Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman last week on The Jeff Marek Show: Team Player or Sore Loser? on the Toronto Maple Leafs.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Matt Marchese: “If you look at their roster once they all get healthy, I think we all believe that Jake Muzzin is probably not going to be back this season, so it does open up..”
Friedman: “I would agree with that.”
Marchese: “So, the way their defense is playing right now, I don’t think that that is where the issue is. Do you think they would dare go out and dare I say acquire a top-six winger to play with (John) Tavares and (Mitch) Marner instead of going out to get a defenseman?”
Friedman: “I have wondered about that myself. I think it’s a very good question. The last time I looked into it, and this was probably over a month ago, I definitely got the impression it was defense first and forward later.
Now, has that changed? I don’t know but that was the feeling about a month, month and a half ago.
Marchese: “That was the one question. I know that the goaltending and everything was obviously top of mind and that’s clearly not an issue and defensively they’ve been good.
I’ve just always wondered, especially the way that they’ve scored goals this year, which hasn’t been at an alarming rate …
Where would you rank the top-six winger on the importance on this team because I always thought that this would be an issue cause obviously the Robertson injury does not help but I don’t think that they ever truly believed that he was going to be the guy to slot in there?
Friedman: “I think it’s an issue. I think you could make a real argument that in at least some of these series they’ve lost, not all of them but some of them, that goal scoring was the biggest problem.
I know the goaltending has had some concerns. I know that the defense has had some concerns but I do think in some of these series there have been times when they needed an extra scorer.
Marchese: “Like against Montreal.”
Friedman: “Yeah. And I’ve wondered if. Timo Meier scored a goal the other night against Calgary that you’d look at him and say, ‘boy, that guy would be a real nice fit on some of those lines.’
But, like I said, the last time I looked into it, was definitely given the impression it was defense first. We’ll see if it changes.
** NHLRumors.com transcription