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.

I agree JT's contract is not as bad as people think. He's still a fantastic player. And I do get that:
a) if the cap went up as it was supposed to the deal would probably still be close to fair value, and
b) he took a discount to come here
but on pure cap% vs value analysis somewhere in the 8-9M range would be a lot more fair for him today.

And yea Muzzin's deal is the other concerning one. But not the worst in the world, when he's on his game he's truly a high end shutdown D. Loved him being paired with Brodie end of last season, though I dont know who would play with Rielly this year (Lily breakout?)

The players you tend to compare him to are usually RFAs though, and recent examples of UFAs signed in covid cap. JT is starting the back half of his contract. He way overperformed in the front half remember. You can't just look at a contract today and say "bad contract shouldn't have signed" you have to look at the body of work so long as he is still performing at a high level, which he is. More to that he shot way under expected and i think people are unreasonably down on him as a result. Given that im not even convinced he isnt overall still playin at 11M value. His contract has been about as good as we could have hoped and anyone saying otherwise is frankly stupid.

Muzz's issue is injury and slowing down. Im not overly worried about him. He isnt producing a massive surplus or anything but I wouldnt say he is a negative at all.

Yeah I agree but wouldn’t you say the rushes are caused a lot of times by players trying to look for a set play when it’s neutralized, or when they don’t have the capability to consistently make a carry?

I don’t think they practice having to defend the rush much tbh. It’s like they don’t expect to give it up, they expect that their puck possession is so effective that the opposition won’t ever pick them off. Of course that is the right way of thinking, but to execute at that level is not so easy.

The players looking for a play works out more than it burns us. It can be hard to see but the numbers work.

Its like how its proven to be better to give up a breakaway then a 2-on-1. Looks and feels worse but we know it works out in our favour.

The best thing we can do now is work on that NZD to make the gap larger

Well... they should be practicing it. The goalies they have are not top level that the team can just expect the goalie to bail them out of these odd man rushes.

Odd man rushes happen way too often for my liking.

For sure it works out well when it's executed right. But I just wonder if certain guys like Kerfoot and Engvall shouldn't be looking for this type of play.

Honestly I think it starts with deployment, guys like Muzzin-Holl, Kampf's line need to understand they are here to play defence and shut top guys down, so make the simple play instead of trying to make fancy breakout passes and pinches which they're not suited for.

Its works for all players. Engvall in particular is very effective, but quietly so

Yeah Engvall and Kerfoot are not bad at the cycle game. But they've been here a while, they've had a chance to get better at puck carrying. What r ur thoughts on Holl's failed passes and pinches?

I think Holl is a 3rd pair dman, and expecting more from him is weird. Yeah, he makes dumb mistakes. He also has some pretty decent upside too and can play up the lineup in a pinch. Not too many 3RDs can offer more than that

In the last few games I remember the top two lines giving up odd man rushes, not the bottom six. If the top guys don't have their game together, how can anyone expect the bottom guys to?

Bottom line is, odd man rushes early in the season is not a huge deal but the thing is we have seen these same odd man rushes late in the season AND IN THE PLAYOFFS. Most of the time it's the top guys and they need to figure it out.

Different roles. Top line guys are here to play puck possession, when you make high risk plays it’s inevitable, they out produce the deficits most times and did enough for them to win vs TB. Point, Kucherov & Stamkos we’re literally held to 1 goal at 5v5. The bottom 6, guys like Holl, Muzzin & Lyabushkin are here to play defence, hold the line for point shots & crash the net, but they think they’re McDavid / Makar every shift, hence why you see the turnovers by Kerfoot, Mikheyev & Blackwell.

I don’t know how he played so good for 19/20 and most of 20/21. But I’m done with him at this point

Won't lie, that is an awful position to take given your qualifier

You wanted to expose Marner at the expansion draft? That's a horrible idea. You don't expose 90 point, 2 way players in expansion draft just because they are overpaid a tad.