ARE LEAFS COACHES GETTING BEST OUT OF TEAM

They need more grit and physicality and a stay at home defender or two. This team is also not playing as a team it seems.

1. I'm still not sure what our defensive system is: outnumbering opponents along the boards with intense pressure, or forming a square to protect the slot. I'm not sure the players know either. Enduring problem for several years it seems. Still too many players are caught puck watching away from the net. From the simplistic mind of a hockey fan, it seems that coaching is the issue on that one.

2. Barrie and Rielly struggle defensively. Barrie is clearly not playing with confidence. Just bringing him on top of his game would already help the team a great deal.

3. Marner shoots too much, and his shot % is among the lowest on the team. He needs to play his strengths, and feed teammates in good position to score. This is probably the pressure to live up to large contract.

4. The cap situation is the source of many (small) problems. Dubas could have used bridge deals (at least one), like many other teams did. Easy, and you save 3-4M in cap space. We would have had enough space to add a backup G and other depth signings, enough to fix remaining issues.

All very good points.

4. Dubas is counting on the cap to increase quite a bit in the next 2-3 years. I think the longer term contracts allows him a clear picture on what space he has to build with.

2. Rielly is playing hurt and I don’t think he has been horrible. I find your point in 1. To be the main issue. Team defence.

Good points, leaflet. And good points by Po, too. I agree that point 1 is the primary issue and a doubt there is a dman in the league that could fix that problem, it goes deeper than that.

A few others to add

5. There a disconnect between the roster that Dubas is building and the kind of team that Babcock wants to coach. I don't think he's coaching to the teams strengths.

6. Our special teams flat out suck. There's really no excuse for that with the skill we have.

7. Babcocks message is getting stale and the players are tuning him out. That's as much on the players as it is on the coach.

Also, Chihawk is not wrong.