Just goes to show that a lot of this "Lekki looks better to my eye test, fire Kane into the sun" is just blind hate. Aside from often being saddled with lesser players, he's been one of the best at generating chances. Including spoonfeeding Lekki his only goal. Kane-EP40-Garland has an over 80% chances for in limited minutes, that should be the top line in my opinion. People like to say Kane gives the puck away too much, he's tied for 10th on the team in giveaways. They'll say he's taken too many penalties when its only been 2 in 3 games (one of them being total bs with Nurse just grabbing him after a clean hit) and he's drawn the same amount he's committed. Kane haters aren't dealing in reality. Play him with Petey and watch them both produce more.

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  5. Kane opens up so much ice. Those people just don’t know puck or what they’re looking at. He’s produced some of the best chances of the year from his passes which he isn’t really known for but he’s been good on the forecheck. I love Lekki and think he deserves a shot on PP1 but he’s been one of the worst on the ice at 5v5 according to my eye test and the gamescores.

  6. When Kane was signed, I figured he could be on the top line with Petey and Boeser, or second line with Chytl and Garland. It’s nice to see him with the young guys, but that’s not where he is going to be his best.

  7. People get blinders on for prospects but Lekkerimaki struggled with the speed and timing of the NHL last year and I haven’t seen much this year to show he’s improved there much.

    Right now he’s a Powerplay specialist as far as I’m concerned but until he’s on unit 1 he’s pretty limited in his role.

  8. I know we’re all excited about Lekkeremakki and his 1-shot scoring ability. I was sitting Dead Centre at Rogers Arena when he scored those 2 goals against the Oilers.

    We’ve got to keep in mind though, it’s the other 99.9% of the game where the puck *isn’t* on his stick that needs to develop. He’s absolutely got to develop some type of B-Game so he can impact the game when the pucks aren’t going in.

  9. I’m starting to think these 2 might not be good together. Also Kane without Lekk was playing with Petey. Also also Lekk has 10% xGF% so he needs to improve to at least 4 times better.

  10. Putting Cootes and Lekki together and never splitting them was coaching malpractice. It set up both to fail.

    It wasn’t good for Kane either. He needs to play with defensively responsible players not be the responsible one. If they go Kane – Petey – Garland that line will be really, really good IMO. So long as we can get on the same page for breakouts.

    Cootes should’ve been surrounded by vets, same with Lekki. Debrusk and Boeser should’ve been separated and that literally would’ve solved everything.

    If we went something like DeBrusk – Cootes – Garland I bet Cootes is still up here.

  11. These early season analytics are INSANE

    12 games should be like the bare minimum

    Do people believe Hutson and Arbor Xhejag are the best pairing at driving play?

    Or the line with Dickinson in Chicago is going to maintain those numbers as a top 3 line at driving play.

  12. “people like to say Kane gives up the puck too much”
    He does! Are you watching the same games? There is no denying that Kane has just tossed the puck away over and over without much pressure from the other team. Thats probably him just getting used to the new players. He definitely does a lot of good and he has a positive impact overall and will improve.. but yea you are blind if you haven’t noticed the giveaways

  13. No one’s really looked impressive to me. Small sample size argument aside I don’t know how to feel about any line so far.

  14. Kane-Petey-Garland can really unlock something in both Petey and Kane, and I’d love to see them give that line some runway (at least until Hoggy comes back).

    But Lekkerimaki was also playing with Cootes, who has been absolutely exposed as an 18-year-old. Which doesn’t mean anything about Cootes, but it does mean that Lekk has not been set up to succeed, either.

  15. Thanks for sharing. Kane is a great addition. He has stood out to me so far. He’s going to be great for Petey and vice versa. I’d still put Lekki on PP1 over him though. Get Kane on PP2.

  17. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but one thing that these stats miss is the context for when those situations happen. Kane w/Lekki and w/Cootes is presented as the statistical best situation, but when does that happen – the PP1, when they are 5v4 and Kane is playing alongside Hughes, Boeser, EP40. Conversely, Lekki w/Kane is going to mostly PP2, which does not have the same skill linemates as PP1. It’s no surprise that the stats show Kane w/Lekki is better offensively, as the situation where that arises is different to Lekki w/ Kane.

  18. Are all these stats filtered to even strength minutes? I’d be interested to see just Kanes 5v5 minutes stats. We are so early for advanced stats to be very dialed in, but I am still curious about his 5v5 minutes because, optically they haven’t been great.

  20. These statistics are meaningless. The only thing that matters is the eye test and actual results.

    When a player looks like shit and doesn’t produce, they’re shit.

    So many plays have died on Kanes stick. He passes to no one and it ends up out of the zone or he’ll blast it 10 feet wide and it’ll end up out of the zone. That’s not blind hate, its observing someone is making bad decisions.

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