Welcome back to another episode of Back to Excited. Today, we discussed:
- 1:30 - Leafs preseason talk and projected lineups
- 10:00 - Frederik Gauthier
- 12:00 - Leafs D pairings
- 17:00 - The ability of the Leafs to score against the run of play
- 19:20 - Our thoughts on the goalies
- 21:20 - Fulemin talks about offer sheets
- 24:52 - Should we be worried about Marner’s contract
- 45:50 - We swoon over the fact that we’re adding Nylander to this offensive group
- 48:26 - Are we still unconcerned with the Nylander situation
- 56:40 - Can Nazem Kadri win the Selke (no)
- 1:00:00 - Has Steven Stamkos declined?
- 1:04:00 - Various things we were wrong about
- 1:07:07 - Leafs first unit power play/
One note: in the Marner discussion, I briefly mention power plays as the reason scoring went up last year. That is actually not entirely true. About 20% of the increase in scoring is attributable to increased power play success and opportunities, but the rest is at even strength. However, it doesn’t change the overall point that scoring 90 points is very hard, and shouldn’t be expected for Marner, nor does it make it clear that last year’s offensive levels will be sustained.
As always, you can find us on Soundcloud, iTunes, and everywhere else. Let us know what contract you think Marner will get below, and if we’re right for not really worrying about it until Marner actually puts up numbers commensurate with a contract of that size.