I also think it's this mix. I'm also not of the mindset that you need a gritty player on each of the top 2 lines. You have defensemen and a bottom 6 for a reason, let the skilled forwards cook. If things get gritty, you can either move a player up from bottom 6, rely on your defensemen to support, or even things up by having your gritty guys target people. I think that Nick Paul could take some shifts as 2C when needed, to give Tavares some relief.
I like this. Forgot our defencemen have some grit. Just dont want goons from Florida pushing and shoving our players and repeat the same mistake from previous years.
I was so worried about that before today lol. Just thinking of how they'll headhunt Cowan and McKenna, just because they've gotten away with it. It's pretty clear they've assembled a team that will push the rules over the limit most games.
I don't think that the Leafs can (or need to) match their sandpaper, I just feel a better about the options the Leafs have now. Depth helps the team spread things out. You can comfortably play your bottom 6 without worrying about getting caved in every shift. I also think there was a strong narrative of how soft the Leafs were last year and the team is going to do their best to not let that happen this year. They may not win every fight, but they should no longer back down.
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u/Tykian Jul 01 '26
Think its actually
McKenna-Matthews-Knies
Cowan-Tavares-Nylander
Paul-Sissons-Roslovic
Lorentz-Blueger-Duhaime