Brad Treliving is doing a great job.

[LeafSteel]

let us never forget this, I say let us keep talking about it throughout this series and these playoffs

Well played….

 

[TMLBlueandWhite]

Stolarz has been GREAT but it amazes me how much you REFUSE to see the CLEAR upgrade in coaching.

All I'm seeing is a coach riding hot goaltending hopefully to a Stanley Cup for the second time in his career.

I'm mathematically astute enough I can understand the statistics and they match my eye test. The only discernable difference is a clear and major upgrade in goaltending. If by upgrade in coaching you mean a team that gives the puck away more, hits less, and scores fewer goals then you got it.

It's entirely possible upgrading the goaltending was all that was needed to turn this team from pretender to contender and Treliving seems to have accomplished that.

Go Leafs Go!!!

 

[authentic]

All I'm seeing is a coach riding hot goaltending hopefully to a Stanley Cup for the second time in his career.

I'm mathematically astute enough I can understand the statistics and they match my eye test. The only discernable difference is a clear and major upgrade in goaltending. If by upgrade in coaching you mean a team that gives the puck away more, hits less, and scores fewer goals then you got it.

It's entirely possible upgrading the goaltending was all that was needed to turn this team from pretender to contender and Treliving seems to have accomplished that.

Go Leafs Go!!!

I don’t know why this offends people so much they even care to argue against it. We still have a great team and a shot at a Cup at the end of the day.

 

[TMLBlueandWhite]

I don’t know why this offends people so much they even care to argue against it. We still have a great team and a shot at a Cup at the end of the day.

The team was already good.

Everyone said goaltending was the weakest link for years. Treliving went out and got the best damn goalie this team has seen in decades. Stolarz has blown away even the most optimistic of projections and Treliving deserves credit for bringing him in.

I don't see why it's controversial either... some people just want to believe their own bullshit I guess.

 

[IPS]

The team was already good.

Everyone said goaltending was the weakest link for years. Treliving went out and got the best damn goalie this team has seen in decades. Stolarz has blown away even the most optimistic of projections and Treliving deserves credit for bringing him in.

I don't see why it's controversial either... some people just want to believe their own bullshit I guess.

Personally I just had a severe/bordering on irrational dislike of Dubas and Keefe but I like to still think I can maybe view things objectively once in awhile.

 

[Pebble live]

The problem with Dubas, and this is Shanahan's fault for hiring him, was that he was learning on the job. Initially, he thought soft or smallish defencemen like Barrie, Sandin, Dermott, Marincin, Carrick, Borgman, Liljegren was the way to prepare for a playoff-ready d-core. But he learned too late that you need tougher dmen who had sandpaper like Muzzin, Giordano, Bogosian, McCabe, Schenn, Lybushkin. Unfortunately, Muzzin was injured alot, Giordano was older, Schenn and Lybushkin were rentals. So, he realized the error of his ways but he didn't know how to build a sustainable defence.

Early in his tenure, he liked a soft bottom 6 as well. Remember Malgin, Petan, Timashov, Kerfoot, Ennis, Engvall, Johnsson etc. Treliving's bottom 6 is by no means the softest of the core 4 error.

All of these points is exactly why I was frustrated for the entire Dubas era. I genuinely don't understand how he couldn't have learned these lessons by simply watching the playoffs. The formula has not changed much over the years. Big mean d-men are not a luxury, they are a requirement to winning. You can sprinkle in a couple of smaller puck movers.

But you're right, Dubas wanted to try to win using a different style. Shanahan letting him run an experiment during the Matthews, Marner, Nylander and JT era was insane.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

All I'm seeing is a coach riding hot goaltending hopefully to a Stanley Cup for the second time in his career.

I'm mathematically astute enough I can understand the statistics and they match my eye test. The only discernable difference is a clear and major upgrade in goaltending. If by upgrade in coaching you mean a team that gives the puck away more, hits less, and scores fewer goals then you got it.

It's entirely possible upgrading the goaltending was all that was needed to turn this team from pretender to contender and Treliving seems to have accomplished that.

Go Leafs Go!!!

Should get your eyes checked then.

 

[Sypher04]

I’m impressed with Berube, and I think he’s done a good job, however, for what it’s worth, I think it’s fair to call out that Keefe really couldn’t have replicated what we are currently doing defensively with the hodge podge D and goaltending he had a lot of the time even if he had wanted to.

Tanev, Carlo, OEL and Stolarz are all critical upgrades we needed to allow us to play this style of defence with any success.

This is not to say I didn’t have gripes with Keefe’s coaching, because I definitely did.

 

[authentic]

Should get your eyes checked then.

Genuinely wondering why people say this though? Without any stats to back it up. I mean we will really see when we have to face Florida again but other than that all the stats show we are a roughly equal team with better goaltending.

