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

[LaPlante94]

Oh for sure. Those players contracts on him, but weren't those grit players supposed to give us life when things aren't clicking?

They rarely saw the ice because we needed to play this duo for like 25+ minutes. Hell Nylander didn't even play more than them and he was our best player. So no, I don't think our grit players were the problem when we had a coach not really doing anything, we lost 3 games because of bad turnovers and those 3 games weren't from our grit players. Grit players can't help our 1st line click if the coach doesn't want to do anything about it or shake up the lineups. We lost this series because of coaching and bad turnovers in bad areas of the ice.

 

[fahad203]

Is anyone here really going to watch the regular season next year? I might flip the game on if I have nothing to do but 82 games * 3 hours = 246 hours of time that I cannot get back when life is going to be back to normal and I don't have to remember to wear a mask every time I step out or check Google to see if a bar or restaurant is open for curbside pick up or if you can dine in etc.

I am not watching. I've had enough. Major changes are required from top to bottom. I don't think this is Dubas' fault but I feel that he may almost be too attached to guys like Matthews and Marner that it will cloud his judgement and prevent him from trading Marner even if it means the team will be better.

I'll watch and give them my time and money when I feel like they deserve it. That would start by winning at least one round.

Montreal literally lucked into winning one round against us today lol and we can't even score more than a goal in a do or die against the worst playoff team. A team that won't even come close to making the playoff next year in the Atlantic. It's pretty grim.

I hope Matthews is hugging that Rocket Richard tight when he gets it. That's all he's ever winning unless he decides to show up and play like he's capable of playing in the playoffs. Marner? I hope has played his last game for the Leafs.

Harsh but I can understandable. Auston doesn't want to be here then we should trade him

I dont care if we f up. I mean we been doing that for decades.

Give me old school team that goes out and fight

 

[Teeder Keon]

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ...
Thank you for the entertaining outlet and virtually meeting all of you , good and bad ...
Have a terrific summer ...
This is without a doubt , the lowest of lows , not even close ...
But in the end , I’ll still bleed blue ... as my team is the team with the Maple Leaf .. not the players ..
Good night y’all
Next year will be my 65th year rooting for our team ..
I truly feel really bad for those of you that have never tasted any success at all ...
Here’s what I suggest , go back and look into the incredible proud franchise that the Leafs used to be and all those great players from the past ...and Mr Smythe ...
The only thing I will leave you with is that please please I don’t ever want to hear that any player that plays for us and has regular season success is put on a pedestal and that they are the greatest leafs ever ...
Please don’t ever say that and devalue our greats from the past that won Cups !!!
Please remember and celebrate our greats !!!!
Peace
Go Leafs Go!!!

 

[phillipmike]

Yes fanboys is name calling. I can't blame Dubas for this but I agree the contracts are on him. He can rectify that mistake unless this organization does something silly and fires him.

But calling me a hater isnt name calling?

He can possibly rectify it but so could Nonis, Burke and JFJ - doesnt mean he or they deserve(d) the opportunity to.

Dubas does some things well but i have not seen a competent GM here over the last 3 years where i feel like he could win us a few rounds, let alone a Stanley Cup. He was a great assistant but he took on too much, too soon and his inexperience has shown year after year. I was a huge Dubas supporter from the Tavares signing to the Martin trade and drafting of Sandin, ever since then he went downhill fast starting with the Nylander negotiations.

So when Dubas builds a team with skill in 2019 and 2020 and doesnt win, its not his fault. But when he builds a team with skill and a little more grit in 2021 and still loses, it still isnt his fault? That is called deflecting blame.

 

[TopChedder]

I agree 100 % and it is worse now with social media and 24/7 sports talk radio and podcasts. Marner sealed his reputation in Toronto this no show.

He sealed it with his f***ing contract BS and whining about being paid like a top guy, he solidified it with actually being one of the worst playoff performers while making 10+ million. The writing is on the wall. He is finished we need people who want to win and not just get paid and do commercials.

Boston lost to the Islanders tonight and when it happened the Bruins player smashed his stick in a million pieces, HE WAS f***ING MAD ABOUT LOSING and will be better, and that was just game 2.

