Joined: Jan. 2023
Posts: 1,092
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Sorry, long. Mute me if this is annoying and apologies to you if that’s the case. Also apologies if you do read but do not enjoy my opinion. I’m rendering an animation and it’s taking forever so typed stuff cause this situation bothers me and I have an opinion. RE: Leafs and Knies.
Players will cross the line in the playoffs and the refs will let them have 1 on 1 physical battles. This is primarily because in the playoffs, the “loser” of a physical battle tends to take much longer to give in, so the battles are prolonged and retaliation is a shift by shift occurrence, especially early in series, until individuals begin to bend the knee and avoid areas or opposition. Sometimes this turns into what would be roughing during the regular season.
This is “letting the boys play”, and has existed my entire life in the nhl playoffs.
Any vulnerable player (age, injury, tendency, maturity, fitness) will be targeted physically and mentally by the opposition or they aren’t doing it right. If that makes you uncomfortable, sorry; this is a feature of the highest level of completion. It doesn’t matter if it’s a potential hall of famer recovering from a major surgery, a hot goalie, or a fresh rookie - in fact those are all magnets. If your team isn’t doing this, they aren’t doing it right. Your team should politely shake the hands of the men who beat you and carry on.
In a sense, most series in the playoffs are a battle of wills, as success comes with a substantial hardship where one team must bend the other hard enough that they break. Rarely are series not this way. The only way to get your opponent to bend, then break, is to literally force them to by discouraging them from doing what they want to do. The opposition in every series will come up to the line and often cross the line attempting to break you. Your team has to do that too. The non-highly skilled members of your team unwilling to do that often end up being a player traded to a prolonged rebuild, as gms want the exact opposite on playoff rosters. A lot of this comes from the captain and assistants; as their role is to be the team’s identity and they typically get all the good ice time against the oppositions best.
Toronto knowingly skated a ~6’3” 20 year old fresh out of college into a top 6 net front role in the playoffs and he is often the lone “physical presence” on his line in that he’s going to the strong side wall or trying to take net front positioning without the puck. O’Rielly helps with this, but O’Rielly tends to cause an amplification of physical play because he is absurdly tenacious.
Knies is —-not ready—- (rightfully so, he’s 20 and I have nearly as many nhl games played as he does) for sustained playoff grind as a top 6 net front, which was expedited and forced by Florida targeting him physically. I guarantee Florida is upset he is out of the lineup as he tilted the ice their direction. He isn’t yet able to convert enough scoring chances into shots on net, he’s inviting physical response from the opposition that will ultimately punish him more during a playoff series because he isn’t strong enough yet, and he isn’t extremely useful in other roles yet. Nobody would be ready for this role at this experience level and age, especially considering that he’s doesn’t have line mates who can help much in the dirty areas. It isn’t his fault the opposition’s primary line against has over a thousand combined nhl games and is 6 years older on average.
That’s normal. Just because random media person says he’s “doing great” doesn’t mean he’s doing great. He isn’t doing great. Their job is to get you to click, not to actually be correct. They will sell you a truckload of hopium to get you to click more.
Knies has a bright future, but as somebody who has watched and played WAY too much hockey I can confidently say two opinions:
1. The Leafs are substantially better with Knies out of the lineup in the near term. Wildly better. If anybody thought using him against Florida’s only physical line, top scoring line, while surrounding him with puck possession skaters was a good idea that’s just silliness. NHL playoffs do not have safe spaces for the analytic nerds who can take responsibility for Knies brain momentarily being scrambled eggs. Going forward, use him sparingly when he’s back from injury. Rotating skaters to change the make-up of the roster has been used forever and has measurable benefits. If the entire roster is fully healthy and it were game 7 of the cup finals, he should not be guaranteed in the lineup because he is not ready for the role he is capable of in this specific moment in his career.
And:
2. Sheldon Keefe should be spending as much time looking for a new job as he does publicly commenting (whining) about specific physical interactions. It’s an awful look. It’s pitiful, which is one of the last terms used to describe a Stanley cup winner. Nobody cares whatsoever that at some outdoor game in the past some other hit happened just stfu. I’d suggest dial it down to 0 because it has been turned up to 11 far too long. Write post-it notes that say “stop whining” and stick them everywhere. Nobody wins a battle of wills while feeling sorry for themselves, and doing that from a leadership position is poison. If Sheldon/MLSE has issues with league officiating it should be a private communication. Sheldon Keefe is the one sending a 20 year old into a “physical” role directly against Florida’s only overly “physical” forward group. It’s pretty ridiculous really on so many levels. Florida is a mega soft team apart from 1 defenseman and 2 forwards.
The knies situation is like a magnified version of a suicide pass.
I predict the Leaves have a chance at giving up, but they also have a chance to find themselves. They did for a huge chunk of game 2. The road is ideal right now as it will eliminate all the sterile analytic matchup nonsense and it will get the players away from Toronto’s absurd media circus. If the Leaves cannot continue to find themselves, or give in and break, then I think the multiple years of watching the willpower of guys like John Tavares should end. Dude seems to exists for himself and not the team, although I’m not in the room to really know - all I see is what the broadcast shows me. From what I see Morgan Reilly is the Leafs captain, and is playing inspired hockey.
They should find a coach they trust to do the job instead of a guy who just does what the MLSE board and analytic team says to do, because it is entirely void of common sense, especially if the sample size is less than 5 and the rules are different.