I never called him a scoring sensation in junior. I agree his value in pro hockey was his pugilistic abilities but he also scored more than 100 NHL goals and he was a pretty good skater. And did so being drastically undersized. Give the man his props. He had the heart of a lion out there. Which is why he is so beloved.
Leafs 2026-2027 Season
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I'm not surprised. Rielly always backs off for easy opposition entries. Never challenges the line because he'll get beat.
Chayka for sure will do something sometime this season. He tried to do it over the summer but no takers.
Raddysh needs a defense partner that can deny entries so they don't have to spend time in the defensive zone so much.
Stecher is a waiver claim so you can't expect much from him. Leafs have him as the 3rd highest D usage on the PK.
So in a nutshell what Leafs need to do is a defense partner for Raddysh that can deny entries and kill penalties and an upgrade on Stecher who can deny entries and kill penalties. OEL can take over Rielly's 2nd PP duties instead of being the 4th most utilized D on the PK. That won't be easy to do since it involves also trading Rielly.
Chayka for sure will do something sometime this season. He tried to do it over the summer but no takers.
Raddysh needs a defense partner that can deny entries so they don't have to spend time in the defensive zone so much.
Stecher is a waiver claim so you can't expect much from him. Leafs have him as the 3rd highest D usage on the PK.
So in a nutshell what Leafs need to do is a defense partner for Raddysh that can deny entries and kill penalties and an upgrade on Stecher who can deny entries and kill penalties. OEL can take over Rielly's 2nd PP duties instead of being the 4th most utilized D on the PK. That won't be easy to do since it involves also trading Rielly.
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I never considered him an enforcer. A fighter yes but enforcer no way. He didn't have heart. He was all about himself and money. Didn't care if the team won or lost as long as he got attention from the fans. His career would've been over sooner rather than later had he'd not been traded to Toronto. It's sad that you like many TML fans can't see that.
TML is the center of the hockey universe.
Fans can love a player for fighting alone or hate you with so much vile they'll throw garbage in your front lawn.
Some won't know what a hockey player looks like if they saw one on TV ... quote from Phil Kessel who has hearing issues with 3 cup rings in his ear. He wasn't a 4th line plug.
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Matthews is scoring goals at a rate same as Ovechkin at same age 29 yet all you hear is complain complain complain.
Tie Domi is so much better than him yada yada yada. That is the most outrageous thing I have ever heard.
Barkov has the same demeanour as Matthews yet there's nothing wrong with Barkov because he has a team full of dirty players around him. Switch teams with Barkov and Matthews and it would be the glorious Matthews and Barkov sucks.
They can't see the forest for the trees. Matthews won a gold medal as captain yet all you hear is he sucks as captain of the Leafs.
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My point isn't about Domi vs Matthews. My point is that he was a very very overrated player who didn't do much for the team yet is considered a legend only because he played in this market. Anywhere else and he would've been a career AHL player at best. He weaseled his way to stay on the team despite efforts from coaches and GMs to rid the team of him. These comments only started because another member disagreed when I said he was a shitty person which is 100% true.
We're here to express our opinions on sports related matters, not throwing person attacks. Calling someone a shitty person is a personal attack without justification. There've been many many hockey players worse than Domi but you singled him out. I just wanted to know what made you hate him so much. Another example other than what's been speculated, if you were able to confirm that you knew he had called someone a shitty person without justification, then yeah I'd have no problem with that.
I thought this was McKenna's best game. I liked how he backchecked on the PP and stripped the puck from Parker Kelly's short-handed rush; the Leafs went the other way, and Matthews scored. McKenna didn't get an assist on that play, but he did on the Nylander goal.
Matthews made a direct pass to Nylander but Marchenko intercepted it to rob the assist from McKenna.
Every game he looks better. It's a sure thing he'll be playing in OT the next time that rolls around.
He was on the 1st PP with Tavares out.
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Top 8 currently Nylander is 4th. This is quite the group. Top three Edmonton players. Top player from Colorado. Top player from Vegas. Top player from defending Cup champs and then there's two Leafs who often get misquidedly maligned.
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Matthews had 4 pts and is even. Why didn't you mention him? So it does sound like you're misguidedly maligning Nylander. Leafs won by 3 yet Tanev was -1, Raddysh was -1, Marchenko was -1, and Roslovic was -2
Only 2 players were +2 Paul and Stecher. Next best was +1 and that was Nylander.
There's no plus for PP goals.
Leafs were matching Power with Power. Matthews line against MacKinnon and if you watch the game MacKinnon was flying out there and scoring. Matthews was playing with Nylander ... and that's a good thing.
Matthews and Nylander were the top 2 forwards in ice time and they won the game. Give them some credit. They rarely get it. People only look to bash them.
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I like Nylander, I'm not maligning him. I just think a player with 5 points is more likely to have a higher plus rating.
I explained why. Context is everything. They matched up against MacKinnon and MacKinnon was scoring.
Power play goals don't count towards a plus. They were the top 2 Leafs forwards in ice time. Most people don't see the forest for the trees so they'll pounce on your "only +1" and add another reason to dislike them. They don't want to hear anything good about them. It hurts their premise that they're shit and should be traded for a bag of pucks. Call it the Phil Kessel Principle.
If Barkov was playing for the Leafs he'd be shit too.
Knies was -30 last season. Worst on the team but people don't care. It only matters if it's Nylander.
They still think Knies is the best thing since sliced bread.
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The debate about plus/minus has been around for years and is interesting. One of the original arguments against it was if a player jumps on the ice during a line change and the other team happens to score, that player unjustly gets hit with a minus. It reminds me of how attitudes have changed about baseball pitchers won/lost record. When I was growing up a pitcher's win/loss record was the first thing you looked at, but not so much now. Some baseball fans pay no attention to it. Regarding plus/minus stats I always found it interesting to go back and look at the game sheet of Darryl Sittler's 10 point game.
