Post-Game Talk: Habs lose season opener to Leaves

[Mrb1p]

View attachment 751756

Uncanny. Same facial structure, eye color and white skin color.

 

[Whitesnake]

A few thoughts :

- I can’t blame Allen for this game. He did give two weak goals, but he kept his team in the game. Leafs pressure was just too high and out players weren’t able to calm things down which becomes extremely hard for a goaltender. Four of the five goals were scored with a man advantage.

- There’s no structure on the defensive end. At one point they need to fix that because the second there’s some sustained pressure, all the players fumble their assignments. This will be the reason why we will lose so much.

- The powerplay in overtime was absolutely horrible. It was just so obvious that the plan was to give the puck to Caufield. That failure is on Burrows. In a setting like this one, players should just focus on creating movement by using Monahan on the goal line to force players in so Dach and Caufield can have more space.

- Monahan shouldn’t be stuck with Gallagher and Pearson. He made multiple plays to keep possession of the puck because his wingers couldn’t and even body blocked a player behind his net stopping a good opportunity. It’s too much ice to cover for a guy who is injury prone. He should be with Suzuki or Dach helping them with possession not carrying two corpses.

- Gallagher is done, not that there was any doubt, but he’s clearly not an effective player anymore. Even a fourth line, there’s no way he brings more Pezzetta or one of the young guns. It’s a sad reality, but they need to limit his minutes. He’s late on almost every play and fumbles most of them.

- Pearson is also done. He will have moments where he will do a good play here and there because he’s a veteran but even him can’t keep up the pace. It would be better to have someone faster that brings talent or aggressiveness. Heck, I rather Armia over him. At least he can win battles and help possession, which Pearson can’t really do.

Great post. Though one thing about Allen...nobody was asking him to win a playoff series yesterday. Just to steal a game. That's what goalies do sometimes. While he was good most of the game....he didn't have to let 2 insanely weak goals in.

Yep, at this point...Armia ahead of Gallagher and Pearson. And that says a lot.

 

[Ozmodiar]

Giving up two 6v5 goals is bad enough but not being able to touch the puck or even making an attempt at the empty net is pathetic.

I didn’t like the matchup (4th line) for the first empty netter. (Was it after an icing? I don’t remember)

Monahan turned it over twice before the 2nd one. The Leafs will make you pay for those mistakes.

 

[Vachon23]

MSL will need to find ways to fix his special teams, that have been one of his weakness as HC

 

[domiwroze]

The most annoying part is that the 2 soft goals that Allen gave up were when we had control of the game, 2-0 and 5-3. The first one is a really, really shit goal to give, horrible. Once he gave that first one, the game did a full 180 in the wrong direction, everyone started to play bad scared of making mistakes and that Jakey would let anything in.

 

[KevSkillz4]

Newhook - Dach - Slafkovsky have potential to become a very very good 2nd line this year!

 

[Ozmodiar]

Newhook - he got knocked off the puck a few times in open ice, but did really well on the boards. Used his leverage well. I can see why they have him on the wing.

Too-early line tweaks:

1. Switch Evans and Monahan. I think Monahan can get more production from RHP and JY.

2. Switch Newhook and Anderson. I want to see even more chaos on that 2nd line. I suspect that Newhook, more than Anderson, would be on the same page as CC and NS … could extend plays.

 

[loudi94]

I really wonder what they'll do with Gallagher. No one is touching that contract. It's basically 4 years of dead cap space and he has a NMC to boot. Insanely idiotic contract that was. He doesn't even play hard enough to get injured anymore either.

Put him in front of the net on the PP and direct the play to go to the point for clappers until one hits him? Kidding of course, but for a guy that's so good in the room, we need to find a way to keep him in the room instead of on the ice. He can't be blind to it, so at some point his pride will have to get him to step away.

 

[Whalers Fan]

Not really. Allen was on the other side of the net getting ready to face a D shot. Matthews had a wide open net. Allen did what he could to get across. The real problem is someone let Matthews stand alone on that post. No one touched him. I just watched all 3 of Matthews goals. He had far to much time without anyone marking him.

That was Matthews' third goal. I am talking about his second goal. It definitely wasn't a wide open net. Mathews was along the goal line towards the corner. Allen looked like he was daydreaming, and didn't guard the post. It was a terrible goal that he shouldn't have allowed if he'd been tight against the post, where he should have been. Check out the video below starting at 1:09

 

[Canadiens98]

Wow tough crowd, especially on Savard and Matheson who each had to log 24+ minutes with Xhekaj spending almost an entire period in the box.


