Post-Game Talk: Leafs lose 3-1; lose series

[smokes lets go]

why did we get rid of Lou again?

 

[Gallagbi]

Do we try and blame our grit now to avoid blaming our 22 million dollar duo? The 22 million dollar duo that makes it so we can't really bring in better depth players because better depth players won't sign for league minimum. In our last 11 playoff games our 22 million dollar duo has scored 3 goals and all of them were from Matthews.

Blame both.

Scorers didn't score. And our 12th forward and 6th cost us 3 games

 

[killer1980]

When they hired that useless POS as GM there were only a handful of us that said it was a mistake. Now, he better be gone with Shanahan and Keefe or MLSE is even dumber than I think. They could hire one of 500 people on this site that could have done a better job.

 

[hockeynorth]

Galchenyuk had good underlying numbers because he was riding 91+88's coattails and was barely 0.5ppg heading into the TDL. I don't know how you look at that and say think you suddenly don't need Hall or Granlund or whoever else who can actually produce.

oh no I definitely wanted Hall or Granlund too, but Gally was great I thoroughly enjoyed watching him play and want him back

 

[Pi]

Some Leafs fans are like the cult of Dubas. Even when he does wrong, it's everyone but his fault. From Kadri, Freddie, Babs, Barrie, and now Marner, its always somebody but the person ultimately in charge of the team. He got his coach, he paid the current RFA deals, he decided he could navigate around the JT deal, etc. This is on him. He's had 3 years to improve us from a young team that pushed good teams to 7 games, and we are as bad as where we started.

They were up 3-1 after 4 games and gave up a total of 4 goals in those four games and controlled the play the entire time. Montreal maybe had one good period out of twelve.

How is it on Dubas if they choke like the chokers they are after that?

Everyone's job should be on the line after that but you cannot tell me that Dubas was the problem after Game 4 and if he wasn't the problem then, he isn't the problem after Game 7.

 

[Havoc]

Dubas goes before Marner.
Guaranteed

Whoever the GM is get it done then. Marner can't get Jones 1 for 1 even on a good day but stars are aligning right now to finally have the excuse to give it a try. Jones doesn't want to sign there so it makes the value equal now.

 

[ToneDog]

Marner or Nylander÷ for our QB for out PP Jones. Rielly to Vancouver for Boeser.

 

[KingJoffrey]

Sorta tough to blame the goalie when you don't score.

Andersen agrees.

But like I said. Jack Campbell sucks! In last three games he gave up super softies. I hope playing this fool cost Dubas and Keefe their jobs.

 

[ShanahanMan]

Probably a stupid question, but do you guys think it came down mostly to losing Tavares?

 

[93LEAFS]

They were up 3-1 after 4 games and gave up a total of 4 goals in those four games and controlled the play the entire time. Montreal maybe had one good period out of twelve.

How is it on Dubas if they choke like the chokers they are after that?

Everyone's job should be on the line after that but you cannot tell me that Dubas was the problem after Game 4 and if he wasn't the problem then, he isn't the problem after Game 7.

Yeah, he is. He can't evaluate and build a winning team. He was handed a golden situation, got the coach he wanted, and hasn't been able to navigate to an improved roster. It isn't one series. It's the entire 3 years.

 

[hockeynorth]

Still think it is his back, and you don't shell out a first for damaged goods when there are other pieces on the table. Hindsight, of course, and I am just a fan. However, it seems he just wasn't right from the start here.

he tweaked something pretty early on here, he should've been for a 2 2nds but other teams wanted him too

- this was also a trade I knew was happening about a day and a half in advance

 

[Rokker]

Nepotism at its finest.

I was really concerned when Keefe got hired, and he’s been even worse than I thought he would be.

He was the anti Babcock to start.

The rest as they, is history.

 

[RobBrown4PM]

I'm done with this team. Spent one to many nights biting my nails and sweating bullets and hoping against hope they'll do something.

Sorry to everyone that wishes to stay and relive this nightmare over and over again.

 

[Puckstuff]

Strip Marner of the A and give it to Brodie or Muzzin
If Thornton is back... I'm not watching next year.
Dubas better come out with an explanation and say their will be major changes
The reality... This is on 3 guys. Auston Matthews. Mitch Marner. Sheldon Keefe.
Sheldon's INABILITY to adapt and break up Matthews and Marner and bring up Robertson is staggering.
At least Marner cried and showed some emotion, just needs to be better.
Matthews has hole's in his game.
They aren't worth the money. Marner makes $94,000 a day to do nothing. Spezza looked better.
If Spezza is your biggest alpha male on the team we are f***ED
They need major fixes.
The fact they chose JUMBO to be in the lineup (as one poster on here clearly stated) they chose feelings over winning.
Oh and Mike Babcock's stock value just went up... it wasn't Mike it was the players

 

[Blanche Blanche]

Disgraceful loss, one of the tougher losses you will see, up 3-1 in the series and we don't see a lead again the entire series. Management has a lot of tough questions they are going to have to answer. I think if you want to try finding "grit" they have to be able to play, Players like Jumbo Joe / Simmonds / Foilgno (Don't understand trading for someone whose hurt and can't provide much when hes hurt). You want to be able to be hard to play against in your bottom 6 and those players aren't it. Our play with skill and puck possession hasn't worked either, same results the past 4 years. Blame has to go to on Keefe for refusing to change our first line, they couldn't get anything done and he kept them together for all seven games.

