NHL 2016-17

[HoofedInTheChest]

The St. Louis Blues have fired head coach Ken Hitchcock. Mike Yeo will take over head coaching duties.

Just in time for the Leafs to roll in on Thursday, and hopefully with a better effort.

[MutuelClerk]

We outshot Dallas 2-1 but I didn't like the effort either. Hitchcock said this was his last season in St. Louis. He was right, it ended sooner than he thought.

[Greyfox]

Originally Posted by HoofedInTheChest

The Hartford Islanders has a nice ring to it, where else can they play?

Queens.

[Greyfox]

Originally Posted by HoofedInTheChest

The St. Louis Blues have fired head coach Ken Hitchcock. Mike Yeo will take over head coaching duties.

Hitch had Yeo looking over his shoulder all year.
He knew the writing was on the wall.
Hitchcock is a brilliant hockey mind.

[HoofedInTheChest]

Originally Posted by Greyfox

Queens.

What’s in Queens?

The Islanders need an arena plan by the end of this season, or this will have a snowball effect next year. They lost some impactful guys last summer due to the uncertainty on the Island, and if they lose Tavares as well they are dead in the water... and no, i don’t want him in Toronto.

[Greyfox]

Originally Posted by HoofedInTheChest

What’s in Queens?

A new arena.
See--> http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/...eens-1.3690182

[HoofedInTheChest]

Originally Posted by Greyfox

A new arena.
See--> http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/...eens-1.3690182

Cool, i hope it works out for them.

[HoofedInTheChest]

This and that...

Toronto forward Mitch Marner has been named the NHL's rookie of the month for January, becoming the third Maple Leaf to win the award over the first four months of the season.

Patrick Sharp: "Whenever the Stars aren’t on the ice, I am watching the #Leafs. They’re exciting. Great for the league."

Toronto Maple Leafs hire Jacques Caron as a special assignment coach.

The NHL's top-selling sweaters, Oct. 1-Dec. 31:

1. Sidney Crosby
2. Auston Matthews
3. Patrick Kane
4. Jonathan Toews
5. Connor McDavid

[woodtoo]

Good luck against St. Louis tonite.
Jets had one of their better games against them Tues. hopefully reaching that next level both Leafs and Jets need to attain respectability.
Our 3 rookies are firing on all cylinder's. Josh Morrissey, while not playing to his offensive potential has never missed a beat especially covering for Buffs' frequent brain lapses. And Trouba will earn his big payday with his excellent play. ( cant imagine if he sat the whole year.)

[HoofedInTheChest]

Sad day in Leafland, the Goat has been sent back to the minors.

This game makes me nervous, the Blues will be playing playoff hockey tonight with the coaching change, i just hope we can get to their sh*tty goaltending early.

[woodtoo]

He's been dehorned.

[MutuelClerk]

So it's looking like the Leafs are starting the second half of the season the way we began the season. Tentative, lacking confidence, a goalie who isn't at his best right now. No focus, a little selfish. Jake being Jake. stop reading your headlines. The effort for most of the season has been stellar. Is this team thinking about the playoffs, hearing about the playoffs over the break in this teams head? Something from the first half is missing. This is why Babcock gets the big bucks. Hopefully he figures it out. On to Beantown.

[MutuelClerk]

The Goat will be back. He will play a lot next season. Sending him down and not having to protect him in the expansion draft is smart. He seem to fit in nicely when he was here. Goat 2017.

[HoofedInTheChest]

Originally Posted by MutuelClerk

So it's looking like the Leafs are starting the second half of the season the way we began the season. Tentative, lacking confidence, a goalie who isn't at his best right now. No focus, a little selfish. Jake being Jake. stop reading your headlines. The effort for most of the season has been stellar. Is this team thinking about the playoffs, hearing about the playoffs over the break in this teams head? Something from the first half is missing. This is why Babcock gets the big bucks. Hopefully he figures it out. On to Beantown.

The Leafs are very reliant on their goaltending, and he deserves a lot of the credit for their success so far, but if Andersen goes into a funk, so does the team. This is part of their development, next season i expect the team to improve on their shot suppression and limiting quality scoring chances, Andersen is facing way too many shots during a game, and that will wear you down.

The offence has dried up for some strange reason (except for Marner). The rookie wall might be rearing it’s ugly head with certain players, that or fatigue is starting to set in, i expected it from Matthews seeing that he only played 53 games last season. Marner should be fine seeing that he played over 100 games last season averaging 30 minutes of ice time per game, that kid doesn’t need “jumper cables” before a game. The rest of the rookies went deep into the playoffs last season with the Marlies, but i don’t think anything can prepare you for a schedule like this.

Every team hits a ditch at some point in the season, i just hope they don’t get panic pants and make a move this month to try and correct their deficiencies.... it’s a development year.

[HoofedInTheChest]

The Goat doesn’t need “Protection”, he is in his second year of pro hockey and is ineligible for the expansion draft. The Leafs do not have any “Protection” issues when it comes to the expansion draft, they’re one of the few teams that won’t be losing any of their quality assets, Kerby Rychel is the only lame duck, and i’m fine with that.

After looking at Ben Smith’s numbers last night, they should have kept the Goat up with the team. They want him to get more ice time with the Marlies, and feel he is better off with the Marlies for his development, i disagree. I get why they sent him down, there is a logjam of pro contracts and the Goat is waiver exempt, so therefore they don’t lose any assets.

We know what we have in Smith or Froese as a fourth line centre, they are what they are, but there is a higher ceiling with the Goat, he is definitely a 4C, and could possibly develop into a 3C, he just needs to add more offence.