[Mark Masters] William Nylander on starting at centre again: “I’m excited. I told Chief that the most important thing is I can’t just play one game if you want to try centre. We agree on that …” Why was experiment so short last year? “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask my old coach (smile)”
by alphacheese
19 Comments
Well there it is…..
https://preview.redd.it/4gjjggg45tpd1.png?width=582&format=png&auto=webp&s=5dca722ae9cd07697b855a57f7c2548d6d1dbce6
Well they can ask Keefe pretty quickly considering the season starts with 3 in 4 nights lol. Habs then NJ b2b on the road and then Pens for Leafs home opener Saturday night October 12th. Busy start out of the gate. Hope they get off to a good start!
I feel like this kinda says a lot, but I’m not quite sure if I’m just reading too much into it
Keefe was as stubborn as Babcock. He just wasnt a general asshole like Babcock.
Willy at Center is a bad idea.
Hope it doesn’t last much longer than 1 game tbh
Did he just call Berube “chief”?
Gonna be fun when he misses a d assignment or something and berube puts him back at wing on game 2 or something lol
Why are they moving him from the wing? He’s prob gonna get 50 this year. We need him to take on a bigger role?
You gotta give him 10 regular season games.
If he does camp, preseason, and 10 regular season games and it’s an absolute disaster, you now definitively know this man can not play C.
And if he looks just okay, give it more time.
I understand it will be a different story if the team is 3-7 and Willy has 4 points. But short of the entire team being a train wreck, give it time to grow.
Keefe’s “blender” was so frustrating as a fan, I can’t imagine it for the players. It’s like the guy has been in hockey for four decades and never heard of chemistry.
This can’t be right. So much of this fanbase has told me we’ve tried Nylander there and it doesn’t work?!
You’re telling me we actually haven’t given him an extended look before and that a lot of this fanbase is wrong? Shocking
The coaching and management have done a piss poor job in developing our top talent guys. If they get that kind of money then the majority of them NEED to be playing centre.
So does Nylander want to play center? That’s what this sounds like, and Keefe didn’t let him spread his wings?
This is huge if true, imo
before everyone rips keefe apart for not letting willy play Center for longer, let’s see how he actually does at center first. After berube gives willy that bigger sample size there’s still a chance that he just doesn’t grasp it and will be back to the wing. I personally think he’s a winger and an elite one at that so i don’t put any blame on keefe there for having it last only 2 games
Keefe had a good system but i hated when he tried new things. Oh this d pairing with no chemistry gave the puck away on their first possession? Let’s never try it again until game 7 of the playoffs
Berube was a great hire, its a shame he was hired this year and not last