Post-Game Talk: Leafs Lose 3-1

[BAM]

Just for a few games to get Marner back to being a line driver.

XXX-Matthews-Nylander
Hyman-Tavares-Mikhayev
Vesey-Kerfoot-Marner
Simmonds-Speeza-Engvall

I feel like Hyman and Miks with Tavares has the potential to be a nightmare line for other teams.

 

[cesareborgia]

It’s simple. That’s all Dubas can afford

And someone on here recently replied to me that Kerfoot was better than Kadri. Didn't warrant a response. What a joke.

 

[Oilers in NS]

Marner was complete trash. JT not far behind. Rest of the forwards were pretty embarrassing. If we're "tired" 5 games in, god help this fragile team.

However, Keefe is the biggest loser tonight. Pulling the goalie when we had no possession and no chance at possession is the dumbest thing I've seen in a while.

The 11 forwards experiment needs to end, NOW. Lehtonen has looked horrible and constantly juggling the lines has destroyed any offensive chemistry.

The power play resulting in the GWG was complete shit, but we should've never let this game be close at all. Can't always blame the refs for us not being good enough to beat a bad team.

In peace here. Im not gonna harp on your forward, we have enough problems in Edmonton. I would seriously think about trading Marner. I think he makes way too much money for what he brings. If he wasn't there , Im sure there would of been enough cash for AP

 

[Notsince67]

Pretty surprising that EDM's lack of defense / goaltending wasn't exploited. From what I saw from Toronto's offence, they were all too satisfied playing on the perimeter.

Our vaunted second line was matched against their third and we pulled a goose egg. Allowing vessey to continue to drag almost half the teams offense to oblivion for the whole game was a Keefe fail. Adjustments needed to be made.

 

[Notsince67]

Just for a few games to get Marner back to being a line driver.

XXX-Matthews-Nylander
Hyman-Tavares-Mikhayev
Vesey-Kerfoot-Marner
Simmonds-Speeza-Engvall

I feel like Hyman and Miks with Tavares has the potential to be a nightmare line for other teams.

You are putting Nylander on the first after putting up less xgf than Marner, matched against Edmonton's 3rd line?
Is this 4d chess you are playing because I cant understand it.
edit. I do like the second line though but hyman on the right

 

[BAM]

Marner needs to get back to driving the play, he can't ask for the pay near guys like Matthews and McDavid and not be a game-breaker like them.

 

[sparxx87]

It’s a tough loss. They spent way too much of their focus trying to contain Conner and draisatl. Which they did do very well in my mind. Offence was atrocious. I don’t think they handled a single pass all game. Brutal to watch. But really, we’re the oilers deserving of the 2 pts either? Not a chance. It was 2 teams playing horrible. They were fortunate to get some lucky bounces and lucky calls. That was the difference. On to the next one

Teams create their own luck. Whether its Yamamoto wanting the puck more than Holl, and Holl not eliminating stick OR body which allowed him to centre the puck, or whoever it was that worked to get a step on Muzzin and be in a spot to draw a penalty in the refs eyes, these are two small plays the Oilers made that turned out to be the difference.

Edmonton did a really good job protecting the middle of the ice and not offering anything easy. Leafs did a poor job probing to create breakdowns and that amounts to a pretty boring game.

Full credit to the Oilers. They stuck to their game plan and were able to grind out an ugly one. Leafs were overall the better team but need to find a way to win these types of games.

 

[BAM]

Teams create their own luck. Whether its Yamamoto wanting the puck more than Holl, and Holl not eliminating stick OR body which allowed him to centre the puck, or whoever it was that worked to get a step on Muzzin and be in a spot to draw a penalty in the refs eyes, these are two small plays the Oilers made that turned out to be the difference.

Edmonton did a really good job protecting the middle of the ice and not offering anything easy. Leafs did a poor job probing to create breakdowns and that amounts to a pretty boring game.