Out team talks about it calmly....... LIKE YOU JUST LOST AFTER BEING UP 3-1

We have a loser culture and we don't want to do anything to win. We seem happy to try, but this is not the "try league"

 

[Caroline Says ll]

Dubas only fires Keefe if Matthews wants Dubas to fire Keefe.

The next coach would have to visit him at his mansion and promise ice time and line mates of his choosing.

We’ll see.

Babcock wanted them separated so each could drive their lines.

Babcock was just as stupid as Keefe was. He never played them together unless down goals late in games. He always stapled Nylander with Matthews even when they had no chemistry just as Marner had none with Matthews for this series.

What it boils down to is stubbornness from coaches to change what has worked but isn't working now. You could see from period 1 this game that that line wasn't clicking. Hyman was attempting his slow wrap around. Matthews had no space. Marner was skating himself into congestion.

Good coaches which Keefe and Babcock are not identify when players are struggling and fix it. Matthews and Marner struggled because of each other and this staff decided at no point to try them on seperate lines.

 

[Pookie]

Life's a lot easier when you can pad each other's stats, kinda-sorta justifying your ridiculous salary that you just robbed from your GM....

it’s win win.

padded stats help a GM justify offering you the ridiculous salary in the first place.

 

[RAM]

The leafs are way too soft and when the playoffs start it’s obvious you need to rebalance the team get bigger and stronger Marner has to go we need some tough Saskatchewan boys who get frost bite on their balls and still have sex with their girlfriend not this preferred pronoun safe space soy boys we have

 

[Boxscore]

Is anyone here really going to watch the regular season next year?

Absolutely. I hate to say it but the Leafs are a complete joy during the regular season -- they are exciting, put up digits, score tons of goals, and have dynamic players that make games entertaining. I love watching Leafs games and I won't stop. The problem is, they are a totally different team come playoffs.

 

[CelticDruid]

how do we ever cheer for this team again

We can and we will.

 

[Gabriel426]

Anyone came in and say we are over reacting yet?
Wonder what Dekes have to say about this year.

 

[ToneDog]

Yes he was. Simmonds was a gamble. If he could stay healthy, he would be good... but he couldn’t, so he wasn’t.

That’s what happens when you have no cap space and you have to go bargain bin shopping...

There is a reason he was dumped by Philly, Nash and Buff. Not sure why Kyle would sign him over Perry at 2x the money. Perry had a huge impact in this series. Simmonds did virtually nothing.

 

[fahad203]

They rarely saw the ice because we needed to play this duo for like 25+ minutes. Hell Nylander didn't even play more than them and he was our best player. So no, I don't think our grit players were the problem when we had a coach not really doing anything, we lost 3 games because of bad turnovers and those 3 games weren't from our grit players. Grit players can't help our 1st line click if the coach doesn't want to do anything about it or shake up the lineups. We lost this series because of coaching and bad turnovers in bad areas of the ice.

Not bad coaching but rookie overcoaching

Spezza should have had few shifts with Matthews to get him going

Simmonds over Robertson. Why

 

[Cpt Maple Leaf]

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.

There can be an argument for worse, tbh. What is he going to do with this mess? No picks, no cap space, terrible contracts...

 

[ktownhockey]

That is not funny. Lol.

In this moment, to each their own lol

 

[Bomber0104]

it’s win win.

padded stats help a GM justify offering you the ridiculous salary in the first place.

Then the playoffs arrive...

 

[killer1980]

We'll get them next year bois!

Always!

 

[stuart5035]

Unbeleivable 4 years in a row they choke.

It’s actually five
Lost to Washington
Lost twice to Boston
Lost to Columbus
Now Montreal

 

[Brown Dog]

There is a reason he was dumped by Philly, Nash and Buff. Not sure why Kyle would sign him over Perry at 2x the money. Perry had a huge impact in this series. Simmonds did virtually nothing.

Perry seemed like a perfect fit. Can't explain why Dubas targeted guys like Vesey and Boyd over him.

 

[frizzer1]

Watching the game again I still think that Hyman on that line killed them.
Matthews Marner set him up at least 3 times and he had several other opportunities.
Not hating on him but it was the coach who put the guy with no hands on that line.
And that line was not working from game 1

 

[rumman]

Yes the fans said to do what Dubas did. He listened to them and got what he deserved. Blame should go to that silly movement.

