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

[Mess]

Leafs have lost 6 games 7's in the last 11 years and 4 of those were in Boston Gardens in 2013, 2018, 2019 and 2024.

Leafs haven't beaten the Bruins in a playoff series since 1958.

 

[Tak7]

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

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

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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,

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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.

Feels like something was very off with how they were counting hitting stats this series - almost felt like any initiation of contact between players was being counted as a hit.

346 hits amounts to roughly 50 hits per game for the Leafs. They were physical, but I didn't ever get the sense that this was a physical "war" that resulted in 50 hits a game from one team.

Timothy Liljegren throwing 12 hits? I'll be honest with you - I don't recall a single time he threw one

 

[TheGreenTBer]

Hits are notoriously difficult to track statistically.

Maybe that's why a certain segment of Leafs fans don't care about physicality - because it actually requires them to watch a f***ing game to evaluate rather than just pull some other bullshit number out of their ass that means jack all.

 

[Mess]

Feels like something was very off with how they were counting hitting stats this series - almost felt like any initiation of contact between players was being counted as a hit.

346 hits amounts to roughly 50 hits per game for the Leafs. They were physical, but I didn't ever get the sense that this was a physical "war" that resulted in 50 hits a game from one team.

Timothy Liljegren throwing 12 hits? I'll be honest with you - I don't recall a single time he threw one

Where you aware that the Brad Treliving built Leafs were 2nd in the regular season in HITS, only behind Florida and right in front of Boston..

A team assembled to attempt to go through both Leafs top Atlantic Div rivals, and not let the physical play be their downfall nor deterrent.

 

[Dreakmur]

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

Method acting at it's finest right there....

 

[hamzarocks]

I feel like half the cup winners have one random great season, winning is hard.

Colorado is a great example, they have a terrible record outside of the one season they won, and they are a great team.

St Loius came out of nowhere.

All those teams are better than the leafs (besides the kings but there rebuild ended in 2020ish so they have time compared to the leafs)

They literally have went to the 2nd round more often than the leafs have

Caps, Sharks, Avs, Blues all had more runs in the playoffs than AM34 era leafs

Caps a team known for being choke artists still had 3 series wins in 8 years vs leafs 1 in 8

Avs have won 4 series in 7 years exclduing thete cup win in 2022. They can still win another series this year vs Dallas

Dallas --> They have rebuilt/retooled on the fly and have made the finals, WCF and now in R2 vs the Avs.

Panthers --> Made the 2nd round, finals, and now 2nd round again

Canes --> Have 2 ECF runs since 2019 when they became an elite team

Edmonton --> Have made WCF, WCSF and now WCSF again the past three years. They are likely to beat the nucks and go to WCF if they perform like they did in R1.

Leafs show they are no closer to being a contender than any fluke wildcard team that crawls in the playoffs. We get eliminated R1 almost every year. All these teams make either roster upgrades to their core and are serious contenders while the leafs are the laughing stock for all playoff teams

 

[Gallagbi]

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

Marners the softest of the 5 and it's not close.

But the physical assessment was misguided.

 

[Aashir Mallik]

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?

I don’t think dekes watches hockey tbh. He has to just sit infront of numbers and make assumptions on them. Anyone with eyes watching our series wouldn’t call pasta soft

Even tonight pastrnak laid out reinhart with a big reverse hit

Pasta took 5 hits that were jaw dropping, If Marner or nylander took one of those they would stop playing the series and go home to cry.

He laid Tavares out too

Pastrnak is only matched by matthews(when he feels like it) physically

 

[Leafblooded]

I really hope they stop playing this dumbass commercial now

 

[KingJoffrey]

Teams who are interested on Marner are bubble playoff teams. Basement teams like Ducks want more draft capital no less.

If Leafs and 3rd team retain 30-40% Leafs maybe get 1st and B-tier prospect. Which is normal price for rental.

 

[Gabriel426]

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.

