Post-Game Talk: Canucks 3 Leafs 2

[Racer88]

It’s pretty bad when half the cap is tied up in 4 forwards, yet we still need to add another top 6 winger.

And a quality Dman and a true number 1 goalie

 

[Captain Crunch]

Anyone mad at all should take solace in that the Canucks are one step closer to that 9th or 10th place finish to get a crap draft pick.

But their goaltending position appears to be way ahead of ours, and that’s where having a championship-caliber team needs to be.

 

[Mess]

Sucks losing to POS teams.

Particularly when you live among them and then have to face the music afterwards.

Why do the Leafs always lose to Vancouver?

They went 0-3-1 last year in Vancouver also.

There is this big brother little brother complex between Toronto and Vancouver, so these games out west always have extra special meaning to Nuck fans.

 

[Captain Crunch]

Felt like the Canucks were holding on for 55 minutes of the game.

That isn't a very good team and without Quinn Hughes their best player they looked lost most of the game.

Yet in typical Leafs fashion, we lost the game. It’s probably just me, but this type of thing seems to happen more often to us than any other team.

 

[Captain Crunch]

2nd goal hit Muzzin and no one knew where the puck was, first one I still don't know why Keefe didn't challenge. The Leafs have a great PK and Horvat hit him.

3rd goal is a good goal but I think Bieksa summed it up. You have to come up with a way to save that. Your team has absolutely destroyed the other team in the period.

I believe we would have lost that challenge. It’s like Bieksa said, Mrazek initiated the contact when he tried to pokecheck the puck.

 

[therealkoho]

Demko was the best goalie on the ice and Holl was the worst dman.

Bad combination.

Holl doesn't wear #8

 

[therealkoho]

I believe we would have lost that challenge. It’s like Bieksa said, Mrazek initiated the contact when he tried to pokecheck the puck.

The rule is the blue paint is sancrosanct, the Nux player was in it when initial contact is made. The question was could Mrazek have recovered and gotten into position. Don't listen to Bieksa, he's basically taken over Hughsons job of shading the Leafs.

 

[egd27]

Yet in typical Leafs fashion, we lost the game. It’s probably just me, but this type of thing seems to happen more often to us than any other team.

How many other teams are there where you watch every single one of their games?

 

[therealkoho]

I doubt Muzzin would agree to a Chicago trade, and MAF reportedly rejected the Caps today.

Then Dubas has his work cut out for him and has to put together a 3 way to somewhere Muzzin will agree to.

Holl was playing solid d the last couple of weeks partnering with Sandy or Lils, Jake comes back and guess what? All of a sudden Holl's the reason for everything that bounces against the Leafs. And make no mistake the first two goals were providence for Vancouver, as were a couple of the minuses in Calgary. Purely the product of weirdness that cannot be defended or possibly should be penalized.

 

[therealkoho]

How many other teams are there where you watch every single one of their games?

Being retired I've got lots of time I watch Colorado, Tampa, Edmonton, Chicago, Carolina and the Rags whenever I have the time, so maybe 7 or 8 games a week including my Bud's.

 

[CabanaBoy5]

For those that insist that the game isn’t managed by the refs (cause we’re that much better than teams and our PP is best in the league) how do you explain 5 power plays for them and only 3 for us when we dominated possession as we did. It’s scandalous.

 

[VanW27]

Lots of praise for Matthews/Marner last night, I'm gonna throw some cold water on that. Sure lots of chances, lots of possession but nothing in tight, no rebounds, no front net presence at all.

Unnecessarily fancy passes and stickhandling that accomplished nothing other than trying to show off. I don't know how many times Marner made a behind the back, no look passes that went directly onto Canucks players sticks or no one in particular at all. That was two players who are massively better than everyone else on the ice who were more interested in showing off then actually accomplishing something. It's like when the guy at pickup has his xNHLer buddy come out and he just stick handles around all night making plays and setting people up but doesn't ever score, the difference is that guy is trying to be a good guy by not showing people up.

