Spencer Teixeira
Despite a rocky start for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season, I do not believe that there are many players that have disappointed in terms of play, but there is one in particular; Tyson Barrie.
Acquired in the big off-season trade with the Avalanche, Barrie has been disappointing to absolutely no fault of his own. An offensive defenseman to his core, Barrie has been stuck back on many occasions and is yet to receive the powerplay time as with the Colorado Avalanche, despite thriving on this his entire career.
Barrie has also consistently played less than defensive anchor Cody Ceci which is simply unexplainable at this point.
Although I do not believe that Leafs head coach Mike Babcock deserves a lot of the hate he gets, he MUST answer for this. If he cannot, then turn to former Flyers head coach (why) Dave Hakstol, who runs the Toronto Maple Leafs defense, and if he can not answer, serious changes have to be made.
That being said, at the time I am writing this, Barrie has 6 assists in 22 games, which is simply not good enough considering the pure skill of the dynamic defender. I see a pretty clear solution to end the hate on Babcock and Barrie’s sluggish performance. Change the lines. That’s it.
Instead of rolling with the old and tired setup of;
Rielly-Ceci
Muzzin-Barrie
Dermott-Holl
Try this instead;
Rielly-Holl
Dermott-Barrie
Muzzin-Ceci
Or, if we want to get REALLY crazy;
Rielly-Muzzin
Sandin-Barrie
Dermott-Holl/Liljigren
These are not perfect line combos by any means but could provide a much-needed upstart to a sluggish D core that has underperformed so much this season.