MLHS’ Anthony Petrielli joined The FAN Morning Show on Sportsnet 590 to discuss the Maple Leafs’ roster through 30 games, their needs on defense, and the crisis in confidence Ilya Samsonov is experiencing in net.
Petrielli on whether the Leafs‘ lineup stacks up against anybody in the league:
As a regular season team, yes, but as a playoff team, no. They clearly need help on defense. Until they add at least one quality defenseman, I don’t think they are there as a team that can do damage. I think they know that. They have been forthcoming about it. It is kind of incomplete.
For a regular season game in December or January, they are as good as anybody.
Petrielli on whether Chris Tanev changes the conversation about the Leafs‘ blue line entirely:
I don’t know if it would entirely change the math. You would need Timothy Liljegren to play really well. You would need Jake McCabe to continue playing really well. He struggled in the playoffs last year. And you would also need Chris Tanev to stay healthy, which is as big of a question mark as any of those things considering he is in his mid-30s, and with the way that he plays, he is constantly banged up and nicked up. It accumulates over time for anybody but especially a player in the back half of his career.
That said, I do think they would have enough pieces to put together a defense that can do the trick. It wouldn’t be Colorado’s defense from a few years ago when they won the Cup, but it could be Pittsburgh’s defense when they won the Cup.
Petrielli on whether Jake McCabe is a proper top-four defenseman:
It is fair to say he could be a top-four defenseman as an exclusively second-pairing type of guy. I don’t think anyone is thinking he is a top-pairing, top-minutes type of player.
I also think he is a good example of how long it takes players to settle in. By and large, he struggled after he was acquired, and a big part of it was where he was coming from. It’s a player going from a really bad team to a really good team, and he has never been on a good team. I think there is a really big learning curve and adjustment.
It took him until about a month ago to really look comfortable and settle in. Even at the beginning of this season, some of the decisions he was making looked like he was forcing it. He was being unnecessarily aggressive offensively. Now, he has kind of settled down.
He quietly has seven points in his last seven games. I think he is kind of settling into where you would want to see him. I don’t know if some of that has to do with him being forced onto the right side with weaker defensemen. It may have forced him to calm down and not be so aggressive offensively the way he was in the playoffs when he was on the left with TJ Brodie.
He is a useful player who is a part of the solution here.
Petrielli on giving Liljegren some runway in a top-four role:
You have to use the time that you have in the regular season. You already see it on certain plays — it is nice to have right-handed defensemen on the right side and left-handed defensemen on the left side.
To no fault of Brodie’s, we’ve seen the number of times it goes to him up the wall and the best thing he can do it is stop up and backhand it down into the corner. There are plays to be made, even if it is just throwing a puck to the net with bodies there. He can’t do it from that side, and in the playoffs, those margins are emphasized.
We’ve seen Brodie’s game slowly decline. It is not like he and Rielly have been fantastic this season. I think Rielly has been really good, and Brodie has been okay.
With Liljegren, you have to remember he has only played 154 games in the league. There is tons of room there for him to continue to improve, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go back to the Brodie-McCabe if for no other reason than protecting the lead late. It would still probably make sense, but for the flow of the game in the first period at five-on-five — in terms of the flow, fluidity, and proper handedness — in a playoff game, you would still want Liljegren there.
Petrielli on Max Domi’s role and fit so far:
I am hesitant to say third-line center. I’ll call it a scoring bottom-six center. They really do platoon between him and Kampf. Kampf has actually been playing more than him by and large lately. As a scoring center, I think it is fine.
I don’t think it’s a question of him going to the wing. I don’t think he is good on the wing; he didn’t move his feet and he constantly got stuck in the mud. He was not getting the puck out or breaking out well at all. I think we are still seeing a few of those turnovers at center, but he gets away with it a little more with more space to roam in the middle of the ice.
In a playoff series, I don’t think he and Robertson can play together at least from what we have seen so far. I just don’t think that is a line that they will ever trust in a tie game. If they are going to be useful, you need to be able to trust this line to break a game open. Keefe won’t, so he is going to go back to David Kampf on a checking third line, and it will be the same old, “If the top guys aren’t doing it, nobody is doing it,” situation.
Petrielli on whether the scoring depth has improved this season:
I think they have more guys capable of making a play. Not to knock a guy — he is no longer here — but we saw the number of times when Alex Kerfoot had a 2-on-1 over the years and you wouldn’t even flinch. You are not even excited when he is crossing the blue line. It wasn’t shocking. Certain guys are good at certain things. He is a checking forward. He is not going to go down and rip one into the net.
I do think they have a little bit more in terms of players who can do those kinds of things. Even on a lower scale, you look at Noah Gregor compared to Zach Aston-Reese. One of those two guys can go down the ice and rip a puck into the net, and it is not Zach Aston-Reese.
They have guys who are capable of having a moment. What does that mean? I am not sure, but I still think they need another forward regardless.
Petrielli on whether Brad Treliving has to be aggressive about buying before the deadline:
If they are competing for the division title — and they are right now — he doesn’t have any choice but to be a buyer of some capacity. The one thing I wonder about with him: Will he be a lot more guarded about acquiring a pure rental? Ryan O’Reilly ended up being a pure rental, and Nick Foligno ended up being a pure rental. They gave up first-round picks for both of them.
I have a hard time seeing him coming in and giving up a first-round pick for a pure rental, and they don’t have a second-round pick. I could see him giving up a first, but it would be for a guy who comes with term or upside or there is an extension in place. That would be my surprise — if they give up a first-round pick for a rental who leaves in the offseason for nothing after 20-plus games.
He seems a little bit more guarded on that side of things, but it would be wild for him not to buy. He has to buy.
Petrielli on how to manage Ilya Samsonov’s struggles:
I would imagine he still gets a game a week no matter what to, at a minimum, dip his toe in the water.
Part of me wonders about getting him on the road. We see that with guys when they are struggling — getting them out of the area or the building when they are struggling sometimes shakes it up.
It is clearly between the ears. I don’t think anybody thinks he isn’t a talented player. Skill-wise, he has it, and he has always had it as a first-round pick as a goalie. In Washington, it was the same sort of case with issues mentally that impacted his play. He never really hit the level they wanted.
In Toronto, he started to hit it last year, and now we are kind of seeing it regress. The strange thing about it all is that it seems like when there is pressure from the other goalie playing well, it is not helping his game. His best stint was immediately after Woll got hurt when the net was his.
Samsonov played well for a few, but then when Martin Jones played well, it went back down. That is how the season started, too, with Joseph Woll. He instantly put pressure on Samsonov, and it kind of started tilting.
Maybe they have to work with him on being more of a platoon goalie, but that is really the current day and age in goaltending. It is about platooning.
The thing I will always go back to is that his series against Tampa was the best goaltending playoff series the team has had since Ed Belfour. They don’t win that series with any other goalie they’ve had over the past 15 years.
