Post-Game Talk: It wasnt a fight, just fuggit aboutit

[Dekes For Days]

I took a lot of heat for suggesting Horvat for Rielly last week. Looks like some people are seeing the light.

No, it would still be a horrible trade.

 

[Mr Bill Waters]

Was at hockey with my son.

Sounds like a great one to miss.

McCann goal and assist? Nice…

I'm starting to think Dubas f'ed up choosing Holl over McCann. Also, give it a larger sample for the goaltending situation.

 

[ACC1224]

I'm starting to think Dubas f'ed up choosing Holl over McCann. Also, give it a larger sample for the goaltending situation.

Hopefully it's a 'live and learn' situation for the GM.
Although with no more expansion drafts on the horizon it'll be a wasted lesson.

 

[rocketman588]

We'll be ok

However shit like this will most likely be the difference between Tampa and like Detroit or something in the playoffs. We fall asleep way too often to be a really great regular season team

 

[Torontonian]

Terrible game to go to last night, team played well in the first but not scoring hurt them. Murray played like ass, the 2nd goal and 4th goal are saves he needed to make. The break away goal, watching live couldn't believe that they just watched him blow the zone and no one even went after him.

Team couldn't string a play together in the 2nd or 3rd, the big 4 every time they had the puck on their stick felt they lost it stick handling. Just a tough game in general.

 

[BayStBullies]

I took a lot of heat for suggesting Horvat for Rielly last week. Looks like some people are seeing the light.

You think that's on the nose, check out my comment before he returned:

Injury Report: - Morgan Rielly on LTIR (update: expected return Dec 29)

I would love to see what we could acquire with: Rielly Muzzin’s Cap First round pick Robertson Kerfoot Holl Add those assets to our existing line up - report back. Rielly + Robertson for Kane (50%) + Murphy + Muzz Cap Kerfoot + Knies + Holl + 1st For Chychrun + Crouse Done. Lol...

forums.hfboards.com

 

[Leaf Rocket]

First period we looked great...After that...we forgot to play hockey apparently.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Another game of shinny on da pond that I watched from my seats last night .. that's 3 straight pond hockey games .. absolute sh*t show on defense .. Rielly not ready yet to come back with his conditioning .. Sandin taking way too many risks (like Rielly too) .. Gio again playing like he got da virus from 2 D who entered our healthy lineup .. but then Holl decides he is gonna sh*t da bed too .. 4 D men playing NO D .. impossible to WIN playing like that .. it is easy pickings on all our mistakes .. we got picked apart .. and tending was not da best but no tender was winning us that game .. we need to tighten up our play and get back to a D that plays D first and foremost .. otherwise losses will pile up

 

[Hellcat]

No, it would still be a horrible trade.

I never agree with you but you're right. trading a good #2 for a UFA Cy Young candidate, would be a huge mistake.

 

[robertmac43]

I feel bad for those who attended this game in person....

 

[ACC1224]

I feel bad for those who attended this game in person....

good news, we get to go back Saturday.

 

[robertmac43]

good news, we get to go back Saturday.

Hopefully you get to see a more entertaining and put together product on the ice.... No need to have the first weekend of 2023 ruined lol

 

[Twine Tickler]

we had really good jump in that first period. We were let down once again by our incredibly dull PP1 and terrible goaltending. You could tell the second we went 0/2 on those first 2 PP with only 1 terrible attempt at net to show from it that Seattle would be getting the next PP in the game. Surely they did, and of course they converted. It took about 5/8ths of the following double minor to even get effectively set up in the Seattle zone, before we ended up scoring to tie the game. Only for that to last 14 seconds...

Murray gave us next to no chance at winning that game unfortunately.

I don't like the effort that followed that 2nd Seattle goal, but I can kind of understand it to a degree. This has been the scenario for both tendy's for the last couple weeks. We fight to even the game up or go ahead, only for that to be so easily erased with poor goaltending. It's demoralizing as a player. I don't think there is anything more deflating then that TBH.

