Post-Game Talk: Fri Nov 8th... Leafs beat down detroit

barilko05

People...they're the worst!
Jan 28, 2011
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It's interesting watching the team play without Matthews. I enjoy watching the other stars on the team not deferring to 34 and making their own plays. Yes, we're better with Matthews, but I do think some of the other star players are somewhat neutered when they play with him... especially on the PP; where the predictability has vanished.
It's human nature to want to find the guy who scored 69 goals last year. But I hope this is the impetus for the PP to remember that every player on that unit has the ability to score. Stop forcing the puck just to him. If hes not available... SHOOT IT! Also...AM needs to start watching tape of OV...and Kyle Connor. Be more still. Find your spot, grow roots and wait. Let the other 4 move around and draw the PKers.
 

Burnie97

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Jun 26, 2015
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It's human nature to want to find the guy who scored 69 goals last year. But I hope this is the impetus for the PP to remember that every player on that unit has the ability to score. Stop forcing the puck just to him. If hes not available... SHOOT IT! Also...AM needs to start watching tape of OV...and Kyle Connor. Be more still. Find your spot, grow roots and wait. Let the other 4 move around and draw the PKers.
I agree for the most part but Matthews is a dynamic scorer.

Connor won't do this forever. He's having a great year but he's not a Matthews or Ovechkin.
 

Schennanigans

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Dec 26, 2008
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Not the most exciting game but need to win those tight games. Stolarz with a big risky play, not sure what he was thinking grabbing the puck bare hands. Another solid game from him. JT was great tonight.
 

Divine

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Dec 18, 2010
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It's crazy what a difference a solid goalie makes to the teams structure.

This Leafs team took Boston to Game 7 with Samsonov swimming every game and letting in a soft goal immediately after the Leafs had to dominate for 25 minutes to score.

If we had solid goaltending, maybe the entire trajectory of this team would have been different. We had Campbell (in the AHL now), Samsonov (Backing up in Vegas), Andersen (Back-breaker every Game 7, often injured) starting for us and managing to get to Game 7's with them.

If Shesterkin makes it to UFA, walk away from Tavares and throw that money at him - especially if Woll is going to be injured all the time.
 

Brobust

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Sep 29, 2017
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I always said Marner was this generation's Datsyuk. I actually think there's a little Datsyuk in Matthews as well.

These guys cannot wear another jersey.
 
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notDatsyuk

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Jul 20, 2018
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That's insane what Stolarz did grabbing the puck with his bare hand there. Risky as hell. With skates sharp as knives, no way I'd be reaching there with my bare hand. f*** that. Mad respect to Stolie.
I did that once - lost my blocker and saw the puck sitting in a bunch of skates and grabbed it. Realized a moment later how stupid it was (pickup game and I wasn't getting paid millions!), but at the time it was just reflex.

Yes, it looked like Copp was protecting his hand - good move.
 

Aashir Mallik

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Apr 19, 2019
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It's interesting watching the team play without Matthews. I enjoy watching the other stars on the team not deferring to 34 and making their own plays. Yes, we're better with Matthews, but I do think some of the other star players are somewhat neutered when they play with him... especially on the PP; where the predictability has vanished.
on the second pp goal alone, Marner first went for a pass to knies, then he set JT up for a shot and when he went across to get it to nylander the pass got blocked and ended up on JT's stick. The constant usage of options meant detroit didn't know what to look for beforehand.

With AM on that PP, marner's final outcome is almost always getting that puck to AM. It's not even entirely his fault, Matthews is that good of a scorer, but that makes the pp predicatable where you know 9/10 times the end result will be the puck on matthews's stick. Now we were keeping the defender's guessing on who was going to get the puck

I also enjoyed marner and nylander carrying the puck in and dishing it to JT + Knies vs Matthews and Marner carrying it in and dishing to JT + Nylander. Nylander's greatest skill is zone entries so we gotta use that to it's fullest.
 
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Zacman

Registered User
Dec 14, 2009
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142
A very scruffy, loose game from both teams. The refs didn't help any by calling some very loose stuff in the first two periods and then nothing in the third.

*Stolarz with another fine game, while I wouldn't suggest searching for the puck in the crease during a scramble with your bare hand, his small shrug after the whistle and his laugh with Woll at the bench was hilarious. I like this guy.
*I'm not sure you can take Timmins out. His breakout passes really help this team.
*Rielly and OEL are playing well together, and the Tanev/McCabe pairing is hard to argue against. I'd give the D an overall B+/A rating tonight.
*Patches and Willy 5v5 were invisible to me tonight. JT had some good plays, but the puck was jumping over his stick a lot. I thought they played too much in their own zone. Hemmed in.
*Domi's line was ineffective as well. Defensively, a bit better than JT's, but not threatening imo.
*Holmberg's line was, gasp, our best tonight, largely due to Robertson. His best game this year. I really would love to see him play with some more talent. He's defense is so much better than during Keefe's time as coach.
*Kamph's efforts were noticeable, Lorentz was ok, but my goodness Reaves is an anchor.
*PP :partytime:

Tee up the Habs. Let's go!
Loose game? What? There's was barely any scoring chances?
 

Zybalto

Registered User
Dec 28, 2012
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Finally getting some puck luck on the PP.

League ranking:
Shots rate on the PP: 8th in the NHL
Scoring chance rate on the PP: 5th in the NHL
High Danger chance rate on the PP: 2nd in the NHL
Goal scoring rate on the PP: 15th in the NHL (Ahead of the Bolts/Pens/Oilers/Canucks/Caps)

The PP has been better than the results and its still so early, another couple of games like the last 2 and all of a sudden the Leafs are a top ten team.
 

Tie Domi Esquire

Go Real Sports Apparel Go!
Oct 18, 2010
3,375
1,280
+1 to the small sample size

1000002843.jpg
 

Zybalto

Registered User
Dec 28, 2012
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Tavares over his last 50 games and ranking among forwards:

Goals: 25 (Tied for 13th in the NHL)
Points: 47 (Tied for 29th in the NHL)

5v5 goal differential: 64.42 (11th out of the 151 forwards with 600+ minutes played)

Top 10 faceoff guy in the league

Leads the Leafs for penalties drawn



Not too bad.
 

barilko05

People...they're the worst!
Jan 28, 2011
1,173
935
I agree for the most part but Matthews is a dynamic scorer.

Connor won't do this forever. He's having a great year but he's not a Matthews or Ovechkin.
Recency bias. I was just remembering the two from the same spot last week against our PK. Ovie though! 20 years from that same spot. Everybody knows where he's going to be on every PP...and it doesn't matter. He still scores.
 
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meefer

Registered User
Jun 9, 2015
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Loose game? What? There's was barely any scoring chances?
A poor descriptor on my part? The lack of scoring chances was, imo, based more on scrambling, poor execution hockey, as much as anything else. This was not a game of disciplined, well executed hockey.
 

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