Post-Game Talk: Leafs @ Habs | Leafs win 2-1!

[The Winter Soldier]

- Komarov is beasting! He'll only get better as he adjusts
- Kadri had an overall good game. Played just under 10 minutes but made every minute count and was dangerous every time he was out there
- Liles was great defensively. Such speed and hustle!
- Kessel was great! Showed some great vision on some of his passes, and what's there not to like about his bursts of speed. Seemed to catch Montreal players off guard a couple of times and created some good scoring opportunities
- Kuli looked lost offensively (that whole line did until their last shift), but was solid defensively. Lots of praise for McClement for his PK job, but Kuli was no slouch beside him on the PK unit
- Komi and Gunnar were sliently effective
- Scrivens looked very shaky at times, but kept the puck out when it mattered

I have one add, otherwise this was a good recap, Dion Phaneuf had a great defensive game, 27 mins and when he was on the ice, Montreal never seemed to threaten. Give an assist to Kostka.

 

[SprDaVE]

I kept watching number 21 jvr a lot while he didn't have the puck and looked gassed and very slow at times.

He hasn't played much in the last calender year. It'll take some time for him to be in game shape I think.

Good thing he isn't counted on to carry the offense.

Hopefully he can develop chemistry with Kadri, as I think they'll be quite the tandem in the next couple years.

 

[Analyzer*]

The habs looked like garbage... LOL so bad

I'd say you're being nice about that... Well, the last 8-10 minutes they finally showed up. Before that, it was pretty much another intra-squad game.

I don't like Kadri, but the criticism he gets is unjustified. He looked great tonight. As a matter of fact, he looked better tonight than he has in any of the Hamilton Vs. Marlies games this year.

 

[Chips*]

This ^ the Leafs also looked like garbage. And so i turned most of the game off after yet another embarrassing Coach's Corner for Don Cherry. What a joke Gary Bettman's watered down 30 team NHL is. The Habs legends come out with the torch and then they introduce the worst Habs team in NHL history lol. Watching that crap last night i would have preferred the lockout continued for another 3 years which would have killed off 10 teams in the crappy money losing markets and left us with a far superior 20 team NHL.

If the Leafs play like they did last night vs that god awful Habs team against the better teams in the east we are going to get smoked. The Islanders Canadiens & Leafs will all battle it out for last place in the Eastern Conference. Why the Canadiens rehired Therrien is beyond me his stacked Pens teams became so lackluster and boring to watch he got fired and last nights Habs effort was atrocious and well deserving of the boos. I was actually hoping the NHLPA foolish whiners would have voted against the deal they ain't worth the money they are paid so many scrubs lol.

Both NFL games today will be awesome and well worth watching unlike last nights NHL Leafs vs Habs debacle.

You clearly didn't watch any other games. Pens/Philly, Chicago/Kings, and Ott/Winnipeg in particular had their respective teams play like absolute dog buns. It's to be expected. These guys haven't played an NHL game in close to a year. Give it a break.

 

[Longshot]

Imagine if Ron Wilson and Brian Burke were running things this morning.

- Kadri would be sent down. Wilson would say: "He only had one goal and it really wasn't that impressive."

- Kostka would be out. "He's a career minor leaguer. Last night was one game," Wilson would say.

- Steckel would be back in the line up and McClement benched. "Gave up that late power play goal. Someone needs to be accountable," said Wilson.

- Kulemin would be promoted to the first line and given 38 minutes in the next game.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

The entire game just seemed out of sync. Hard to read into the first game in a season like this (with no real training camp/exhibition schedule). I actually looked like an exhibition game.

Either way, I'll take the win. Good signs from some, others need to pick it up - it's early.

No more Ron and gun, winning ugly is the new mantra. They don't have to be picasso's to steal a Healey-ism

 

[SprDaVE]

I have one add, otherwise this was a good recap, Dion Phaneuf had a great defensive game, 27 mins and when he was on the ice, Montreal never seemed to threaten. Give an assist to Kostka.

He was great. Made some key defensive zone passes and broke up a few plays.

He did look pretty stupid on the goal while shorthanded, but other than that, solid play from him.

 

[12345*]

Dion needs to cut weight and work with Underwood on his skating.

 

[TML g u n n e R s*]

Imagine if Ron Wilson and Brian Burke were running things this morning.

- Kadri would be sent down. Wilson would say: "He only had one goal and it really wasn't that impressive."

- Kostka would be out. "He's a career minor leaguer. Last night was one game," Wilson would say.

- Steckel would be back in the line up and McClement benched. "Gave up that late power play goal. Someone needs to be accountable," said Wilson.

- Kulemin would be promoted to the first line and given 38 minutes in the next game.

kulie did lead the FWD's in ice time lol

 

[leafsfuture]

The thing people have to remember about Phaneuf is that he plays big minutes against the other teams top guys, and Montreal has exactly 1 line that is a threat to score: Pacc, Deharnais and Cole

Love the guys saying Komisarek was better than Phaneuf, completely different circumstances

 

[Lebanese Leaf]

I love that in Carlyle's post-game he had nothing but positives to say about Kadri, and even blamed himself for not giving him enough ice-time. I'm just not used to that from Wilson. I can't remember Wilson ever being completely positive about him in the post-game.