I think Willie is a maverick, he got the mental fortitude to play in TO but don’t think he wants to be the leader of the Leafs. Just someone who plays the game and do his thing.

 

[leafs in five]

Hits are notoriously difficult to track statistically.

Maybe that's why a certain segment of Leafs fans don't care about physicality - because it actually requires them to watch a f***ing game to evaluate rather than just pull some other bullshit number out of their ass that means jack all.

are you describing Mess here or?

 

[Dekes For Days]

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.

I did watch the playoffs, and drive has never been the issue.
Not picking up an awkward bounce off a dump in that Samsonov for some reason left there doesn't really have anything to do with drive.

Marners the softest of the 5 and it's not close. But the physical assessment was misguided.

Seems like a case of post-loss emotion, or just not watching Pastrnak enough. Either way, physicality accomplished a whole lot of nothing on both sides.

 

[Racer88]

All those teams are better than the leafs (besides the kings but there rebuild ended in 2020ish so they have time compared to the leafs)

They literally have went to the 2nd round more often than the leafs have

Caps, Sharks, Avs, Blues all had more runs in the playoffs than AM34 era leafs

Caps a team known for being choke artists still had 3 series wins in 8 years vs leafs 1 in 8

Avs have won 4 series in 7 years exclduing thete cup win in 2022. They can still win another series this year vs Dallas

Dallas --> They have rebuilt/retooled on the fly and have made the finals, WCF and now in R2 vs the Avs.

Panthers --> Made the 2nd round, finals, and now 2nd round again

Canes --> Have 2 ECF runs since 2019 when they became an elite team

Edmonton --> Have made WCF, WCSF and now WCSF again the past three years. They are likely to beat the nucks and go to WCF if they perform like they did in R1.

Leafs show they are no closer to being a contender than any fluke wildcard team that crawls in the playoffs. We get eliminated R1 almost every year. All these teams make either roster upgrades to their core and are serious contenders while the leafs are the laughing stock for all playoff teams

All so this is both true and sad. It blows my mind how anyone could defend this build style and core construction let alone want to run these 5 guys back again………it’s just insane

 

[TMLBlueandWhite]

This is all Tanenbaum's fault.

All this losing is the result of an organization lacking accountability. To restore faith in the nation the Leafs need to make like the French in 1793. Turn the axe of responsibility into the royal guillotine.

Start lopping off the heads of those at the top.

This situation cannot be allowed to continue any longer. The so-called "brains" who thought this operation up should be on knees before the blade. If Marie Antoinette can be held accountable so too can Brendan Shanahan.

This organization has now reached a point where it prides itself on receiving respect in the handshake lineup.

If they even got that much this year. That's on Tanenbaum. If you're looking for someone to blame for this mess blame him, blame Tanenbaum.

His team, his fault.

 

[Al14]

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.

Pure comedy !!! How can you defend Samsonov when he couldn't STOP an easy shot? More often than not, he allowed the puck to go through him like it was the size of a small ball bearing.

Of course, it does not excuse the failings of his teammates, however those teammates also couldn't rely on him to make easy saves.

If our Leafs got Swayman, or even Ullmark's, level of goaltending, our Leafs might just have been the winning team in this first round series.

So, do you honestly want Samsonov back next season?

JMHO.

 

[SImpelton]

Pure comedy !!! How can you defend Samsonov when he couldn't STOP an easy shot? More often than not, he allowed the puck to go through him like it was the size of a small ball bearing.

This is literally untrue, or he would have allowed more than 1 goal in regulation.

The regulation goal he let up was on the D. NJot only were both of them in his line of vision for the shot but neither of them picked up Brazeau coming up the other side which is why Samsonov couldn't hold the post. If he had, Lindholm would have found an uncovered Brazeau for an easy assist.

the D were running around like chickens with their heads cut off on that goal and left samsonov out to dry.

I reiterate, Samsonov was the best Leaf on the ice in game 7

 

[Nineteen67]

This is literally untrue, or he would have allowed more than 1 goal in regulation.

