Amoroq

Sure, sign Parise. maybe trade for Lou, but imo the number 1 issue this team has is toughness. Not the kind of toughness that just invented fire, but the kind of toughness that not only knows how to start fires, but can contribute the odd high end invention.

2 players that Burke should look at are Jordan Tootoo, and Zenon Konopka. Tootoo is rugged and can give you some key points, while Konopka is good on the draw and replaces Steckle.

With the Leafs on the verge of signing 2006 draft pick super euro pest Leo Komarov who some say could end up being the next Jarkko Ruutu.

Imagine a 4th line of Tootoo-Konopka-Komarov.

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viperstar

Konopka didn't want to be a Leaf last year. In fact I'm pretty sure he stated it. Why would he come here? And toughness? Is toughness the reason we didn't make the play offs? Last i checked it was a lack of defensive play, goaltending and a porous PK to start the year. Would taking more PIM help that PK (which you get with Konopka and Tootoo) ? probably not. We need to bring in someone else to help Phaneuf on that top pairing. No offense to Gunnar who is a top 4 Dman. but by no means a number 2 guy. He is a #4 on most teams and should be on our 2nd pairing. Phaneuf needs some help to help take the pressure on him and ease his minutes.

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Amoroq

We were an easy team to play, the team didn't have an answer for the rough physical play against Kessel. They just let it happen.

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TylerDCA

The issue isn't so much 4th line toughness, but the entire top 9 was easy to play against.

Bozak, Connolly, Grabovski, Connolly are all similar players.

Same with Kessel, Lupul, MacArthur, even Kulemin.

Now the exceptions are kind of Kulemin and Lupul. But Kulemin had a terrible year, and the team was completely lost after Lupul went down.

The fact is, that you can have some smaller players and be successful, but you can't have an entire team of smaller skilled guys.

Yes Grabovski has some sand paper, but he doesn't match up well against 6'4 monster dmen.

The simple fact is that when lining up against tough teams, they don't have anything like a big skilled forward. There is no one with size and aggression on the top 3 lines. That is a huge problem.

Signing a bunch of guys to play 5-8min a game on the 4th line will not help.

This team needs forwards who can cycle the puck, and control play for long periods, so that our large and not particularly quick dmen, aren't always trying to defend against the cycle while our small forwards lose almost every battle along the wall.

This was a team that was very good off the rush, but the problem was that the D was constantly tired from always playing in their own end waiting for that one rush that was going to score.

Ohhh... and the goaltending sucked.

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