Full credit to the Oilers. They stuck to their game plan and were able to grind out an ugly one. Leafs were overall the better team but need to find a way to win these types of games.

They already did that against the Jets.

The 1st Oiler goal was literally a fluke goal, idk why Vesey thought the best way to clear the puck was to pinball it off the crowd in front of the net, a simple back hand would've been far safer. He shot the puck off Muzzin/Holl's foot and into the net.

The oiler powerplay that led to the LD goal was an Oiler player tripping another Oiler player but Muzzin being close and he ended up getting the penalty.

1 fluke and 1 ref's error, and the EN goal for 3-1. The Leafs did a great job limiting LD and McDavid at ES. If it wasn't for that phantom powerplay call they might've held the 2 pointless.

 

[janesy12]

Not really sure what Kerfoot brings at $3.5 million, that Adam Brooks can't do at $725,000. There's the cap savings we could have used in the offseason.

 

[Notsince67]

I think keefe was more worried about McDavid than playing there game.

Keefe this team needs to play to there strength we are not a defensive juggernaut .

Please learn something from this game.

This 100%

 

[Racer88]

Hyman, Kerfoot, Mik I expected this trio to at least produce some goals. The line has been quite good other than tonight, but even when they are good, they aren't producing.

I was hoping for production from them as well. We absolutely need production from them if we are to have any success. Hopefully they will somehow figure it out soon. I firmly believe that this management team is on the clock.

 

[sparxx87]

They already did that against the Jets.

The 1st Oiler goal was literally a fluke goal, idk why Vesey thought the best way to clear the puck was to pinball it off the crowd in front of the net, a simple back hand would've been far safer. He shot the puck of Muzzin/Holl's foot and into the net.

The oiler powerplay that led to the LD goal was an Oiler player tripping another Oiler player but Muzzin being close and he ended up getting the penalty.

1 fluke and 1 ref's error, and the EN goal for 3-1. The Leafs did a great job limiting LD and McDavid at ES. If it wasn't for that phantom powerplay call they might've held the 2 pointless.

Yeah, I agree the Leafs played well defensively for the most part, I just didn’t like the first goal. If Holl and Kerfoot don’t lose puck battles to Kahun and Yamamoto below the goal line, the puck never gets thrown into the slot.

Both Oilers should have been on their ass. That goal shouldn’t have happened.

 

[Notsince67]

I was hoping for production from them as well. We absolutely need production from them if we are to have any success. Hopefully they will somehow figure it out soon. I firmly believe that this management team is on the clock.

they were matched against the second. They clearly were instructed to shut down, not score.

 

[Nineteen67]

I think we should anticipate this type of hockey and these type of results all year from this team.

I watched the Vegas AZ game last night and the VGK stars accomplish so much more than Leafs stars. I think a part of that is hockey IQ and a part is system. The Leafs possession game is fine in theory, but so often they take too long to enter the zone as a group that the other team is able to set a defensive box and keep them on the perimeter.

I also think Marner’s inability to shoot costs Matthews. In this possession game, so often we see three guys on Matthews’ side of the ice not allowing him good looks.

I don’t know what they do, but one thing I’d try is Hyman back with Matthews and either Marner or Nylander.

 

[VanW27]

Meh game, honestly I don't think either team was particularly good defensively. Lack of chances seemed more to do with both teams failing to make plays than it did the defense denying opportunities. Lots of pucks bouncing away from players and passes missing or skipping away. Ice should be good with no fans and nothing else going on in arenas these day but maybe it was bad, looked like they were playing with a tennis ball out there.

The big guys disappointed a bit tonight, I thought Matthews/Marner were decent but they are far too happy to skate around the outside and try to make pretty plays. Similar to the CBJ series, lots of possession in the offensive zone but very few actual chances.

Taveras/Nylander failed to generate anything against a soft matchup. Dubas built the team around having the other "big line" being able to take advantage of matchups and they definitely didn't deliver on that last night.