Oh brother, now it’s not the GM’s fault because he “listened” to the fans wanting grit so he got grit, that’s too funny. Let me enlighten you, Dubas didn’t get grit, he got a bunch of washed up has been’s that USED to play with a edge, but can’t anymore, and he got said players because that’s all the cap room left over from being taken behind the woodshed by WN, AM, and MM.

 

[Pookie]

Babcock was just as stupid as Keefe was. He never played them together unless down goals late in games. He always stapled Nylander with Matthews even when they had no chemistry just as Marner had none with Matthews for this series.

What it boils down to is stubbornness from coaches to change what has worked but isn't working now. You could see from period 1 this game that that line wasn't clicking. Hyman was attempting his slow wrap around. Matthews had no space. Marner was skating himself into congestion.

Good coaches which Keefe and Babcock are not identify when players are struggling and fix it. Matthews and Marner struggled because of each other and this staff decided at no point to try them on seperate lines.

hey Babcock had first round exits too. So I’m not saying things would be different just that the coaches have a different approach.

well Babcock had a different approach.

matthews dictates what Keefe’s approach is.

 

[yubbers]

Not bad coaching but rookie overcoaching

Spezza should have had few shifts with Matthews to get him going

Simmonds over Robertson. Why

I wasn't really tuned into this season at all but wondered where Roberston was.

 

[Duffman955]

There is a reason he was dumped by Philly, Nash and Buff. Not sure why Kyle would sign him over Perry at 2x the money. Perry had a huge impact in this series. Simmonds did virtually nothing.

Why did Perry and Spezza have way more impact than Matthews and Marner?

Maybe some players are just born winners. Perry lead the Ducks to a cup in his rookie season no?

 

[2 Slick]

I can't understand how two highly skilled players such as Marner and Matthews can dominate throughout the entire regular season. They may have had a game or two where they weren't at their best, but on most nights, they would make most teams in Canada look pretty weak.

Matthews put in a little bit more of an effort than Marner did, but he shouldn't be given a free pass. He wasn't very good either.

How can two of the most offensively gifted players in the entire NHL get so scared in the playoffs? They looked like two lost souls out there swimming in a fishbowl, thank you to Pink Floyd for that one.

It's not really a surprise to see Marner being invisible in the playoffs. The last several years, he's been pretty garbage in terms of offensive production in the playoffs.

I can't count how many times Marner gifted Montreal either an extremely good chance on goal or gifted them a goal like he did on the first one of theirs tonight.

I've always rallied behind Nylander. I always stood up for him when others were shitting him for holding back on more money.

He had more goals in seven games this series that our entire first line combined. No one should ever talk shit about him anymore. He's always going to be soft along the boards, but he definitely shows up when the games matter and plays with a lot of heart.

Keefe is a bad coach. You don't keep the same two players on the top line if they've failed to yield any offensive threat the entire series.

Not once did he take Marner off the first line and try to change it up.

That's just bad coaching all around. Even a peewee coach would have made a change long before game 7.

I can't believe some people are actually complaining about Jack Campbell. He was absolutely stellar the entire series. Who gives a f*** if he gave up a soft goal tonight, he had no run support. If you can't win a game and score more than one goal, then it certainly isn't your goaltender's fault.

Campbell, Nylander, Spezza and a very few select others are the only ones that really showed up this series.

Mikheyev and Simmonds are offensive black holes and bring absolutely nothing to this team. Total waste of ice time.

Thornton was pretty crappy as well, getting so many minutes on the first Power Play unit, only an idiotic coach would make a decision like that.

Sandin and Dermott cost of them game five and game six. Sandin is nowhere near ready, he doesn't have it yet. Dermott is overrated, can't stand him and never will be able to.

On a positive note, I didn't have to watch Andersen give up five goals a game in this series, so I guess that's the small silver lining?

At least no one can blame our Captain this season, feel bad for him. The bad part is that his play has been in decline the past few seasons at least in terms of goal scoring. his prime is definitely passed. Still like him though.

I'm hoping to see Mitch Marner being traded, can't believe I hear myself saying that or even typing it out. That's how I truly feel.

Leave Nylander alone. He's not the problem.

Will be interesting to see what they do in the off season. Not holding my breath.

We will see what this team is made of when they have to face American teams again next season, they won't have it as easy as they did last season.

Very disappointed in this team, bunch of chokers.