Post-Game Talk: Hit em with the 4 like AM34. Leafs lose 4th straight game 7 to Boston: 2-1

[Gabriel426]

I agree on Samsonov and the lack of goal support from his highly paid teammates. However, at some point you need to be able to rely on your goalie to stop a muffin of a shot or deflect a puck away from an oncoming enemy forward.

Samsonov was putrid on BOTH of Boston's goals. I coached teenage goalies that would have likely prevented both of those goals.

JMHO.

You are right. By no means am I defending Sammy. What I tried to state is the fact that Sammy gave the Leafs a chance in 60mins, and if 40mil forwards can only score ONE goal, the loss is on them as much as Sammy.

 

[usernamezrhardtodo]

The cap would rise for the rest of the league as well.

One way or another we had no need for JT , it f*cked our internal cap structure, stripped Matthews of any responsibility and ultimately C, costed us draft picks we could turn in two lines of Matthew Knies -let that sink in. The depth we had in Kadri, Hyman ...

I could go on, pointing out that even with raising cap, we would be suckers with the worst cap structure in the league.

But yeah, it would be slightly better if not for COVID. No one expected COVID, Dubas is lucky COVID happened, gave him an excuse.

I agree with all of the above, but want to point out something that a lot of proponents of the "Plan" seem to miss. The players that were eligible for contracts during the covid period downturn took less money than they would have if things were going up...so this plan was doomed no matter what happened because a Domi wouldn't be signing for $3M...he would have been $4M etc.

So its not like you get to freeze everyone else at the cap hit % that the core 4 were taking...they would have asked for more and received it from somebody.

The problem was always paying too much for redundance (JT) and also wasting draft picks and prospects to bolster this shitty core that was part of a team construction that was very unbalanced to begin with.

 

[Al14]

I think turning around a last place team that drafted Matthews into a playoff team over one year was a pretty notable success.

Lou saw that happen.

Name one other leap the team has made of that magnitude since then.

Taking five years to win a single playoff round?

Was that as good?

That's what Dubas did.

He's an absolute loser.

No other way to describe his tenure here but an absolute fail.

Everyone sees this except a select few "Leafs fans".

And obviously, the ownership of the Pittsburgh Penguins !!!

 

[Racer88]

Dubas sh*ts the bed 5 years in a row- give him more time, it's not his fault, it's covid !

Tre 5 min into the job - bro look at the state of LEAFS !!! I remember the good old Dubas days ! We could trade away picks like em sh*t be growing on trees!!! Tre ruined this team in two days! All the hard work fake glasses put in...

Ya the Covid excuse is my favourite

 

[Dekes For Days]

Who wore themselves out in this series? Boston looked fresher than us in Game 7 and didn't deal with the injuries we did

Also, the guy who took the most abuse in the series was probably Pastrnak, and he scored the game 7 OT winner while charging the net. Didn't seem phased by it.
Yet the narrative somehow survives...

 

[DraftSchmaft]

Also, the guy who took the most abuse in the series was probably Pastrnak, and he scored the game 7 OT winner while charging the net. Didn't seem phased by it.
Yet the narrative somehow survives...

He didn't charge the net. Nobody knew he was on the ice.

is anyone taking this guy seriously anymore ?? Seek help if you do.

P.s Charging the net implies there's traffic to get through.

 

[Dekes For Days]

He didn't charge the net.

He literally puts it in while skating through the crease.
Either way, he's the one that scored the game 7 OT winner on us.
Being rough with him did nothing. Being rough with the Boston team did nothing. Focusing exclusively on snot did nothing but hurt us.

 

[Arzak]

I agree with all of the above, but want to point out something that a lot of proponents of the "Plan" seem to miss. The players that were eligible for contracts during the covid period downturn took less money than they would have if things were going up...so this plan was doomed no matter what happened because a Domi wouldn't be signing for $3M...he would have been $4M etc.

So its not like you get to freeze everyone else at the cap hit % that the core 4 were taking...they would have asked for more and received it from somebody.

The problem was always paying too much for redundance (JT) and also wasting draft picks and prospects to bolster this shitty core that was part of a team construction that was very unbalanced to begin with.

Correct. JT signing was bad either way, you don't sign top 5 contracts to play your 2C on a contract that will age horribly because it won't be totally devastating - should the cap keep rising. Stupid either way for a plethora of reasons.

Also, we do need a better goalie, but it's never our priority. The number one priority is resigning core 4, each year, because they have to be on shorter contracts so we can keep overpaying them.