Some positives notes, Nylander stepped up big for us this year in the playoffs that's a positive sign moving forward. I think our D is set up nicely, Brodie/Muzzin And Riley (some might not like him here, he has had some struggles this past year) follow with Sandin who should be a good player for us, (who also struggled at times during the playoffs, but it was also his first real nhl action all year after getting hurt for a few months.)

Yeah FFS Keefe made Babcock look like a line mashup artist

 

[hockeynorth]

Probably a stupid question, but do you guys think it came down mostly to losing Tavares?

yeah

 

[TimeZone]

Probably a stupid question, but do you guys think it came down mostly to losing Tavares?

No these guys are losers through and through.

 

[Pookie]

Maybe the next GM will bring in some physical veterans like Muzzin, Simmonds and Thornton

those moves were fine. Muzzin out scores Marner I think.

the next GM needs to be detached from the core so as to be able to make significant moves.

oh and if “Moneypuck” is a thing... it needs to go out the door with him.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Well that was a tough series, thanks for having me aboard for the playoff run.

it’ll be interesting to see what happens going forward with the leafs.

I see a lot of dubas hate, but I actually feel he made a lot of the correct moves at the deadline this year and last year. I think he needs to move on from the big 4 up front.... You look at the teams that really succeed in the playoffs and it’s the teams with depth in their line ups(Vegas, bruins, islanders) and the big players show up.... nylander had a strong series.... marner was bad, Matthews looked good early but disappeared. People mad about trading 1st round picks, but the leafs should be in win now mode and late 1sts won’t help the currant core for 2-4 years.... sucks foligno didnt have a good run, but I still think it was the right move by dubas.

 

[fahad203]

Probably a stupid question, but do you guys think it came down mostly to losing Tavares?

We had tavares last year and we lost.

When ur best player offensively has one of the lowest minute played Spezza. That's kinda not anyone's fault

When coach doesn't want to adjust

Or

When our PP suxks thats also on the coach

 

[ToneDog]

???
Our grit lost it. The grit fans were wrong.

Yeah look at all the goals our skill had. Perry had 2 and 2 for the Habs.

Simmonds is garbage and Foligno was damaged goods. There was no fricken grit to be seen by the Leafs. Get off it ffs.

 

[beachcomber]

Marner or Nylander÷ for our QB for out PP Jones. Rielly to Vancouver for Boeser.

You’re not getting Boeser for an overrated Rielly.

 

[francis246]

@francis246 - doing this because the site is a dumpster fire for functionality

Kap and AJ we're here's for the recent losses, effort or not and Kadri just outright hurt this team

Either way Gallagbi, how many chances does a GM get? I just feel that the core gets too much leeway from management and they are never held accountable. That will only change when they bring in someone new. & when Babcock tried to hold them accountable they got him fired by tuning him out

 

[Knies iT]

Not even mad, expected it to be like this. The grit fans said thats why you need those players for moments like this game, so where was it? A first for a gritty plug in Foligno? Great move. While can't win with skilled player Hall is doing great for Boston who funny enough focused on skill. Hopefully Dubas gets another chancd to build this team his way, and not the way some folks wanted.


Umm yeah maybe don't build a team with plugs who can't play.

With that being said, a core player needs to go and thats magic money Mitch. Disaster series for passer expert. Knowing this franchise, they will trade Nylander because he actually showed up.

I'd argue the opposite. The "grit" additions were broken down, over-the-hill bargain bin players that were only feasible additions because of how cheap they were due to cap handcuffs. Once again they asked declining players to shoulder the entire load from a physicality POV in a system that completely neglects it. Hence why putting a guy like Simmonds beside Kerfoot/Spezza fails while creating lines with identity works (Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck).

It is 100% a philosophical issue from the top down. It's unfortunate because I like a lot of what Dubas does, but his flaws are fatal. His mantra of not acquiring physicality through the draft but rather via FA/trade is flawed. The players that you absolutely need to catapult you and create space consistently in these tight games are almost never available from ages 18-25. Once they hit the market they're damaged goods (see Clarkson, Simmonds, Clifford, Martin, Thornton, etc.). You have to be able to draft and develop PWFs, grinders and two-way forwards with high compete through the draft and milk their prime because they age in dog years. Dubas does not even attempt this in his drafts.

Put Barzal on this team and he fails in the same fashion. Yet when he's insulated by guys who can create space for him he's effective.

 

[GoodNewfieBoy]

Every game 7 our goalie let’s in an all time brutal goal and we can’t recover