 

[sxvnert]

His acquisitions this season have been incredible (almost perfect).

Stolarz
Tanev
Carlo
OEL
Laughton
Lorentz

 

[usernamezrhardtodo]

All of these points is exactly why I was frustrated for the entire Dubas era. I genuinely don't understand how he couldn't have learned these lessons by simply watching the playoffs. The formula has not changed much over the years. Big mean d-men are not a luxury, they are a requirement to winning. You can sprinkle in a couple of smaller puck movers.

But you're right, Dubas wanted to try to win using a different style. Shanahan letting him run an experiment during the Matthews, Marner, Nylander and JT era was insane.

What I was kind of surprised to hear was when Dallas Eakins said that 80% of playoff games are played 3ft from the boards in the defensive zones. So, having a stat like that and still trying to get smallish puck moving D-men was really a shock coming from a supposed analytics enthusiast like Dubas.

He was trying to be the smartest guy in the room and wasted a lot of our cores chances when it was a lot less complicated than Dubas made it out to be.

Build from the net out and get grittier players playing a simpler dump and chase game like most other winners. We just had to be the outliers....just had to be...

 

[Shooter2x]

Benoit wasn't the PMD we wanted, but the PMD we needed

Signed,

Domi OT Goal

 

[CabanaBoy5]

I’m impressed with Berube, and I think he’s done a good job, however, for what it’s worth, I think it’s fair to call out that Keefe really couldn’t have replicated what we are currently doing defensively with the hodge podge D and goaltending he had a lot of the time even if he had wanted to.

Tanev, Carlo, OEL and Stolarz are all critical upgrades we needed to allow us to play this style of defence with any success.

This is not to say I didn’t have gripes with Keefe’s coaching, because I definitely did.

Shhhh @TMLBlueandWhite thinks it's ALL goaltending cause the advanced stats say so. Those three defencemen were a HUGE add by Treliving to our defence. They display qualities that aren't always measureable by stats alone. Along with Berube, we have hope that this year will truly be different. GLG

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Genuinely wondering why people say this though? Without any stats to back it up. I mean we will really see when we have to face Florida again but other than that all the stats show we are a roughly equal team with better goaltending.

I think it’s clear more than ever that Berube’s Leafs are the antithesis to Keefe’s Leafs or a team like Carolina. Things those teams value and what advanced stats do aren’t what this team is trying to accomplish. Yes, you’d rather control play more than your opponent and getting outshot constantly is a bad look, but it’s not so big an issue if the shots you’re allowing are hot garbage, your goalie is giving you great to elite goaltending, and you’ve got the defensemen to put out fires.

This team has planned around having strong goaltending every night and I don’t think that should be a point against them. Why wouldn’t you plan a strategy around a star player? Teams do it all the time with defensemen and forwards.

This hockey is all about tight checking, being risk-averse, getting pucks deep, having a strong forecheck, protecting the slot, protecting the net front, capitalizing on offensive opportunities, and letting the goalie do his job.

Justin Bourne put out an article today addressing the supposed advantage Ottawa has in controlling play. But it’s only a half-truth that Ottawa is dominating play.

How Toronto's game plan has been working so far

By some stats, it may look as though the Senators are taking the play to the Leafs and unlucky to be down 2-0 in their first-round series. But Justin Bourne gives context to those numbers and explains why Toronto is so far executing its game plan well, though some adjustments need to be made.

www.sportsnet.ca

That sort of random tidbit aside, the point of all this is that the Leafs have been the best version of themselves until they’ve taken the lead, then they’ve pulled back and barricaded the doors. From there, the stats show the Sens have bombarded the castle walls, but the fortress has held. It’s been like this since the trade deadline, when Brandon Carlo helped solidify Toronto's defence pairs and became a big part of a corps that's content to bend but not break. The Leafs can be better when playing with a lead, but overall they’ve started the series well.

It’s not pretty, and the stats will bear out numbers that look like we’re getting crushed, but the Leafs have been firmly in control. Even that third period last game the Sens had zero shots until OEL and Domi had a brain fart.

The Leafs should win this series and we’ll see how this style works against better and more hardened teams in either Florida or Tampa, but the early signs are good, especially when I think this team still isn’t playing their best.

 

[ACC1224]

Notice how cameras haven’t shown one shot of Treliving during the game?

I remember tons of shots of Dubas.

They showed him last night after Ottawa tied it.

 

[authentic]

I think it’s clear more than ever that Berube’s Leafs are the antithesis to Keefe’s Leafs or a team like Carolina. Things those teams value and what advanced stats do aren’t what this team is trying to accomplish. Yes, you’d rather control play more than your opponent and getting outshot constantly is a bad look, but it’s not so big an issue if the shots you’re allowing are hot garbage, your goalie is giving you great to elite goaltending, and you’ve got the defensemen to put out fires.