We need timely saves, and we are not getting them right now. Not sure it's time to hit the panic button, but it's an obvious sign of concern. Ironically we tended to play better when our core D-men were out of the lineup. We limited chances going the other way to next to nothing. I am not sure why we cannot/refuse to play this way at full health.

PP1 needs a major shakeup. It sucks the life out of our game. There is almost zero movement of the puck that is dynamic. our passing is incredibly slow, almost no 1 touch passing. Just way too predictable. It honestly is working against us for quite some time now. I am not exactly sure what the answer is, but it's not what we are doing.

We need to be way better going forward. Not good enough at all.

 

[francis246]

how bad was the game? Was watching the world juniors

 

[Hellcat]

how bad was the game? Was watching the world juniors

It was like watching a person slamming their hand in the car door over and over and never learning that doing the samething gets the same results.

 

[Dekes For Days]

how bad was the game? Was watching the world juniors

We dominated the 1st, but got scored on, and then we fought back, tied it, and got instantly scored on.
We were the better team, but Murray had his worst game as a Leaf, and we looked disjointed on the PP and a bit defeated as every shot went in in the 2nd.
Naturally, the sky is now falling, and people are arbitrarily blaming Rielly for some reason, even though he actually had a decent game.

 

[Hellcat]

we had really good jump in that first period. We were let down once again by our incredibly dull PP1 and terrible goaltending. You could tell the second we went 0/2 on those first 2 PP with only 1 terrible attempt at net to show from it that Seattle would be getting the next PP in the game. Surely they did, and of course they converted. It took about 5/8ths of the following double minor to even get effectively set up in the Seattle zone, before we ended up scoring to tie the game. Only for that to last 14 seconds...

Murray gave us next to no chance at winning that game unfortunately.

I don't like the effort that followed that 2nd Seattle goal, but I can kind of understand it to a degree. This has been the scenario for both tendy's for the last couple weeks. We fight to even the game up or go ahead, only for that to be so easily erased with poor goaltending. It's demoralizing as a player. I don't think there is anything more deflating then that TBH.

We need timely saves, and we are not getting them right now. Not sure it's time to hit the panic button, but it's an obvious sign of concern. Ironically we tended to play better when our core D-men were out of the lineup. We limited chances going the other way to next to nothing. I am not sure why we cannot/refuse to play this way at full health.

PP1 needs a major shakeup. It sucks the life out of our game. There is almost zero movement of the puck that is dynamic. our passing is incredibly slow, almost no 1 touch passing. Just way too predictable. It honestly is working against us for quite some time now. I am not exactly sure what the answer is, but it's not what we are doing.

We need to be way better going forward. Not good enough at all.

After all the epic failures, this team still has not learned how to play ugly to get a point. Do the same shit, shift after shift. If your big guns are not playing well, learn how to play a boring game, slow it down. Clog up the neutral zone, keep the shooters to the outside, blah, blah, blah. Not every game can be a master piece, some games can be boring and ugly.

 

[francis246]

We dominated the 1st, but got scored on, and then we fought back, tied it, and got instantly scored on.
We were the better team, but Murray had his worst game as a Leaf, and we looked disjointed on the PP and a bit defeated as every shot went in in the 2nd.
Naturally, the sky is now falling, and people are arbitrarily blaming Rielly for some reason, even though he actually had a decent game.

basically goaltending hasn't been great and Leafs defensive structure is kind of out of sorts right now?

It was like watching a person slamming their hand in the car door over and over and never learning that doing the samething gets the same results.

haha, thank you for that. I'll watch the highlights, but I assume turnover central

 

[ACC1224]

how bad was the game? Was watching the world juniors

Leafs were the better team early then pretty much dominated the rest of the night.
Didn't help that Murray was brutal. You had a lucky escape.

My daughter and I determined that it was easily the least entertaining game we've attended since the JVR/Bozak era.

 

[Dekes For Days]

basically goaltending hasn't been great and Leafs defensive structure is kind of out of sorts right now?

Unlike Tuesday, this game was a lot more on the goalie than the defense. We had some defensive breakdowns in the 2nd that led to some rush chances, but that was largely because we were already down multiple goals and were pushing super hard (probably a bit too aggressively) for offense to make up for it.