 

[Gary Nylund]

My eye test tends to agree with a lot of this. Teams who are successful against us box us out, concede the perimeter shooting and cycling and are willing to gamble on the rebound situation because they have numerical advantage in the slot. The result is we rag it around, get odd angle shots from the wing (because the top of the slot is usually too well protected to risk a shot block) and then we don't have enough guys in front of the net, spacing or body positioning to score those rebound goals.

But from a stats POV, you have excellent zone clock time, massive shot counter and probably a heat map showing a lot of rebounds in and around the net area. But when you watch the play, there's usually two guys on the Leaf in the slot and the rebound attempt looks like shoveling the puck into the goalie's paddle down.

Tell me if this isn't a nightmare scene that goes back to the Columbus series.

Great post. I'm so tired of losing in the playoffs, and almost as tired of people posting a bunch of numbers showing how well we played in losing.

 

[VanW27]

Great post. I'm so tired of losing in the playoffs, and almost as tired of people posting a bunch of numbers showing how well we played in losing.

Said the same thing after the Calgary game:

Be physical, protect the middle, wait for stupid turnovers for easy goals. They needed great goaltending and some luck to win for sure but they were also both vastly inferior teams in terms of skill. When teams protect the middle we are far too content to control the puck on the outside and win the puck possession battle while generating very few chances in tight. Combined with our penchant to make horrifyingly bad defensive miscues and give up soft goals, bad teams know how to beat us. If a good team plays us like that (eg. Tampa or Florida) we'll get steamrolled unless we get our act together and are willing to fight for the middle of the ice.

It's absolutely true if we play like that, control the game to that extent we will win most of the time. But that doesn't mean we should be concerned about what happened, and I'm not talking about the loss, I'm talking about why we lost. Once again way too content to play on the perimeter - go to the net, score an ugly goal or two, if we fight for the middle of the ice we win that game regardless of how well Demko plays.

 

[Mess]

For those that insist that the game isn’t managed by the refs (cause we’re that much better than teams and our PP is best in the league) how do you explain 5 power plays for them and only 3 for us when we dominated possession as we did. It’s scandalous.

Because skating around on the perimeter running up the time of possession clock, while the opposition doesn't touch you, but rather simply busy boxing out the slot, and high danger scoring area allowing perimeter shots doesn't draw penalties.

Teams allow the Leafs to skate circles and pass the puck all around the outside to their hearts content until they gain possession and try to clear their own zone.

Its the opposition managing the Leafs not the Refs.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Dubas has his work cut out for him at the TDL

 

[Mess]

Said the same thing after the Calgary game:

Be physical, protect the middle, wait for stupid turnovers for easy goals. They needed great goaltending and some luck to win for sure but they were also both vastly inferior teams in terms of skill. When teams protect the middle we are far too content to control the puck on the outside and win the puck possession battle while generating very few chances in tight. Combined with our penchant to make horrifyingly bad defensive miscues and give up soft goals, bad teams know how to beat us. If a good team plays us like that (eg. Tampa or Florida) we'll get steamrolled unless we get our act together and are willing to fight for the middle of the ice.

It's absolutely true if we play like that, control the game to that extent we will win most of the time. But that doesn't mean we should be concerned about what happened, and I'm not talking about the loss, I'm talking about why we lost. Once again way too content to play on the perimeter - go to the net, score an ugly goal or two, if we fight for the middle of the ice we win that game regardless of how well Demko plays.

This years new additions Bunting, Kase, Ritchie etc were supposed to address exactly that, crash the net and score some greasy/dirty goals.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Because skating around on the perimeter running up the time of possession clock, while the opposition doesn't touch you, but rather simply busy boxing out the slot, and high danger scoring area allowing perimeter shots doesn't draw penalties.

Teams allow the Leafs to skate circles and pass the puck all around the outside to their hearts content until they gain possession and try to clear their own zone.

Its the opposition managing the Leafs not the Refs.