The best part? Swayman played backup to Vezina Ullmark last year. You are telling me there was no way Leafs could get a goalie? You need to draft one? No team in the NHL missing forwards with an extra goalie?

We'll keep Mitch @12.93M

I'm just waiting for Deserve O Hope f*cking meter posters to tell me we deserved better without stating their sauce .

 

[TheGreenTBer]

@BrannigansLaw I am currently in an Uber on the way to Logan Airport and I just saw a tall highway billboard in Bruins colors saying "The Quest Continues."

I kind of almost want to get out of this Uber, run across gridlocked I-93, climb up the tower to the billboard like Spider-Man and jump off.

AND THE FIRST PERSON I WAS GREATED BY IN A f***ING CHICAGO AIRPORT TERMINAL WAS DECKED OUT HEAD TO ASS IN BRUINS GEAR I HATE EVERYTHING THAT HAS EVER EXISTED

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Ok

so whats so funny, explain to me where I'm wrong or what I said was funny.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Everyone wanted Tavares, everyone was happy with Marner and Nylander. Matthews was a no brainer. We were all happy with the building of the core, it just hasn't worked - they have let us and Dubas down.

Not everyone wanted Tavares - a few, myself included, said it was bad from the start. More and more people have come to that conclusion.

Tavares and Marner have let Dubas down, but the biggest problem was Dubas signing JT, so it ultimately starts with him.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Speaking of success, we got to round 2 last year and only round 1 this year.

The new GM has made the team regress, we can at least agree on this, and is likely the worst option of the 3 being mentioned.

The results may not have been as good in sheer number of wins, but that's not surprising considering the injuries to goalies in the regular season and to our two best players in the playoffs, the continued decline of JT, and the worse than usual disappearance of Marner in the playoffs.

I don't think most people would agree that "the new GM has made the team regress".

 

[Racer88]

He literally puts it in while skating through the crease.
Either way, he's the one that scored the game 7 OT winner on us.
Being rough with him did nothing. Being rough with the Boston team did nothing. Focusing exclusively on snot did nothing but hurt us.

Focusing on different groups of skilled players the last 7 years did nothing.
The common denominator is the core 5. No amount of spin changes that simple fact

 

[SImpelton]

You are right. By no means am I defending Sammy. What I tried to state is the fact that Sammy gave the Leafs a chance in 60mins, and if 40mil forwards can only score ONE goal, the loss is on them as much as Sammy.

If you won't defend Samsonov, I will.

Sorry to but in here but I hate it when things like this happen. Samsonov is getting railroaded and I just can't stand it.

I won't address his overall performance, but in game 7 Samsonov was, objectively speaking, your best player on the ice. He came one small mental hiccup away from carrying a team to the second round that absolutely did not deserve to be there. He made the fewest mistakes of any Leaf out there and if the rest of the team had played at a quarter of Samsonov's level you're talking about matchups against the Panthers right now

An average performance from an average goaltender is to let 3 goals up in 60 minutes. 2 goals let up in 60 minutes is excellent work and most of the time, it's enough to win.

He let up one. One solitary goal. If you're doing 3 stars for just the leafs, Samsonov is the first star. Objectively this is true regardless of what you feel about it.

I know that historically Samsonov is a bit inconsistent and you've had to put up with that and it's flavoring your take on this game. I just want to let you know from an outsider's perspective, Samsonov more than did his job. He nearly carried the team on his back over the threshhold on his own and he failed because the defense was negative help in a key moment (2 defensemen screened Samsonov for Lindholm's shot and no one was covering Brazeau on the other side forcing Sammy to hedge his bets)

you can blame a lot of things for the game 7 loss but blaming Samsonov is the height of ignorance and arrogance. you deserve to be better than this. you deserve to be better fans that can discern the difference between inconsistency and a guy literally being strung up to dry. On both goals, Samsonov is in the latter camp.

the media is scapegoating Samsonov because he's on the way out and it's easier than addressing the real problems. Don't fall for it. Be better fans.

your problems are on D, not the goaltender, and many goaltenders you could bring in would handle it worse than Samsonov did.

 

[Racer88]

Also, the guy who took the most abuse in the series was probably Pastrnak, and he scored the game 7 OT winner while charging the net. Didn't seem phased by it.
Yet the narrative somehow survives...