 

[TML g u n n e R s*]

was it me or was the game slow paced felt like everyone was carrying deadweight lol

 

[Lebanese Leaf]

Dion needs to cut weight and work with Underwood on his skating.

I don't know why Dion's speed gets trashed so much. He looked crazy fast on that one play on the PP where he just took the zone on his own by skating the puck all the way. He just needs to not play 26+ mins a game so that he doesn't get tired and slower.

 

[Pi]

was it me or was the game slow paced felt like everyone was carrying deadweight lol

I think we played better than the Habs for 52 minutes of the game but it was still a very terrible game from both sides.

Good we won, but hopefully we're better against the Sabres at home.

 

[I Believe]

That was one of the best defensive efforts i've seen in a long time.

Scrivens was scaring the **** out of me though

 

[MapleLeafGardens*]

You clearly didn't watch any other games. Pens/Philly, Chicago/Kings, and Ott/Winnipeg in particular had their respective teams play like absolute dog buns. It's to be expected. These guys haven't played an NHL game in close to a year. Give it a break.

You clearly havn't been watching Bettman's 30 team scrub laden NHL for very long or is it your conditioned to watch a crappy on ice product and actually think it's good lol.

 

[TmlHockeyFan]

Imagine if Ron Wilson and Brian Burke were running things this morning.

- Kadri would be sent down. Wilson would say: "He only had one goal and it really wasn't that impressive."

- Kostka would be out. "He's a career minor leaguer. Last night was one game," Wilson would say.

- Steckel would be back in the line up and McClement benched. "Gave up that late power play goal. Someone needs to be accountable," said Wilson.

- Kulemin would be promoted to the first line and given 38 minutes in the next game.

Spot on.

 

[Felstead]

Can I just add that while it's a small sample size, Kessel showed pretty good poise at both ends of the ice. He seemed to really pick his points when to push for the rush, he was in deep in his own end on numerous times instead of hovering right over our blue line.

He also looked really good in the corners, using his body weight to create something. I hope he keeps this up!

 

[Pi]

Imagine if Ron Wilson and Brian Burke were running things this morning.

- Kadri would be sent down. Wilson would say: "He only had one goal and it really wasn't that impressive."

- Kostka would be out. "He's a career minor leaguer. Last night was one game," Wilson would say.

- Steckel would be back in the line up and McClement benched. "Gave up that late power play goal. Someone needs to be accountable," said Wilson.

- Kulemin would be promoted to the first line and given 38 minutes in the next game.

I think it's wrong to pile it on Burke. He said from day one that his job was gathering the talent, he never interfered in roster decisions, those were up to the coach entirely.

I'm just happy we have a coach who has won the Cup before, knows what he's doing when he's making changes in the game and incorporating defense in his game.

 

[7even]

You clearly havn't been watching Bettman's 30 team scrub laden NHL for very long or is it your conditioned to watch a crappy on ice product and actually think it's good lol.

Lolwut

 

[Confucius]

Bryan Hayes on TSN was challenging this notion of how good Reimer was last year prior to the injury. Reimer was okay out of the gate, but the team was playing fantastic and I thought his numbers weren't a true indication of how good he was, because I recall him SCARING me still, despite the start.

Hmmm wonder if there is a correlation there. For example: Bryz plays great in Phoenix goes to flyers and sucks. Mike Smith goes to the Yotes plays very well sucked with Lightning. Elliot goes to St. Louis plays great sucked at Ottawa and Colorado.

I'd be very leary of comparing a goalie from one team to another unless both teams played the same style.

 

[Phion Keneuf]

If Phaneuf gained some foot speed he would be a top 10 defender imho

He was great defensively, we know he has all the offensive tools, he's physical, and with added speed he would rarely get beaten 1 on 1 (not that he does a lot though)

 

[Amadeus]

Kessel and Bozak really stood out for me, and Liles and Kostka were the D stand outs.

The offensefrom 5-on-5 will come, I think.

I still think we need a legit scoring winger.

 

[Sergei Berezin]

I should've expected the Phaneuf hate, but not this early.


Phaneuf looks lazy because he's reserving his energy! He played almost half the game! Of course he's not gonna run to every puck like a Mike Brown. He has to be smart about how he plays. Unfortunately, for him, Carlyle is going to play him like crazy and its gonna make him seem lazy, but he's just being smart by reserving energy.

You'll know he's being lazy when he's being beaten wide, but he didn't let anyone around him that game.

With that said, he's still clearly rusty. His hands seemed a bit off, just like everyone else on the ice, and I'm sure he'll improve each game.



By the way, I thought Kessel looked great out there. Was very impressed by him.

Lupul... not so much.

 

[Hologram]

I have one add, otherwise this was a good recap, Dion Phaneuf had a great defensive game, 27 mins and when he was on the ice, Montreal never seemed to threaten. Give an assist to Kostka.

Forgot about Dion, but yeah I agree. He played a pretty solid game too. Did a good job tying people/sticks up for the most part.