back-to-back games. I saw glimpses of some tweaks against NYR, and changes were even more pronounced and effective today.Babcock and assistant coach Jim Hiller having a heated conversation pic.twitter.com/WhzMmGP0Dx— Flintor (@TheFlintor) 2019년 2월 10일
Having watched the rise and mostly the fall of our PP, I was really pleased to see these new setups work. I am going to geek out and try to break down the changes.
1st PPG by Matthews
The one thing that stands out from this goal is the movement of the guys without the puck. At the start of the clip, Kadri, who usually takes the bumper spot in the slot, skates all the way to the point to play the puck to Rielly, and then moves back into his usual area.
Rielly then sends it to Marner along the right half-boards, and from there, Mitch can make so many things happen.
Now, when our PP got off to a hot start, this is where Marner used to make cross-ice pass to Matthews on the left wing for one of his patented toe-drag-plus-snap-shot combo. He got a few goals on such plays early on, but the opposing teams figured things out and they've been collapsing on Matthews of late to keep him from taking even a decent shot.
Instead, Marner looks to Tavares, who is below the goal line. He used to position himself at the top of the crease, looking for tip-ins or rebounds, but in the past couple of games, he moved behind the net and tried to feed it out to the slot for Naz or Matthews.
It finally worked this time. Three Avalanche penalty killers are caught puck-watching and that leaves Matthews wide open inside the left circle.
The pass looked a little off, but Matthews took it and fired it home in almost one motion. Great job getting himself open like that, too.
The low-key great moment in this sequence is Kadri lifting the stick of Erik Johnson. Didn't have a direct bearing on the scoring play but probably distracted the D-man momentarily.
2nd PPG by Kadri
Again, the boys here are creating space by skating effectively without the puck. Tavares controls the puck along the right half-boards, and drops it to Marner as he glides into the top of the crease. Kadri sneaks out from near the top of the crease to the high slot, a bit farther from the net than usual.
Marner circles back and gives it back to Rielly at the point. And as he passes it to Matthews to his left, this is where things get really interesting.
This is basically the same play as the first PPG, except they're running it on the left side and Matthews is the passer from the left half-boards.
As soon as Matthews takes the puck, two PKers collapse on him. That leaves Tavares wide open, just right of the goalie Varlamov, as he receives the pass.
And Patrik Nemeth scrambles to cover Tavares, who ends up making a nifty one-touch pass to Kadri. Nemeth is caught going the other way as Kadri, who has now moved closer to the net, wastes no time firing it home.
A beautifully executed play. I can watch this all day.
3rd PPG by Kapanen
This came off a broken play by our second unit. Gardiner is now at the point. Marleau is perched at the top of the crease like Tavares. Nylander (more on him later) plays the Marner spot on the right wing.
He fires a shot through traffic with Marleau ready to pounce on a rebound. Johnsson is in the bumper spot and he wants to get in on the action, too.
So that leaves Kapanen wide open on the left wing. All four PKers are trying to clear the puck after Nylander's shot, and somehow it trickles out to Kapanen's stick for an easy goal. This was an unassisted goal, though I thought Marleau touched the puck during the scramble.
Willie's Back
Watch this play by Nylander to set up Kadri's second of the game.
A 3-goal lead in the third period, and no one would have said anything if Willie just gave up on the play and gone off for a change. It would have been perfectly normal.
Instead, what does he do? As the puck trickles into the Avs' zone, Nylander is sprinting from the center ice. Outskates and outworks Ryan Graves, and sees Naz charging toward the net, and makes an incredible pass for a tap-in.
That, ladies and gentleman, is our third line. And how many third line RW can score a goal like this?
It's nice to have scoring spread around all four lines. Our top-six guys will keep doing their things. Brown-Kadri-Nylander has been our most effective line in the past couple of games. And Johnsson has been lights out on the fourth line, too.
It's a good problem to have for Babs. To get ready for the playoffs, I would try to stagger all the skills in the top six and put our grinders in the bottom six. Big guns will have to play big minutes, and why not surround them with as much talent as you can?
Johnsson has earned at least an opportunity to see some substantial minutes. As the left-handed shooting LW with more grit than people think, I think he'd be a great fit in Hyman's spot on the top line. Johnsson would work in the corners just as well and bring more scoring touch.
If Nylander continues to get better, he should slide next to Matthews, with Hyman moving to his LW spot in a reunion from last year's unit. I love Kapanen as much as any Leafs fan, and Kadri has been playing really well together with Nylander. But having Kapenen and Marleau flank Naz will still give us a solid third line, better than most third lines in the league.
That leaves Lindholm-Gauthier-Brown as the fourth line. When the bench is shortened in the playoffs, they won't be playing much anyway. Brown has seen his production drop every year since his rookie season, and it's not as though he hasn't been given a chance to put up some numbers.
Tyler Ennis is finally healthy now after breaking a foot earlier, and maybe he should get a long look for a spot on the fourth line.
Anyhoo, the road trip continues in Vegas on Friday my time. Can't wait to see our power play again.
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