Ya I wish our stars had the same drive and ability to take punishment and still rise up and put it away. Maybe if our guys had that we would have won

 

[Dreakmur]

Also, the guy who took the most abuse in the series was probably Pastrnak, and he scored the game 7 OT winner while charging the net. Didn't seem phased by it.
Yet the narrative somehow survives...

He's not a puss like some of our core 4 are. Soft players get phased by it.

 

[Suntouchable13]

He's not a puss like some of our core 4 are. Soft players get phased by it.

Should we lump Willy with the rest of them, though? Willy did what he could. 3 goals in 4 games is not too shabby. If the other 3 joined him, we'd be playing Florida tonight.

 

[Dreakmur]

Should we lump Willy with the rest of them, though? Willy did what he could. 3 goals in 4 games is not too shabby. If the other 3 joined him, we'd be playing Florida tonight.

Willy is a very strange dude. I don't think he gets intimidated, but he just seems to rather do things the easy way if possible. He certainly doesn't feel pressure like some other do. He just does his thing.

 

[Aashir]

So then what exactly did Dubas do if that's what you describe as nothing?

Traded the cancer kadri for the superstar barrie

Traded for the superstar goaltender Murray and didn’t get any major picks back

Signed the vezina winner mrazek

Underpaid the core 4 by about $12m

Dealt the pick that became the bust Jarvis to get rid of marleau

Let go of the scrub McCann for the gods kerfoot and holl

Quadrupled down on the elite core as he should’ve

Brought in mental strong proven winner Samsonov

Dealt the scrub marchement for the slick Malkin, I mean malgin

Don’t you see? We have 8 expected cups on our hands. Dekes gets it, you just don’t understand hockey

 

[Dekes For Days]

Ya I wish our stars had the same drive and ability to take punishment and still rise up and put it away. Maybe if our guys had that we would have won

Our stars have plenty of drive, and aren't phased by physicality either. Physicality being such a focus was always misguided.

He's not a puss like some of our core 4 are. Soft players get phased by it.

The funniest part is that Pastrnak is pretty undeniably the softest of the 5. The narrative about physicality is just wrong.

 

[TMLegend]

Our stars have plenty of drive, and aren't phased by physicality either. Physicality being such a focus was always misguided.

The funniest part is that Pastrnak is pretty undeniably the softest of the 5. The narrative about physicality is just wrong.

You think Pastrnak is softer than Marner??? That is certainly a take. Do you even watch hockey or do you just look at box scores and spreadsheets all day?

 

[Dekes For Days]

You think Pastrnak is softer than Marner???

"Soft", as it's often described here, doesn't really exist. But yeah, I can't imagine how anybody would perceive Pastrnak to be less "soft".

 

[Racer88]

Our stars have plenty of drive, and aren't phased by physicality either. Physicality being such a focus was always misguided.

The funniest part is that Pastrnak is pretty undeniably the softest of the 5. The narrative about physicality is just wrong.

They don’t have the drive or did you not watch the playoffs Will, Marner and Reilly just stood there while Pasta after being punished for 7 games managed to rise up and score.

 

[647Hockey]

They don’t have the drive or did you not watch the playoffs Will, Marner and Reilly just stood there while Pasta after being punished for 7 games managed to rise up and score.

Not just being lazy where Pasternak flew by them, but MR was so out of position being in the middle whereas Pasta was on the wing, Pasta didn't even have to do a quick one timer shot off the bounce or control the puck with MR on his back. Pasta literally just swept right by him and even had enough time and space to go far side on Samsonov. MR wasnt even close.

How does MR standing in the middle of the ice with a good view of everything not see Pasta picking up steam and zooming down the wing?

If you watch the replay he doesn't even look at Pasta's side like he's not even there. MR is literally looking towards the bottom of the camera view. He's not even looking down the ice at Lindholm dumping it in. MR is literally facing south (TV direction). By the looks of it, he was looking at Morgan Geekie some reason.

 

[Mess]

You think Pastrnak is softer than Marner??? That is certainly a take. Do you even watch hockey or do you just look at box scores and spreadsheets all day?

The Leafs lead the playoffs in HITS while Boston finished 2nd.

Marner recorded a mere 6 hits and 1 block shot, finishing 18th on the Leafs near the virtual bottom of Leafs skaters.

While Pasta tied for 6th with 19 hits on the Bruins who were 2nd in hits overall. Pasta DOES NOT shy away from physical play,

I have to agree anyone who watched the games would not come remotely close to believing these 2 players are equals in terms of physicality and contribution.