Chill.. Hyman isnt the problem..

But pairing ****ing Gardiner with Zaitsev and leaving Ozhiganov off the lineup is!

I agree but i would add Zaitsev in my opinion isn't the issue as well i think that zaitsev put with a player like dermott who is more 2 way than gardiner will make zaitsev more complete. I know alot of people may disagree but how often in the last 2 years has he played with anyone other than a one dimentional gardiner or gotten any PP time cause of our lack of depth in PK dman? I honestly think putting Gardiner with Hainsey or Ozzy and Zaitsev with Dermott and balancing the lines a bit more i honestly think this team could become scary good.

Yeah. I was suggesting this pair to break up like a year ago.. Gardiner without Zaitsev and with Hainsey last year during few game stretch was like 3 point per game defenceman and Zaitsev with Dermott looked like a completely different person.. Gardiner on 3rd pairing with Ozzy (Hainsey is bad) would make Kadris scoring go up. All of the lineup would be great..

Muzzin-Rielly (whatever.. I dont like Rielly on right side but whatever I can do)
Dermott-Zaitsev
Gardiner-Ozhiganov
Hainsey

Did you see gardiner last night get lost in our end lose sight of the puck and just skate right away from it... it was almost comical....

So what is the answer?

My three solutions.

1. Reilly/Zaitsev
Gardiner/muzzin

Muzzin and gardiner actually looked to have some chemistry when they were together.

2. Trade Gardiner, try to get some futures back... din’t see that happening...

3. Sit gardiner or put him on the bottom pair.

I think our pairs would be much stronger as:

Reilly/zaitsev
Muzzin/ozhiganov
Dermott/hainsey or gardiner/Dermott

Any other ideas, again I don’t see our defence being as much of a problem as our forwards...

Hyman-Tavares-marner
Kappanen-Matthews-nylander
Johnsson-Kadri-marleau
Lindholm-gauthier-brown

These lines would kil...

I’d rather see hainsey and zaitsev swapped. Let hainsey be the stay at home guy for Gardiner and let Dermott and Zaitsev build chemistry as 2-way dmen that are capable of reading each other when one decides to pinch

My solution is to put Rielly with Dermott which worked and Rielly looked off on right side last night, put Muzzin with Zaitsev and Gardiner with Ron or Igor on 3rd pairing. Prefer Ozhiganov. Gardiner looks lost out there.. Zaitsev with Gardiner just doesnt work.. one thing it helped is that Zaitsev has became solid defensively.. but he aint robot to cover all Gardiners pathetic bs.

Dermott was looking like best himself with Zaitsev and same goes for Zaitsev.. Gardiner needs caretaker in own zone.. Hainsey or Ozhiganov are that..

I agree about gardiner last night i thought he was playing like a player checking out on his teammates and if this is true trade him now and keep the players who truly want to try and win a cup together on the starting roster. He has good value and if done properly we can get a player that helps long term but no matter what gardiners lack of willingness to try to defend is hair pulling frustrating.

I disagree about Dermott/Reilly pairing right now dermott is still developing and isn't ready for this responsibility. But Ozzy or hainsey is exactly the player that can at least be what zaitsev was defensively for Gardiner he just has so little effort to play 2 way he is going to be this offseasons shattenkirk a gifted Offensive dman who has little to no willingness to clean up his own mistakes and is trying to always hit an open player who is not really open.

Hyman is but one problem. That pairing is another.

In that case swap Dermott and gardiner. I think gardiner could be better utilized against weaker opposition.

Zaitsev and Rielly were brutal together a couple of years ago.



Gardiner is playing like a guy without a contract next season afraid to leave the only team he's ever known. Playing scared doesn't work. Sign or trade him.

The thing is if thats the case he's also making him less valuable to other teams if they need to have an elite shutdown dman to make him worth 6-7 million dollars
then the line now becomes worth 12 million dollars and he still may cause liabilities defensively so he may scare off teams and drop his value.

Was the D really the issue last night? Let’s give the boys a few games here before we start casting people off

This is a common problem with offensive dmen. Rielly needs someone like Hainsey to cover his ass and Rielly is lightyears behind Gardiner in defensive awareness. Gardiner is trying to do too much out there and Zaitsev is of the same mindset. They're a horrible pairing but the problem is Zaitsev playing too high, not Gardiner.

It's been an issue for years. If Tampa is the league benchmark, the Leafs have several issues.