This team has planned around having strong goaltending every night and I don’t think that should be a point against them. Why wouldn’t you plan a strategy around a star player? Teams do it all the time with defensemen and forwards.

This hockey is all about tight checking, being risk-averse, getting pucks deep, having a strong forecheck, protecting the slot, protecting the net front, capitalizing on offensive opportunities, and letting the goalie do his job.

Justin Bourne put out an article today addressing the supposed advantage Ottawa has in controlling play. But it’s only a half-truth that Ottawa is dominating play.

How Toronto's game plan has been working so far

By some stats, it may look as though the Senators are taking the play to the Leafs and unlucky to be down 2-0 in their first-round series. But Justin Bourne gives context to those numbers and explains why Toronto is so far executing its game plan well, though some adjustments need to be made.

www.sportsnet.ca

View attachment 1020983



It’s not pretty, and the stats will bear out numbers that look like we’re getting crushed, but the Leafs have been firmly in control. Even that third period last game the Sens had zero shots until OEL and Domi had a brain fart.

The Leafs should win this series and we’ll see how this style works against better and more hardened teams in either Florida or Tampa, but the early signs are good, especially when I think this team still isn’t playing their best.

I was taking the entire season into account up until now. But yeah that’s what I mean really I don’t see the team doing much that they wouldn’t have been capable of before with better goaltending, but either way here’s to hoping that there’s no comparison to be had by the end of these playoffs anyway. I believe this team willl finish Ottawa fast and go on a real run here.

 

[torontoblood]

Carlo and Tanev have been such massive upgrades to our D. Dubas did get McCabe, but he also pissed around for years with tiny defensemen who were not capable of playoff calibre hockey. This is likely the best Leafs D corps I've ever seen in my 30 years of watching this team.

Also, the bottom 6 and drafting. No more Malgin's and Semyon Der Argurehateverhisnamewas. A functional bottom 6 that can play in the playoffs.

No more Ilya mikheyev and Pierre engvall either

 

[Menzinger]

Tre looks to have made a considerable upgrade on the team compared to last year. If this keeps going he will prove the skeptics wrong for doubting him.

Though it's also more than a bit unfair to completely dismiss Dubas' additions considering that JT and Knies alone have been pretty decisive for the forwards this series (JT alone with 2 goals 2, assists) Even Robertson looks to be a great addition to some skill in the bottom six

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Genuinely wondering why people say this though? Without any stats to back it up. I mean we will really see when we have to face Florida again but other than that all the stats show we are a roughly equal team with better goaltending.

I don't want to looks past Ottawa because the Job isn't done bur I find it odd that people assume that Florida is going to destroy Tampa.

I know they dog walked them last night but It's Tampa.

They aren't out of it after 1 game.

I think that series is going 7.

 

[Hoglund4MvP]

Cup winning team should know how to grind out a W when stats show they were outplayed.

So its fluke for the gm now if all 16 wins dont have the cleanest stats?

How you even know this stat trend will last. It only 2 games so far


And ottawa is a good team theyre one top team in the league for good stretch now its not a shame if they outplay you some games all that matters is who won

 

[authentic]

I don't want to looks past Ottawa because the Job isn't done bur I find it odd that people assume that Florida is going to destroy Tampa.

I know they dog walked them last night but It's Tampa.

They aren't out of it after 1 game.

I think that series is going 7.

Well I don’t assume they’re going to destroy them but I really believe they’ll win. I didn’t mean to imply Tampa doesn’t have a chance or anything as that wasn’t the point of my post. I would much rather we play Tampa anyway.

 

[Donnie740]

How much are you placing on Toronto beating Florida next round?

Don’t be afraid of the Florida boogeyman, my friend.

Florida is just like Boston was last year - - broken down has-beens just trying to hang on. Boston was able to get past Toronto last year because Bozo The Keefe was such a terrible coach but Berube won’t take a soft approach like that.

I expect you’ll be the first one whining about “poor Florida and all their injuries” in your desperate attempts to discredit the Leafs.

Sorry about your luck, my friend.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Well I don’t assume they’re going to destroy them but I really believe they’ll win. I didn’t mean to imply Tampa doesn’t have a chance or anything as that wasn’t the point of my post. I would much rather we play Tampa anyway.

It's not just you, it seems to be the consensus on the site, and I find it odd because It's Tampa

 

[leafs in five]

View attachment 1020873

Well played….

my honest truth is that I think this team/coach/org is a pretty interesting mix of old and new school philosophies, embodied by the current vs the previous GM. It is the unity candidate team, I have been saying it all year, what everyone hated about the opposing side's version of the truth, they will come to appreciate and even love over the next few weeks ()

 

[DarkKnight]

Should get your eyes checked then.

Jaundiced eyes see what they see