 

[Mess]

Good thing I invested my most time and emotion into Team Canada Juniors run to GOLD, and then watched the Leafs on PVR thereafter.

 

[Twine Tickler]

After all the epic failures, this team still has not learned how to play ugly to get a point. Do the same shit, shift after shift. If your big guns are not playing well, learn how to play a boring game, slow it down. Clog up the neutral zone, keep the shooters to the outside, blah, blah, blah. Not every game can be a master piece, some games can be boring and ugly.

We played a pretty strong 1st period TBH. We literally dominated them for the 1st 10mins of this game. Seattle had 1 SOG through the first 16.5 mins of this game and they conceded a healthy amount of HDCA in that same timeframe. We should have been up at least 1 going into the 2nd period.

Our PP to end the 1st, and the subsequent PP to start the 2nd were f***ing terrible. We handed Seattle a bit of life with our inability to effectively move the puck on the PP. Seattle then followed it up with a bit of a fortunate goal off of a deflection, and they grab the lead in a game they've largely been hanging in for. When we tied things up on the double minor it was really not a product of a good PP. It took us about 2.5 mins just to set up and we ended up scoring on a nice play, but one that realistically does not go in 9 times out of 10 with even average defensive positioning by the PK unit. They literally left JT and Bunts completely wide open in front of the net. That said, we tied things up, and we could have built off of that.

The game really fell apart after the 2nd Seattle goal. It's just not a goal that can go in. We had been the better team up until that point, and we somehow were in a tie game. We knew that the PP ratio was 4:1 in our favor after the double minor, and we were unlikely to get the next call based on the standard the NHL seems to want to keep. We had to scratch and claw just to be in a tie game, even though we were by far the better team up until that point. For it to be erased like that is just defeating. That absolutely 100% cannot go in.

I am not trying to make excuses for the group, but I totally get how that would feel. I've played in games exactly like this and it instantly sucks the wind out of your sails. Additionally, It works inversely for the other team. If your a Leafs player you're inherently going to feel like you're going to need to score 6+ to even have a chance in the game. Which is almost exactly what happened on the 3rd kraken goal. Good pinch by Gio to keep the play alive in the offensive zone, followed by Kampf drifting back to cover Gio, but not holding his position on the blueline. McCann slips in behind the play and Mo ends up looking like the clown. McCann is not Mo's guy on that play. He's literally on the opposite side of the sheet. McCann was at the far side of the redline before he even received that puck. No matter how far Mo would have retreated he was never breaking that play up. A normally defensively stout Kampf got aggressive in the offensive zone, and let his man slip behind him. Very smart read on McCann to blow the zone there, and the game is all but over at that point. We lost all patience/structure once that 2nd goal went in, and I kind of get it in all honesty. Murr let the team down on that 2nd goal, and its incredibly hard to stay focused after that.

it is what it is. Murr will bounce back. But unfortunately that has been the story for us for the past 3 weeks or so. Poor goaltending breaking our structure. We just have to find a way to stay in our structure even in those moments. It's not easy, but that's the only way out of this type of mess. It's hardly like we played a bad game up until that 2nd goal against. We played within our system very well in fact. We just can't let 1 or 2 bad moments break that structure.

 

[57 Years No Cup]

Coincidence that we look like shit ever since Rielly came back?

Don't look at me I was against giving Reilly the big money in the first place.

Only 3 pages of PGT? Even fans are starting the indifference to this team till the playoffs. With goaltending like this and the inevitability of playing Tampa, a fatalist approach has begun.

The opposite of 'love" is not "hate", it's "apathy". The boards seem to echo that. I think most of us are waiting for the playoffs and our annual disappointment.

 

[capfit9]

Not even a 10 game sample JFC If they're still ranking 32nd by end of the month then we have a problem

9 game segment which is about 23% of the season so far with both goalies healthy is not insignificant but yes let's wait and see. my concern is how both these goalies fight through on ice struggles because i'd be concerned if either pulls the chute with a 'tweak' or a 'maintenance day'.

 

[Clark4Ever]

First stinker in a very long while. Burn the tape and see how they respond next game.