Post-Game Talk: Leafs 3 Jets 2. Pavelec fails again.

[Edgar Halliwax]

Redmond played great. Really looking forward to his continued development.

For the rest of the Jets - let's just say that to classify that game as one big cluster**** would be polite.

 

[Huffer]

That was a tough loss last night. As much as it's obviously affects the fans (as evident here), those are extremely painful as a player. Ouch.

IMO, neither team played great. But for around 50 minutes or so, the Jets were the better team. Much more scoring chances, defended pretty well, etc. Then we get the go ahead goal and for some reason went into the prevent. Well, it never works in the NFL, and it certainly didn't work for us.

As for Pavelec, do I think he's to blame? No. Do I think he's doing enough to help us to win? No. Pavs made all the "required" saves, but doesn't seem to be giving us that 1 or 2 big saves a game that would turn a loss into a win. I don't pin any of the goals specifically on him (1 = breakaway, 2= bad coverage by D, 3 = terrible line change + poor gap control + laser shot). But saying that the goals weren't his "fault" isn't the same to me as saying that he needs to save one of those kinds more frequently to enable us to win more games. Your goalie needs to make all the required saves, and then make a few big ones here and there. Doesn't seem like we're getting the big ones right now.

But like I said, I don't hold that loss all on Pavs. We need to get more consistent scoring from our top 2 lines, and something seriously needs to be done to the PP. It's gone past now where the PP is just in a slump. And it's not even that the PP is looking good and not finishing. I can't even imagine a stat worse than 1 shot on 4 PP's in one game. Has a team ever been worse than that? Has a team ever had 0 shots in 4 straight PP's?

Some Positives?

- Thought we carried the play for the majority of the game.

- Besides the Kessel PP goal, I thought the PK was better and more aggressive.

- Even without his goal, Redmond is further solidifying his place in the NHL. (Did play Frattin soft that led to the Leafs second goal, but overall I liked his game)

- Buff and Bogo can't be out for the entire year right?

 

[TroubaFan1]

Tough loss, that one really hurt.

 

[OnionPuck]

I don't think Pavelec is to be blamed for this game, but even with Atlanta I didn't like him as a starter. I see him more as a backup type guy. I suppose I been a bit spoiled as a Moose season ticket holder watching who I feel are better goaltenders, Schneider and Lack. Yes, I get that Lack has undergone hip surgery and may never be the same and Schneider hasn't been his usual dominate self, but goaltending is an issue, even if it wasn't the major factor tonight. And yes, when your two goal scorers are a recent call up and a depth dman who was waived by the worst team in the league, something is worrisome there.

I won't ever jump ship. Been a long time supporter of my Winnipeg teams. Aside from a few Moose runs I got to see in person, I like to experience good times. I believe we'll be rewarded one day, but that day can't come soon enough.

Couldn't agree more. The Moose always had exceptional goaltending. I truly believe Lack is the real deal; it's a shame we couldn't have kept him. I made a post back in the summer about it, actually...

 

[OnionPuck]

That was a tough loss last night. As much as it's obviously affects the fans (as evident here), those are extremely painful as a player. Ouch.

IMO, neither team played great. But for around 50 minutes or so, the Jets were the better team. Much more scoring chances, defended pretty well, etc. Then we get the go ahead goal and for some reason went into the prevent. Well, it never works in the NFL, and it certainly didn't work for us.

As for Pavelec, do I think he's to blame? No. Do I think he's doing enough to help us to win? No. Pavs made all the "required" saves, but doesn't seem to be giving us that 1 or 2 big saves a game that would turn a loss into a win. I don't pin any of the goals specifically on him (1 = breakaway, 2= bad coverage by D, 3 = terrible line change + poor gap control + laser shot). But saying that the goals weren't his "fault" isn't the same to me as saying that he needs to save one of those kinds more frequently to enable us to win more games. Your goalie needs to make all the required saves, and then make a few big ones here and there. Doesn't seem like we're getting the big ones right now.

But like I said, I don't hold that loss all on Pavs. We need to get more consistent scoring from our top 2 lines, and something seriously needs to be done to the PP. It's gone past now where the PP is just in a slump. And it's not even that the PP is looking good and not finishing. I can't even imagine a stat worse than 1 shot on 4 PP's in one game. Has a team ever been worse than that? Has a team ever had 0 shots in 4 straight PP's?

Some Positives?

- Thought we carried the play for the majority of the game.

- Besides the Kessel PP goal, I thought the PK was better and more aggressive.