It's sad seeing what Gallagher has become, he plays with heart but it looks like his body is showing signs that he can't keep up at this level anymore. To think, he's locked up not only for this year, but for the following 3 seasons at $6.5million. If we wanted to buy him out, he'd cost $2.1mil against the cap until 2029/30. Thank you Bergevin.

Also, please don't touch that 2nd line of Newhook-Dach-Slaf

 

[Team_Spirit]

Suzuki seemingly forgot how to get his shot off from the top of the circle so the Leafs PK can cheat to cover Cole.

Fix this and the PP will improve.

 

[Gamimenos]

Game should have never gone to OT. That 2nd to last goal in regulation was horrible. Goaltending will be the end of us this season.

 

[Whalers Fan]

Doesn't matter to me because I doubt he has a season good enough for a team to give us a 2nd or 3rd rounder at the TDL. We are talking 4th+ rounders for guys like this.

Gorton/Hughes/MSL will ice who they feel are going to show up. Armia needed a message sent to him and they finally sent it. What will that change in terms of him playing harder? Time will tell

You don't trade Pearson at the TDL for the returning asset - - you do it to clear space in the lineup for a younger player who may have a future with the team.

 

[Conflicted Habs fan]

Great game to watch with some notable highlights like Wifi targeting Reeves and Ylonen's goal, but we shoulda had won that game. We'll exact revenge upon them next time!

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

You don't think Heineman would be better in his spot?

We’re rebuilding and the standings don’t matter. Gallagher has a long expensive contract. Burn off another year and don’t worry about it.

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

Sucks we lost, but can't complain when most of our young core guys had very solid games. The main weak links were some of our vets, Allen, Gally and Pearson were absolutely terrible.

I just hope Pearson doesn't get kept in the lineup all year similar to Dadonov last year, give him a couple of games and if he continues to suck ass give his spot to a younger player.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Not if Newhook scores 30 goals.

Well, right now he’s in pace for 164 so….

 

[Runner77]

 

[Habs Halifax]

You don't trade Pearson at the TDL for the returning asset - - you do it to clear space in the lineup for a younger player who may have a future with the team.

Sure but what does this have to do with what I said originally?

For now, guys like Heineman, Farrell, Roy will play AHL. Heineman is more NHL ready vs the rest of them. My point was we seem to be happy as a whole with Pearson in the line-up and Armia in the AHL but there is not much difference between them.

Are you going to tell me that we should send both to the AHL? Sure but the original point is being skewed now into a different conversation. The post you replied to was talking about playing him so we can trade him. That's what fans think. Pearson playing or not playing doesn't really give us added advantage of being able to trade him in a season where most teams don't have cap space.

It's an available cap space issue. Not a player performance issue where we can increase their value or make them more easier to trade... for whatever

Domi and Bertuzzi were added for "sandpaper" (Reaves too), they fell short of doing any sandpaper last night and Reaves basically disappeared after Xhejak jumped him. Klingberg was added as an offensive D because you know Leafs don't have a good enough offense...or something.

Leafs entire strategy seems to be to hit things at 5v5 and have the refs in their pocket so they can produce on the PP and win games.

At the end of the day, their stars up front will carry them as far as they can. But most teams who get to final 4 have solid D and goaltending or a hot goalie at least. Leafs D core is just not that good. Not horrible but in terms of final 4 standards, they can be exposed.

 

[Essenege]

One crappy goal. Nylanders goal was a complete screen.

Gregor and the first goal with empty net (Matthews with no angle)

 

[Le Tricolore]

Allen sucked, Samsonov sucked, games ending in the shootout suck.

The team won't be good this year, but if the offense can continue scoring goals, at least they'll be fun to watch.

 

[Tyson]

I hope they don't keep Barron out of the line up too long. He can't be worse than some of the Dmen we saw last night.

 

[Habs]

so do we have that bad of a blueline, or do they just not know how to play in their own zone as a unit? People really looked loss, even the wingers weren't on the boards in the D zone, they were scrambling. Hard to move forward when the only known system is the drop pass on the PP, we got that down pat. We have some good tools here, but the coaching seems to be the weak point for the longest time. Marty says all the right things, but c'mon he has to get this coaching staff together or fire some people.

 

[CHwest]

Allen played a good game. Not great but good. Some of you guys are out to lunch

? Two stinkers does a good game not make.

 

[Tyson]

I like David Savard but no way should he be near a top pairing. At this point of his career he is a bottom pairing Dman.