Quoting: Analytics_are_good
It’s a bit of both, IMO. Obviously hindsight is 20/20 but a part of me wonders if TOR rushed into win-now mode too quickly, like after the 2019-20 season it was clear that their D core needed a full revamp outside Rielly. I wonder if they were too aggressive to give 31 year old Muzzin a big deal when they could’ve looked for younger less proven players and developed them to suit the system so that when Sandin, Dermott, Liljegren were ready everyone would be heading into their primes. Kinda like how COL did with the Toews trade, like maybe we could’ve traded for guys like Mike Reilly/ Jonas Siegenthaler/Kylington/Kulak. Like we can’t just expect to acquire other team’s proven players, you look PIT, COL, TB, all of them have players whom the coaching staff developed whether it’s homegrown or acquired as a low-risk project. I wonder if that’s something that TOR lacks, if that makes sense?
What I will say about Muzzin is he was fine when initially traded for but it takes some vision to walk away from an extension and find a younger D who could grow into the system and provide the competitiveness Leafs need. Dubas clearly didn't have enough vision to do something like that.
As for tactical vs player hockey sense, I mean there has to be a combination of both and what I have seen over the last 2 years at least is, a huge lack of hockey sense.
There's nothing wrong with pinching to keep the puck in the offensive zone but these players have not used (or lack) that sense of when to pinch and when to just be in the best position to defend.
The one thing that really bothers me is how all these players defend odd man rushes. I don't know if this is a coaching issue or player issue but how do you not stop the pass and let the goalie worry about the shot?
This is something learned quite early in hockey and yet this team seems to fail alot on these odd man rushes.