Post-Game Talk: Game #27: New York Rangers vs Toronto Maple Leafs, 7pm ET, MSG

[Clark Kellogg]

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

This game was lost on the weak ass effort along the boards to lose the puck by our top center that ultimately led to the odd man rush and penalty (which was the 5-3 game over pp)

wasn't that Trouba who failed to keep the puck in which allowed Toronto's odd-man rush?

 

[Megustaelhockey]

I'm sure people give less to the Garden of Dreams Foundation when we play like that, too.

 

[mike14]

I thought Jones was good in his last few games, but he needs to play not come in cold. He's not a good 7th D as he's too raw.
He and Schneider are a nightmare together, where they equally seem to be at fault, so I don't know why he wasn't aired with Trouba tonight

 

[Stone97Ace]

Is there no post game thread? Who's running this thing Wheeler 99.8% of the time? Mika on faceoffs and whenever he decides Abba remix > game? Scheider generally on D? Gustafson back to reality? Igor ignoring Benoit? Laffy without people trolling him? 2/3 of our "kid line" gimpy? Pitlick being Pitlick? I could go on...wtf

 

[Jauffre]

Team's coming back down to earth. Put themselves in a great spot with the hot start, just have to hope they don't squander it. Isles only 6 points back. This might be the year the American Thanksgiving meme finally dies. Gonna be a lot teams in that were out and vice versa.

Anyway, still a lot of the same issues as last season. The flat starts at home are a consistent issue that speaks to the leadership group. This Leafs team had 6 regulation wins coming into today, unacceptable to play this way. The PP is the one constant but in a 7-game series, it will be figured out, can't rely on it. If Igor doesn't get it together, they're bounced early.

 

[bl02]

wasn't that Trouba who failed to keep the puck in which allowed Toronto's odd-man rush?

Mika had clear control of the puck along the boards and was outmuscled by Tavares in less than a millisecond and then they (Tavares/Nylander) chipped the puck past Trouba.leading to the 2 on 1. His backcheck wasn't much better either. Oh yeah and i'm 99 percent sure if my memory serves me well that he lost the ensuing faceoff clear as day which led to the 5-3 goal (Rielly shot to the net).

 

[Gordon Bombay]

Their best players are just soft. I dunno how many more examples are needed or how many more coaches need to be fired and hired with the same guys at the top losing for the same reasons.

Exactly. It's almost like they've tuned Lavi out already. I get the injuries and everything but that's when you revert back to basics to stop the bleeding. These guys just fall into a K-hole of Dashboard Confessional and soft, passive hockey.

These guys are all or nothing. That's why the wins are so great and the losses are so bad. Just the wrong set of guys to hitch your wagon too IMO. We have what 5-6 years now of a constant in this experiment to prove these guys are not it?

 

[Fitzy]

Thing about soft hockey is that there aren’t too many teams who will beat Toronto by playing torontos game.

 

[SML2]

Lavy is also to blame.

f*** hurt feelings. Was it Sutter who didn't hesitate to pull a goalie after just one goal?

That's what Igor needs.

As much as we like to think we know, we don't. As far as I know, none of us have ever been in the same room as Igor, much less know what he needs. Lavi does. I trust his handling of this situation and that he will get through ot.

 

[pld459666]

4 of the last five have been shit.

Slump, or something more?

Also, Igor needs to be better.

 

[egelband]

First period was bad. Toronto had the big edge. Two of the four goals igor gave up were soft. The Rangers were great in the second. Nearly tied it. In the third the officials called two soft penalties on the rangers and let a couple obvious ones go for the leafs. Leafs goalie made more big saves as well. Otherwise I think the score is pretty misleading. It was a winnable match.

 

[Machinehead]

It wasn't that bad of a game. We got severely out-goaltended.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

I have this feeling that Igor just doesn't have ability to stop the bleeding like you'd hope. That said as I said in his thread. Look at Hank's save percentage before scoring went down.

 

[Machinehead]

It's time to split up that one line and maybe spread the wealth.

Trocheck is the only one that's done shit in the last 5 or 6 games anyway.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

It wasn't that bad of a game. We got severely out-goaltended.

Losing 7-3 to the Kim Kardashian of the sports world is never what I'd call good, though.

 

[Machinehead]

Losing 7-3 to the Kim Kardashian of the sports world is never what I'd call good, though.

They wouldn't have scored 7 goals if we got some saves.

 

[LOFIN]

Team's coming back down to earth. Put themselves in a great spot with the hot start, just have to hope they don't squander it. Isles only 6 points back. This might be the year the American Thanksgiving meme finally dies. Gonna be a lot teams in that were out and vice versa.

Lol, the overreactions here for the first bad stretch of the season. Every team goes through those. At least for us, it's easy to pinpoint some of the issues:

- Injuries. Missing Chytil, Kakko (and Miller yesterday) shows. Simple as that.
- Shesterkin has been crap
- Zibanejad has been awful, Kreider not that much better 5v5

The first issue will sort itself out in time (hopefully it's going to happen with Chytil, at least he's skating). The second one as well, I do think Shesty will snap out of it at some point. In the meantime, give more opportunities for Quick. The third one is the biggest problem, and would actually require coaching staff to try something different.