Finally a general concern, we're slow. Crazy how quickly we went from incredible team speed to down right slow. Of 11 forward who dressed less night 3 are some of the slowest in the league (Spezza, Thornton, Simmonds), our 3 - 11 million dollar guys are all strong skaters but below average speed (Matthews, Taveras, Marner) without Robertson even our fast guys (Nylander, Mikjeyev) are slow compared to the guys we had to dump (Kapanen/Johnsson) in the offseason.

 

[GoonieFace]

Not really sure what Kerfoot brings at $3.5 million, that Adam Brooks can't do at $725,000. There's the cap savings we could have used in the offseason.

This is simply Dubas not wanting to admit he made a mistake. This is a complete waste of cap space, no need to pay this guy $3.5 when you can fill that spot with a Brooks type player. Bad cap management

 

[Warden of the North]

Not really sure what Kerfoot brings at $3.5 million, that Adam Brooks can't do at $725,000. There's the cap savings we could have used in the offseason.

I mean, ones a proven NHL player and the other isnt.

 

[kk87]

Games like this should serve to shut up the people who won't shut up about us being a bad defensive team and not playing "a sustainable brand of hockey". This was one of the better defensive games this team has ever played, and honestly, we were pretty safely the better team for most of the night. But hockey without offence, creativity, and opportunism is ****ing bleak to watch. I don't care how bad we play defensively - nothing is worse than seeing your offensive wizards not generate any chances for 60 minutes.

THANK YOU DUBAS for building a team that can catalyze offence and create chances out of nothing, more often than not

 

[Critical13]

Anyone have an Evolving Hockey subscription? I am curious to see how Toronto matches up league wide in xGF and xGA.

 

[Atomos2]

Honestly you don't know what you're gonna get from the Leafs from game to game. They are the definition of entropy. The exact opposite of what you'd want a good team to be.

 

[Bluelines]

Last night was a dogs breakfast, Kerfoot stupid play led to the 1st goal. He's really starting to wear on my patience... maybe I'm projecting or reading something that is not there but I think he's not well liked by his teammates, he got into a dust up / face washing last night behind the Oil net, Hyman skated up like he was gonna get involved and just stopped and watched, didn't get in there to help just let Kerfoot get gloves a plenty to his face...took a stupid PIM too.

All in all , if the Leafs can figure out how to play D and O they would be a great team, but it seems like its either D or O.

IMO they are an upper middle of the pack team... like 10 to 15 place. You watch them and you know there is something missing, I can't put my finger on it. Not sure if its heart, intangibles, maturity, work ethic, passion, hunger... not sure. Something is missing. They are not a team I enjoy watching TBH.

 

[LeafGrief]

Honestly you don't know what you're gonna get from the Leafs from game to game. They are the definition of entropy. The exact opposite of what you'd want a good team to be.

Entropy is unavoidable, there is not a single team that escapes the randomness of bounces and shitty refs. We win that game 8/10 times, and if we had everyone is calling it a great defensive win and praising the boys for strong playoff winning hockey. The first two games of the season were rusty and sloppy, but the boys have settled in now to playing pretty strong defensive hockey.

 

[All Mod Cons]

Thus far, I've not been very impressed with many of the bargain bin finds our management have unearthed.

 

[ToneDog]

This is simply Dubas not wanting to admit he made a mistake. This is a complete waste of cap space, no need to pay this guy $3.5 when you can fill that spot with a Brooks type player. Bad cap management

You wanted Dubas to give Kerfoot away as he did AJ even though Kefoot's AAV fit within the cap with another Brook's type player ? Filling out a lineup around the big 4 on paper can but done. It is another matter of filling it on the ice and is is pretty clear to me that we do not have enough quality pieces to do so as it stands.

On a side note if Dubas could see the future he could have dumped Kerfoot for virtually nothing and waited to sign a desperate player for less than market value. Not saying Hoffman is that player but he signed for $500k more than Kerfoot.

 

[hockeynorth]

What about Nylander as 3C and slide Kerfoot up?