You clearly missed the slash in Tavares right before the high stick

Also the narrative that the Leafs are a perimeter team needs is lazy and false.

 

[Zybalto]

Canucks now 14-6-4 under their new coach/management is pretty impressive even if they didn't deserve to be in the game last night....but of course, the main reason they have such a great record is the fact they have the #1 save% in hockey over that time as we saw an example of last night. It took some bad bounces, bad goaltending on our side and atrocious reffing to make it happen as well of course.

Not sure why Demko has flown under the radar as much as he has:

Demko:
GP: 37
5v5 Save%: .941

Shesterkin:
GP: 29
5v5 Save%: .940

Vasy:
GP: 37
5v5 Save%: .934

Been a big fan of his since that playoffs a couple years ago.


Outside the net, I hope the Leafs play that exact same way the rest of my life. Complete domination and skated the other team completely into the ground and the team is looking good heading into the home stretch.

 

[CapspaceKiller]

Goalies are just going to have figure it out, there's nothing anybody can do. Dubas will upgrade the defense, but he's made his bed with these 2 goalies. If they fail, he fails.

 

[Mess]

You clearly missed the slash in Tavares right before the high stick

So the Refs missed an offsetting penalty perhaps.

However in a crowd on the ice it is easier to miss a slash down low then a high stick by Refs when their vision is blocked. Often the Refs need a broken stick evidence of a slash to assist them on those calls.

If I'm not mistaken Tavares hit the face mask of the Van player and knocked his helmet back making for an obvious high sticking call on him.

 

[justloveleafs]

Last nights game was one of the most entertaining games of the year for me. I don't watch as much as I used to.

I thought Vancouver played a spectacular game in certain ways, Boudreau has done a great job, and Quinn Hughes wasn't even playing last night.

Demko? He played incredible We actually were in his face a fair amount of the time and the guys low game, is incredible I will say, unfortunately, Nylander especially, is that we seemed to shoot right into the guys chest protector constantly

When Nylander is struggling, he seems to throw heat, but not well placed, and he is struggling.

I think J.T. is playing pretty well. But not @11 million dollar well, oh well, that is the cost of doing business with free agents.

Liljegren is really blossoming in front of Leaf Nation, as I prayed he would. He is our best hitter now, better than Muzzin, he has a tremendous passing ability. AND, he is starting to headman the puck. If LeafNation would just leave him alone, I see something special happening now.

Muzzin, foof, I don't know what to say, he has been pretty well a significant player for us, but man, even as a fan, I have to say, he looks slow out there. Hopefully its still just shaking off rust. Cause he seems to have lost a step plus.

 

[CabanaBoy5]

Because skating around on the perimeter running up the time of possession clock, while the opposition doesn't touch you, but rather simply busy boxing out the slot, and high danger scoring area allowing perimeter shots doesn't draw penalties.

Teams allow the Leafs to skate circles and pass the puck all around the outside to their hearts content until they gain possession and try to clear their own zone.

Its the opposition managing the Leafs not the Refs.

Mess, you're partly correct, but I've noticed that the refs are missing penalties against us and giving ticky tack penalties to us. The Nylander breakaway and Tavares late penalty and hook come to mind. The hacks, holding, and obstruction that Matthews and Nylander put up with every game is concerning.

This is a trend I've noticed especially this year. Sure, Leaf fans have always complained about refs having it out for us, but the last few games we've been dominant and have had less powerplays. How many games this year has the opposition had more powerplays than us? Without looking it up I'd venture 80%? For a dominant possession team, it is scandolous.

 

[PromisedLand]

somewhere out there Andersen is shaking his head

 

[Gallagbi]

So the Refs missed an offsetting penalty perhaps.

However in a crowd on the ice it is easier to miss a slash down low then a high stick by Refs when their vision is blocked. Often the Refs need a broken stick evidence of a slash to assist them on those calls.

If I'm not mistaken Tavares hit the face mask of the Van player and knocked his helmet back making for an obvious high sticking call on him.

So bizarre that the perimeter was crowded this time.