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Enough is enough, why can't the Leafs hold leads??

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LastOne2100 said:
This has been a problem with this team for a while.

When they get the lead, our forwards stop putting in as much effort offensively. This is perfectly normal for teams.

However, what it also does is put a lot more pressure on our defensive system as we aren't attacking anymore, aren't as hungry for possession, etc.

And that exposes our weakness - our defensive system sucks, and our defensive roster falls off hard beyond our top pair.

As a result, as soon as we stop trying to score, we are awful. Getting early leads takes us right out of the game immediately as we stop playing to our strengths. This is what happens when you create an unbalanced roster like we have.
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Best way to describe Maple leafs
 
notbias said:
Don't they have a great record of holding the lead this year? Does everyone have the memory of only a few weeks?
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They are one of the better teams in the league, even with the recent struggles and Campbell having a terrible save percentage with a lead right now.
 
ANDI P IS CUTE said:
missing kase really really hurts bad.
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I think the Leafs found their stride when the third line of Engvall, Kampf and Kase clicked. They were the glue that held the team together.

Before that happened, the Leafs had no sense of purpose and weren't playing very well. It seemed that nobody really knew what their mission-specific role is, and nobody really knew what their game should look like. That's sort of where they are now.

When the third line is playing well, they can be counted on to take the defensive zone face-offs, clear the zone and hopefully bring the play to the other end of the ice where one of the top two lines can get a face-off. Kampf has not been able to do this by himself. When he and Kase play together, they're pretty good at clearing the zone. When they're not together, we've seen the third line get trapped in their own end for long periods of time – and it's not a pretty sight.

Without the use of a highly effective, zone-clearing third line the Leafs don't look very good.

That's not the only thing, but it's the main one that comes to my mind.
 
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notbias said:
Don't they have a great record of holding the lead this year? Does everyone have the memory of only a few weeks?
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We also have a memory of them playing well in the first half for the last 3-4 years, and then after the x-mas break and closer to the beginning of the playoffs, they don't play so well and the warts become more evident
 
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Doublerum1975 said:
This year and last year we were great holding leads people love being negative
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I love how everyone jumps to the conclusion people love being negative. I don’t think it’s panic time and this is just a bad stretch the Leafs are in.

Why can’t people be frustrated that the Leafs fall into these habits that cost them in the playoffs? Why can’t they seem to break the habits? Why is it always we make some goalie look amazing? The advanced stats are great and the regular season numbers are great but end of the day it’s what they haven’t been able to do in the playoffs.

Fans are allowed to be frustrated. They pour so much money into the franchise. Leafs are die hard fans and at some point it’s frustrating. I don’t blame them for being mad. I’m not panicking over this but yes there are concerns.
 
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notbias said:
Don't they have a great record of holding the lead this year? Does everyone have the memory of only a few weeks?
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Pretty sure people were saying the same excuses last year too...look how well that turned out.
Stanley Cup winning teams do not bend game after game like the Leafs do. Not in pre-season, not in regular season, and especially not in the playoffs.

If you have championship aspirations, you need to start playing like it immediately and not hope for some non-existent switch to flick on in the playoffs.
 
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Apex Predator said:
Why can’t they seem to break the habits?
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Because the idea that there's some big "habit" that's inherently and uniquely wrong with our team is just media driven nonsense. The Leafs are accused of being inherently broken when they do things that every team in the NHL does.

As the article above (which should have been the end of this thread) noted, this is merely a mixture of "recency bias (two-thirds of their scenarios happened in the past 11 days), confirmation bias (believing that certain things only happen to the team(s) you focus on, because you don’t pay attention to the details of other teams), and historical scarring (it was 4-1, 3-1, 2004, 1967, etc)".
 
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notbias said:
Don't they have a great record of holding the lead this year? Does everyone have the memory of only a few weeks?
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For a lot of fans the last couple games a team plays will always carry more weight than months worth of hockey. It's silly, and also doesn't just apply to Leafs fans; it's a league wide sentiment
 
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Tuttle said:
We also have a memory of them playing well in the first half for the last 3-4 years, and then after the x-mas break and closer to the beginning of the playoffs, they don't play so well and the warts become more evident
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Last season they were 16-4-5 (.740) over their last 25 games (3rd best record in the NHL) and their run of play numbers continued into the playoffs
 
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Larcos_Unal said:
Pretty sure people were saying the same excuses last year too...look how well that turned out.
Stanley Cup winning teams do not bend game after game like the Leafs do. Not in pre-season, not in regular season, and especially not in the playoffs.

If you have championship aspirations, you need to start playing like it immediately and not hope for some non-existent switch to flick on in the playoffs.
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Look at all these teams without championship aspirations

Lead after first winning % (12th best)
Ahead of - Tampa, Vegas, St Louis, Washington, NYI

Lead after second winning % (6th best)
Ahead of - Boston, Vegas, Minnesota, Colorado, Pitts, Carolina, NYI, St Louis, Edmonton, Tampa, NYR, Washington

Please do tell me how these teams like Tampa have Stanley Cup aspirations because they can't seem to hold leads.
 
Blowing leads has definitely become an issue. Its not that they are just losing these games, they are getting dominated. They just roll over scared and try to hold on. They are getting humiliated, like a house league team vs an NHL team.
 
34 said:
Blowing leads has definitely become an issue. Its not that they are just losing these games, they are getting dominated. They just roll over scared and try to hold on. They are getting humiliated, like a house league team vs an NHL team.
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Outside the top pairing they have an AHL level defense....... just like the Oilers. The only difference is the leafs have a little more scoring depth.
 
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20 regulation wins... we can hold a lead.
Slumping a little bit right now but that happens to all teams.
No worries they should get it together soon.
GLG!
 
Larcos_Unal said:
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He's overall wrong because Leafs record when in the lead speaks for itself.

However there are some individual things I agree with.

What's the one common complaint you see in the game day threads? "Why are they being so cute?" I assume everyone knows what cute means in hockey terms.

So I agree with Kipper when he said "just shut it down". Even in our wins it's a bad habit so it goes undetected as a bad habit when you look at stats
 
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