- Even without his goal, Redmond is further solidifying his place in the NHL. (Did play Frattin soft that led to the Leafs second goal, but overall I liked his game)

- Buff and Bogo can't be out for the entire year right?

You forgot Redmond.

 

[KBADCJET]

Is it too much to expect your goalie to make huge saves when you need him to?

 

[Blackie Dammit]

We are gonna ge smoked in OTT. Might have a chance against PHI if Buff and Bogo are back in theline up. PIT will dominate us next week....the future does not look well Jets fans.

 

[Gump Hasek]

The level of hysteria here is hilarious.

Some of you are shocked that they are trapping more of late? They are trapping more because without Buff and Bogo in the lineup the coaches have an AHL-level D group on the back-end and must use a more defensive strategy in order to defend better as an entire group. You guys are shocked they are trapping after getting shellacked more than once on the recent road trip? They are trapping because they essentially have no d-men to bail out a more aggressive strategy.

I'm not going to defend Pavelec but his play is in part reflective of substandard D in front of him. It is a team game.

 

[SensibleGuy]

and then 9 of 11 on the road. yeesh...this season could be done within three weeks...

 

[sully1410]

Look at how he scores goals. Tons of shots 5v5. He's not our best sniper by a long shot. His shooting percentage isn't that high. On a PP we have time to pick our shots, but Kane doesn't care.

He doesn't belong on the PP whatsoever. Every single time he is he does a bonehead move that costs us our zone establishment.

I disagree. The reason why our power play sucks so hard is because the Jets aren't taking shots. They spend too much time passing the puck allowing the opposition to establish themselves defensively.

They need to start putting the puck on net, putting pressure on the Goalie and breaking up the D in front of the net.

Until they start doing this...the PP is going to be dismal and very much based on luck.

 

[tacogeoff]

Yes the PP was bad last night. The Leafs did a very good job of jamming up our point men and keeping deep pressure on our points as that is always our first play on the PP, get the puck to the point. They studied the game tape on our PP and did a good job making it look very bad. Time to get a new look and stratagy for our PP

 

[Tdoe42]

My "Dont post till the Next day" Policy would be good for some ppl on here.

We are not a complete team yet Not even close so losses like that are gonna happen. This is a process its a young team and you learn to lose before you learn to win.

 

[Grind]

definitly suprised by some of the reactions here.

I still think the leafs played worse then we did. we took our foot off the gas for 5 minutes and let them get the lead.

Our team defense sucks because were missing two of our top 3. That's huge. If we win 30% of our games with Buff and Bogo out i'll be impressed.

Pavelec had a better game. Really didn't think this was one where you could hang the blame on him. Yes he didn't do what he needed to to win us the game, but he wasn't the cause for the loss. If you put the pavelec that played last night in the 2 or 3 of the games we lost earlier they'd have been winners.

Again, Redmond's looking like a pretty darn good find for his draft slot. I"m getting anxious every time Postma has the puck at the blueline, if he doesn't shoot it within 3 seconds bad things seem to happen, but that's essentially how he was advertised.

Guys on the radio were talking about KJW line having a god aweful +/-. They didn't seem to be spending a lot of time in there own zone to me, i'd like to take a look at what d pairing they're usually out with.

In short, i don't think it's our forwards that our lacking. Sure, our forwards can't score, and that's an issue- but I think our forwards aren't playing as aggressively as they would normally because of how weak we are on the back end right now.

Every team has to deal with injuries, but missing 2 of your top 3 is a tough pill to swallow.

Untill we get one of Buff or Bogo back, I'm not going to get too up in arms over games lost, we simply don't have the personnel on the blueline to remain competitive with both of them injured.

 

[Do or Die]

We have average goaltending, absolutely no presence, in front of the net....in both offensive and defensive zones....our special teams are playing at a AHL level... in the NHL.... and our top forwards, alternate between ok....and invisible....

Other than that, things look pretty good.....

 

[Tdoe42]

I disagree. The reason why our power play sucks so hard is because the Jets aren't taking shots. They spend too much time passing the puck allowing the opposition to establish themselves defensively.

They need to start putting the puck on net, putting pressure on the Goalie and breaking up the D in front of the net.

Until they start doing this...the PP is going to be dismal and very much based on luck.

Just simplify the PP... 3 passes MAX and Shoot from anywhere on the ice. Over thinking kills the powerplay

 

[sully1410]

Just simplify the PP... 3 passes MAX and Shoot from anywhere on the ice. Over thinking kills the powerplay

Yes. Absolutely. That's why it got picked apart.

 

[Gump Hasek]

Why all the whining about the power play BTW?