 

[TominNC]

I picked a good game to miss.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Lol, the overreactions here for the first bad stretch of the season. Every team goes through those. At least for us, it's easy to pinpoint some of the issues:

- Injuries. Missing Chytil, Kakko (and Miller yesterday) shows. Simple as that.
- Shesterkin has been crap
- Zibanejad has been awful, Kreider not that much better 5v5

The first issue will sort itself out in time (hopefully it's going to happen with Chytil, at least he's skating). The second one as well, I do think Shesty will snap out of it at some point. In the meantime, give more opportunities for Quick. The third one is the biggest problem, and would actually require coaching staff to try something different.

Most predictable thing ever. There were some who were itching to do it even when they were winning.

I hope that if players remain out and other guys in Hartford continue to play well that they f*** off with the LTIR shenanigans and just call up those guys. Brodz has had solid production, but most of his points have been basically from just existing on the ice while the puck just happens to go in the net.

They also can't be afraid to trade away some of the "core" either. I get some guys can't be moved and others shouldn't, but there are players within that group who are easy moves - let that be what opens up your space.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

I picked a good game to miss.

The second period was fun.

 

[Graves97]

Team came out flat to start the game and Igor let in an iffy first goal and very bad second goal. Once they made it 2-1, Igor can't let the third goal happen, terrible rebound control. 4th goal was atrocious defense, no idea was gustafsson was doing on the entry and why Mika didn't slide over off the weak side (basically forcing Trouba to play the 2-1). Team managed to battle back in the 2nd as toronto sat back. 5th goal was a deflection following the BS penalty call, not much Igor could do. 6th goal was a bit lucky as the rebound went right back to Matthews but an elite goal needs to stop that.

I think Igor is definitely in his own head and may need to sit for a week or so to right himself. I also think people need to take a step back from the ledge and realize that goalies going through slumps are pretty common, Hank just spoiled us all these years.

I am though worried about the construct of the team, particularly on the back-end. Gustafsson has reverted back from Fox-lite to a journeyman 6/7 defenseman, Jones is completely redundant on this team, and Schneider is basically a crappier version of Trouba who wilts under any form of forechecking pressure. Any sort of injury on the defense and we are forced to move these guys into positions they are not prepared to play. Need to move on from Jones and find a someone who plays a sound defensive game and can decently make an outlet pass (thinking Kevin Klein or Fedor Tyutin. I'll even take Girardi as a 4-5).

 

[hardnosed]

This is actually an underrated GREAT point. My first thought: Ok Lindy is dead but will be back in 2 games. I was shocked when he got up lol

Guy hit him in the chest. No head contact, no shoulder contact. It's like a tackle in football. Looked a lot worse than it was

 

[Graves97]

When does Chris Drury's seat heat up?

Not anytime soon. They are tied for the second most points in the league.

 

[hardnosed]

It is not THAT they are losing games; it is how they are losing. This was a gutless loss against a defensively porous opponent that played an emotional game last night.

Zero excuse for a performance like this.

Yea. We either win or get blown out

Team came out flat to start the game and Igor let in an iffy first goal and very bad second goal. Once they made it 2-1, Igor can't let the third goal happen, terrible rebound control. 4th goal was atrocious defense, no idea was gustafsson was doing on the entry and why Mika didn't slide over off the weak side (basically forcing Trouba to play the 2-1). Team managed to battle back in the 2nd as toronto sat back. 5th goal was a deflection following the BS penalty call, not much Igor could do. 6th goal was a bit lucky as the rebound went right back to Matthews but an elite goal needs to stop that.

I think Igor is definitely in his own head and may need to sit for a week or so to right himself. I also think people need to take a step back from the ledge and realize that goalies going through slumps are pretty common, Hank just spoiled us all these years.

I am though worried about the construct of the team, particularly on the back-end. Gustafsson has reverted back from Fox-lite to a journeyman 6/7 defenseman, Jones is completely redundant on this team, and Schneider is basically a crappier version of Trouba who wilts under any form of forechecking pressure. Any sort of injury on the defense and we are forced to move these guys into positions they are not prepared to play. Need to move on from Jones and find a someone who plays a sound defensive game and can decently make an outlet pass (thinking Kevin Klein or Fedor Tyutin. I'll even take Girardi as a 4-5).

Jones is a square peg in round hole on this team. The way this team wins is to play Lavi's defensive structure and win boring, tough 3-2 games with good goaltending, obviously. The games we get blown out is when the structure goes away and it's a track meet. Unfortunately that's the style that Jones plays. So he looks ok when we get blown out but kills us when we are playing that tight defense and trying to force all shots from the perimeter in our end. Throwing out yesterday game because it didn't matter what our style is when we get that kind of goaltending.