I think your a little confused 1st reilly may never be on the PK but he has a very complete game. 2nd Zaitsev is usually playing closer to the leafs goal than Gardiner he is only playing too high cause he could probably play right on the blue line all game and still not have enough time to clean up gardiners errors. And to state Gardiner has defensive awareness is a joke right if he understood how to defend he would also know why it's stupid to pass the puck right to the other team on our own blue line.

I agree with you, Goulet - the line up choices can baffle me sometimes. As do some of his systems... Babs will do Babs things, and that's tolerable when they're winning, but witnessing this last run leaves me scratching my head.. the players get critized all the time when things aren't going well, by the media, the fanbase and Babcock himself. Babcock shouldn't be beyond reproach .

The things that stand out and bother me are a) his rhetoric about how players need to constantly adapt their game (should hold true for Babcock too.. change up the systems, the break outs, the PP - good god, it sucks right now! and with all that talent..), b) the obvious double standard that exists for different players over the last two years (i.e. Hyman, Brown, Marleau, Hainsey, Lindholm can do no wrong.. Johnsson, Kappy, Nylander, Dermot, Sparks and others look afraid to make mistakes).. c) his compulsive desire to line match, and then being out played at that game by other coaches, and d) ice time allocation amongst players... I don't think Matthews is even in the top 40 for centremen icetime per game across the league??

I became a fan of Babs when he took a bottom placed sqaud, dressed like 9 rookies the next year, let them play to their strengths, and took him to the playoffs.. now?? I don't know, but if the leafs bow out in the 1st round again this year I expect Babcock to have his feet held to the fire.. not suggesting he gets fired, but he needs to stop offloading all the responsibility onto his players, show he can adapt pre game and in game, , and be held held accountable for the outcome..

I don't like the constant line shuffles. It takes time for players to develop chemistry. I'd keep Tavares-Marner together. Marleau-Matthews worked well, and Nylander has two seasons of experience with Matthews. I'd prefer:

Hyman-Tavares-Marner
Marleau-Matthews-Nylander
Brown-Kadri-Kapanen
Johnsson-Gauthier-Lindholm

Muzzin will help replace Gardiner next year, but make no mistake, having only one right-handed shot on defense is sub-optimal. I disagree with some of the comments above. Gardiner is a step above Muzzin. But it may make sense to trade Gardiner for a RHD.

Rielly - new RHD
Muzzin - Zaitsev
Dermott - Hainsey
Ozzy

You think Rielly is light years behind Gardiner with his defensive awareness? Alright you have zero credibility now my friend. Gardiner is caught watching the puck every game. He's the most absent defender in his own zone but makes up for it with his puck moving skills that can mask much of his faults.

Rielly is a #1 defenceman who is not only awesome offensively but he holds his own when playing against top forwards. He's not a shut down d but he's good defensively.

A few things I've read here thats gotta be pointed out.

1) Zaitsev should be kept away from Rielly at all costs until he remembers how to play hockey again. Why destroy 2 people when you just gotta dog house one of them. The Dermott-Zaitsev duo was actually not bad, and less ice time for Zaitsev is better for him as hes mainly used on the PK for special

2) Break up Zaitsev and Gardiner forever. Seriously. Thats ****ing attrocious. Unless Babs is being an ass and is trying to lessen Gardiners value so he resigns, then thats a different story. But this combo is hot garbage.

3) Lines should be Gardiner-Muzzin/Hainsey ------- Rielly-Muzzin/Hainsey ------- Dermott- Zaitsev.

4) Forwards im not gonna get into too much. They have way too much skill to be playing like a beer league. Just a slump really. Except for Nylander. He's really gotta get his **** sorted out

5) Hot take- Babcock isn't the guy that can take this team to the next level. I don't know why. Age caught up to him? Ego and money gone to his head? Behind the scenes stuff to lessen Marner&Matthews? I don't know. Hes way too smart to be coaching a team like this and have an absolute bird brain on the bench.

Babs isn't perfect but he's not at all what you say here. He does for sure adapt and change, he does have players he likes more than others but it mainly because their compete level is where it should be. The #1 issue with this squad is they don't have a high enough compete level all the time. They play like winning is just going to happen and give 75% effort. Sure Babs deserves some blame for that but really if this team gets better at playing hard. They'll be much better.

If he craps on his players like he does on mark masters than easy to see why they have stopped playing for him ..... I dont understand his hate on the muzzin trade either.

yeah, but did you see his shoes!? I will give Babcock points for that one