Monday Mailbag: Happy Thanksgiving

To start things off, we here at TheLeafsNation.com would like to wish all of our Canadian readers (aka, most of our readers) a Happy Thanksgiving. We’re very thankful for all the time you’ve invested into reading our content and giving your feedback. Even when it’s not positive, it’s appreciated, and for the most part it happens to be positive. We look forward to becoming even better as time progresses, and it couldn’t be done without all of your support. If you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, we hope your day off was awesome, at least. We’re also thankful for all of these questions you asked – some of them are going to be answered below!

To submit your question, please send a tweet to @TLNdc or leave it in these comments.

I don’t think that there’s a player that jumps out at you as a Panik panic button call up. If the team is unhappy with their depth at centre and feels that Petri Kontiola’s foot speed is where they want it, he’s probably the first guy to get the nod. Beyond that, nobody really stands out.

The worst Leaf so far? Well, after last night’s performance, nobody will allow for me to pick somebody from the first line, despite them being hemmed in their own zone for most of the start of this year. I’m going to go with Jonathan Bernier for now; he’s really struggling to stop pucks, though it’s a very limited sample and some of it may also be driven by not being 100% from his injury. 

The best? Three assists and fantastic team-relative possession numbers despite tough zone starts is enough for me to give that to Stuart Percy. This is the opposite end of the spectrum; I don’t think he’s the best defenceman on the team by any means, but he’s been the best through three games. Anything can change, and probably will. In the meantime, he’s atop the bunch.

I’m going to take this as “why did Carlyle scratch Gardiner?”. In short, it’s the move that makes the most “political” sense. Franson had to come in just off the fact he was ready to play and people wanted a shakeup after two losses. Scratching Dion Phaneuf would’ve caused a city-wide firestorm of speculation that makes what we’re seeing with Gardiner look like amateur angle. Narratives would’ve been formed for the newcomers if he chose Roman Polak or Stephane Robidas. Percy has played very well. You’re basically stuck with Gardiner or Rielly, and Gardiner’s first two games weren’t particularly hot. Besides, they now have half a decade to get his forgiveness.

Rogers has the rights to all the nationally broadcasted Leafs games; in this respect, they swallowed up CBC. They also have the regional rights that they did last year, and stripped LeafsTV of all broadcasts (it was the same crew with less potential viewership). TSN still has the same games that they did last season, and will actually start having more than ever beginning next year thanks to a renegotiated regional deal.

Let’s take this bowling style, Justin, and see whose shots STRIKED the back of the net three games in a row. Wait, I got it! 

Bozie forever.