The regulation goal he let up was on the D. NJot only were both of them in his line of vision for the shot but neither of them picked up Brazeau coming up the other side which is why Samsonov couldn't hold the post. If he had, Lindholm would have found an uncovered Brazeau for an easy assist.

the D were running around like chickens with their heads cut off on that goal and left samsonov out to dry.

I reiterate, Samsonov was the best Leaf on the ice in game 7

Samsonov takes some of the blame on the regulation goal. I think the Boston player was going to pass until he saw how much time he had with a wide open short side. Then he just flicked it in the open net.

 

[SImpelton]

Samsonov takes some of the blame on the regulation goal. I think the Boston player was going to pass until he saw how much time he had with a wide open short side. Then he just flicked it in the open net.

Like I said, that's kinda on the D though. No goaltender can be everywhere. He had a very good offensive defenseman lining up a shot on one side and an unguarded wing streaking up the crease on the other. Where exactly was he supposed to go on that play? And if he commits too soon Lindholm will read his reaction and any decision he makes will be wrong.

Goaltender needs a bit of help from the skaters to save scoring chances like that and Sammy didn't really get it. D needs to either block Lindholm from shooting or take away the pass to Brazeau so that whichever threat they deal with, Sammy can focus on the other one. They didn't succeed at either one leaving Sammy betwixt and between. If you want a breakdown of how the goal happened, that's how it happened.

 

[Nineteen67]

Like I said, that's kinda on the D though. No goaltender can be everywhere. He had a very good offensive defenseman lining up a shot on one side and an unguarded wing streaking up the crease on the other. Where exactly was he supposed to go on that play?

They’re all to blame. The goalie should have protected the short side.

 

[SImpelton]

They’re all to blame. The goalie should have protected the short side.

If he'd committed to the short side, Lindolm could have easily fed Brazeau for the world's easiest goal.

People are figuring this stuff without realizing that there was an unguarded wing literally on Samsonov's doorstep on the far post. He can't just commit to one scoring threat when there's two. D's gotta take one of those away so Sammy can focus on the other one. They didn't.

 

[Nineteen67]

If he'd committed to the short side, Lindolm could have easily fed Brazeau for the world's easiest goal.

People are figuring this stuff without realizing that there was an unguarded wing literally on Samsonov's doorstep on the far post. He can't just commit to one scoring threat when there's two. D's gotta take one of those away so Sammy can focus on the other one. They didn't.

You don’t know if he would have made the pass. The goalie’s job is to stop the puck and what we know is the short side was wide open because the goalie didn’t do his job.

 

[leafs in five]

still can't believe neither of the breakaways during/after the Knies penalty got a call. the Dewar one especially, where he got hooked on the hand, on a SH breakaway during a penalty for a hook that didn't hit the hands

 

[Dekes For Days]

The Leafs lead the playoffs in HITS

The Leafs are 5th in hits per 60 this playoffs.
Last year, they were 4th.
Fun fact: The lesser-hitting team was 7-1 in the 1st round.

 

[Ports]

Bertuzzi wasn't fine, Domi was.

There is still over 40 million to spend, and we finally have some cheap depth.

The core 4 underperformed, but so did the rest of the team.

I liked the play of less than half the team, even at their cap hits.

Woll saved us from a truly embarrassing series, and now people are acting like this is the right construction of the team, we just need more out of the core 4.

We need more out of the core 4, but we also need support, and there was none, especially out of the back end.

We have another 20 million to spend next year, it wasn't spent well this year, I am curious to see how that goes.

Do we double down and get tougher and less skilled? Will that solve the scoring problem? Do we finally get some offensive D on the backend that can help with transition?

More skill with toughness. The problem is most of the skill is currently in five soft players including Rielly. No team can win in the playoffs without some grit at the top. Knies and Domi. Those are the type of players that bring both elements to the table. Keep the punishing, tough dmen and add skill to them by moving Marner, Rielly and Tavares (unlikely) and bring in skilled players with a higher compete level on both D and up front.