NHL Transactions, Injuries & Rumours

[The BBKL Insider]

you can always tell who watches hockey and who watches volleyball on here.

you just gotta read comments.

[Nick]

So when we talk championship calibre teams, u wudnt say:

ANA: GETZLAF/FOWLER/BEAUCH?

Healthy scratch 2 of last 5 games ?

[kimmer]

Just talking in terms of icetime average over the season skillswise easy to say fowler is #1 but beauch had played every situation well over the year

And shut up bbkl insider you dont even know how to spell brady skjei

[The BBKL Insider]

Cam Folwer is elite, i dont even know who traded me him, but thank you.

[kimmer]

And shall we eventually do a past post dig-up of all posts regarding BBKL excited about dions signing and how IMPORTANT he is munching up enornous minutes being our WELL DESERVED #1 dman shud get??
And also talks about how he is "irreplaceable"? LOL

[Nick]

Huge over-reaction going on here. Dion is having a bad couple of games, at a time that we simply couldn't afford to. Lots of the same group here was calling for him to be at the Olympic camp.

Dion is a good dman, he's reliable in his own end, very very hard to play against, never hesitates to block a shot or lay a hit -> however he's not a puck moving dman, and he's being asked to be that.

He is not Karlsson, OEL, Keith or the likes who can out-skate their mistakes, however he's also not Franson, Souray or Mezaros who's foot speed causes their problems.


I was pumped when we traded for Phaneuf, and I still am happy to have him on the team, is he a top 15 dman in the NHL? nope not with his current play, however he is easily the best dman on our team. Pair Dion with Reilly or Gardiner, let them be the offensive one, Dion can do what he is very good at, tough stable d, heavy shot, and laying the boom. There is nothing I hate more than seeing Dion and Franson or Gleason on the ice together, there's no chance we leave our zone with speed or #.


My only comment regarding SOG for the leafs, we give the points up all game every night, and there are a lot of 'easy' shots from that, our sv%/workload shows that, shot quality does matter, jeff carter in the slot compared to dan hamhuis from the point is two very different things. Now we also have horrible breakdowns and scrambles where we have un-covered opposing players - but outside shots are not necessarily a bad thing when guys are in position, gotta let your goalie make the saves and I actually think we do a fairly good job of that. Watching Boston highlights this for me, from outside the circles they let guys shoot all the time, the opposing players without the puck are tied up, boxed out and often off-balance, being scared of that low quality shot would result in mayhem (IMO).


Edit: FU fair deals steve... very few players I wanted to trade less than fowler, momentary loss in judgement resulted in trading away a dman I knew was better than his # last year.

[bills09]

Does anyone realize how fucked this teams defence would be without Dion.
He is not the problem, lose Randy and that plug franson

[The BBKL Insider]

i dont think it's a over-reaction at all. I actually like dion, i just dont think he makes the best decisions.

Now, if he were paired with a true top pairing dman, i dont think we'd see those mistakes nearly as often...he doesn't really have much to rely on.

[The BBKL Insider]

Does anyone realize how fucked this teams defence would be without Dion.
He is not the problem, lose Randy and that plug franson

ya randy is shit, and franson is by far our worst player.


i'm still amazed that we rejected MDZ for franson (even bob mckenzie reported that)

[kimmer]

Glen healey also said dion in real life shud be a #3 dman not #1

[Nick]

MDZ a healthy scratch in NSH & NYR...

[The BBKL Insider]

Dion is good, i actually like him, i just think our defense is so weak we have to over play him. He also doesn't really have another 'big' named dman back there to help him out.

Most teams have a very realible top pairing. We dont have that.

[bills09]

Most teams don't have pp specialists playing 20+ minutes
I honestly beleive Percy or Granberg would be an immediate upgrade on Franson
Rielly or Gardiner can play top pp

[kimmer]

This is how i want ideally the leafs to slot their future D:

(insert true #1 here) - gardiner
Phaneuf - rielly
Percy/finn - Gunnarsson/gleason

But i know that wont happen so lets do

Phaneuf - Gardiner
Rielly - gunnarsson

[cliff11]

you can always tell who watches hockey and who watches volleyball on here.

you just gotta read comments.

One of my favourite comments

[thom54]

Dion is good, i actually like him, i just think our defense is so weak we have to over play him. He also doesn't really have another 'big' named dman back there to help him out.

Most teams have a very realible top pairing. We dont have that.

+1 +1 +1
He needs guys to take the ridiculous burden he's placed in, off of him a bit. You'll see more O from him then.

Fucking FIRE Carlyle.

[kimmer]

This is how i want ideally the leafs to slot their future D:

(insert true #1 here) - gardiner
Phaneuf - rielly
Percy/finn - Gunnarsson/gleason

But i know that wont happen so lets do

This is the ONLY way to "relieve" pressure from phaneuf properly

[Tony]

Shit defense with a defensive minded coach should be automatic dismissal.

[cliff11]

Id love for the leafs to trade for elder

[brockbirds]

When has Phaneuf ever been a good (read that as 'elite') defensive defenceman? Don't read that as criticism, I think he's worth his salary and one of the top 30 D in the league, just an offensive defenceman instead of a defensive defenceman. Starting him in his own zone against the other teams best players is a waste of his best asset - offense.

It's hilarious/depressing that Carlyle as a player is essentially what he should be looking for from Phaneuf, but instead he neuters that possibility by giving him defence focused assignments.