It is ranked 12th in the league at 21.4%.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats.ht...All&sort=powerPlayPercentage&viewName=summary

The PP isn't the problem; having an AHL-level D when minus Buff and Bogo is the problem.

 

[Blue Shakehead]

Why all the whining about the power play BTW?

It is ranked 12th in the league at 21.4%.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats.ht...All&sort=powerPlayPercentage&viewName=summary

The PP isn't the problem; having an AHL-level D when minus Buff and Bogo is the problem.

Not sure if serious.

 

[ps241]

always nice to wake up the next morning and take a fresh 2nd look

our PP will be fine if we roll a 1st unit of LLW with Toby and Buff when he is healthy. I am not hating on Kane and he is developing but he is not a 1st unit PP asset "yet". Guerzy mentioned it and I did as well last night but I am surprised more people haven’t commented about how different this team is with Buff in the lineup.

I agree that the trap/ road game strategy was probably the right one given our holes in the D core currently......keeping it real Redmond is playing well but if Redmond and Stuie are your 2nd unit

This is going to be a wacky season and is going to try my patience but it seems like our team is not the only schizophrenic group.........one small example is the Blues, they were world beaters out of the gate and now have dumped 3 strait and have looked pretty dreadful over that stretch?

I don't think we have enough talent to make the playoffs without Buff and Bogo in the lineup for an extended stretch........injuries are a part of sports and all teams deal with them but we are just not deep enough to go any length of time without two key pieces. Also it’s hard to have the injuries cluster in one area as well (top 4 D).

I think this is a "just hang in there" type season more than any. As has been pointed out if we can be around .500 then go on that one timely winning streak you never know...........however I can just as easily see the flip side of the coin where we hang in there but go on that one brutal losing streak that costs us the season.

we shall see.

FWIW the leafs fans around me last night were pretty cool..........it didn't have the New Years Eve emotionally charged vibe from season 1

 

[Howard Chuck]

The only time tonight I felt the Jets were actually looking dangerous in the offensive zone was in the first 4-5 minutes..

After that, nope. Not even any attempts at just throwing the puck at the net on the power plays. 1 shot on 4 ****ing power plays.

This team is **** at cycling around the boards to each other on the man advantage, so why do they keep doing it. Just throw the damn puck at the net, with how incredibly shaky Reimer looked how could that have been a bad thing..

Nope. Let's just cycle it around the boards.

**** I'm pissed.

Speaking of that ONE shot on net I can't count how many times I was yelling at the tv to get someone in front of the net... so many times they are working on the periphery and there isn't a single Jets jersey on the tv screen. It's not rocket science to get some traffic in front of the net and keep throwing it in there. You can't score if you don't shoot and make it difficult for the opposing goalie.

 

[Hank Chinaski]

Why all the whining about the power play BTW?

It is ranked 12th in the league at 21.4%.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats.ht...All&sort=powerPlayPercentage&viewName=summary

The PP isn't the problem; having an AHL-level D when minus Buff and Bogo is the problem.

As I've said a couple times now: the last few games have been ugly, but the power play is not going to be an issue for this team. It's been the 12th best unit since the last season in Atlanta. At the very worst, it's a back burner issue for this hockey team.

Not sure if serious.

Why wouldn't that comment be taken seriously? 12th best would imply a playoff-calibre PP unit.

 

[Gump Hasek]

Not sure if serious.

You've been whining about the pp; I'm conversely not sure why you would feel that is relevant given that the pp is ranked in the top 1/2 of the league.

The problem with the team is the lack of defense, not a power play that scores at an above average rate, FYI.

 

[Channelcat]

My "Dont post till the Next day" Policy would be good for some ppl on here.

We are not a complete team yet Not even close so losses like that are gonna happen. This is a process its a young team and you learn to lose before you learn to win.

Why do i think you`ll still be saying this in 5 years. This team has shown zero improvement since the thrasher days. The numbers dont lie.

 

[Jeti]

I don't know if Garret already posted this, but the Jets dominated the Fenwick battle.

http://www.arcticicehockey.com/winn...s-toronto-maple-leafs-stats-fenwick#143064245

They outshot the Leafs 14-1 with Kane on the ice (including posts and missed shots). This is a game they win more often than not.

That's not really that surprising, they did control the play for the majority of the game. However, regardless of how much you should be winning by you can't go in to a shell with 10 minutes left to protect a 1 goal lead.

 

[Tdoe42]

Why do i think you`ll still be saying this in 5 years. This team has shown zero improvement since the thrasher days. The numbers dont lie.

Why the hell would I care about the thrashers years... This is a different organization