Post-Game Talk: Leafs Lose 3-1

[zeke]

I noticed the high man blatantly peeling back from the forecheck right from the start, which is fine and all and more defense might be the right idea, but they can never have a game with this little offense ever again.

 

[HoweHullOrr]

This team for its talent and salary commitment should easily be the top of this new COVID division.

This year is unlike any other. 56 games to stay fresh. No Tampa,Boston,etc. in our way.

Half the teams Ottawa,Edmonton,Vancouver,Montreal have been rebuilding (retooling) since forever (or are rebuilding).

Calgary,Winnipeg should be the most “together” competition we face.

I’ll take whatever regular season with a grain of salt but failure to win a round or emerge from this division is total failure. There is no better opportunity, setup than now.

I agree. If we are as good as we think we are (and should be), we should be able to get to the conference finals. That's the minimum acceptable end result I'd think.

 

[ShaneFalco]

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

overall, it's really not a big shock that this happened. the Leafs were clearly just concerned with shutting down Draisaitl/McDavid at any cost and it was inevitably going to be a boring and low event game. The problem is that those sorts of games favour the weaker team and make luck much more of a factor. They have to figure out how to keep up their aggressive play and not be intimidated by a couple of high end players

 

[IPS]

Right on. Excited to see what he can do.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Right on. Excited to see what he can do.

Him and Boyd

 

[zeke]

Nice. Kid is a quality player. I wish both him and Engvall were on the squad.

 

[Welsh Maple Leaf]

We are really concentrating on team defense right now - and our offense is obviously hurting for it.

If/when we figure it out we will be a much better team for it later on this year.

Plus puck luck and refs were against us (maybe).

 

[Brobust]

We are really concentrating on team defense right now - and our offense is obviously hurting for it.

If/when we figure it out we will be a much better team for it later on this year.

Plus puck luck and refs were against us (maybe).

No, they weren't concentrating on team defence.

They simply allowed Dave Tippett to dictate play and sat back and looked as nothing at happened. Which is basically Dave Tippett hockey. It's basically what they did during the Columbus series. Obviously, them and their coach have learned absolutely nothing since then.

Everybody excluding Auston Matthews.

 

[Nineteen67]

You saw it ... most can't here ... but you are 100% right it was lost by coaching pure and simple

We saw Ottawa and Winnipeg do a lot of the same things in their own zone and I expect other teams to follow suit. There are very few shot lanes and passing lanes in the home plate area and they don’t get out of position chasing the puck.
The coaches got to find a way to fix that.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

We saw Ottawa and Winnipeg do a lot of the same things in their own zone and I expect other teams to follow suit. There are very few shot lanes and passing lanes in the home plate area and they don’t get out of position chasing the puck.
The coaches got to find a way to fix that.

You have to break it with a heavy net front pressure attack with all pucks/2 forwards going to net ... but 1st you have to get in to attacking zone and get control ... these 2 areas are not skill sets of our :Leafs due to personnel issues which is entirely Dubie's fault

 

[stickty111]

Wheeler is correct here. Until Marner becomes more impactful and stops making rookie junior plays, Nylander should be out on the ice instead of Marner whenever Keefe loads up.

 

[Welsh Maple Leaf]

No, they weren't concentrating on team defence.

They simply allowed Dave Tippett to dictate play and sat back and looked as nothing at happened. Which is basically Dave Tippett hockey. It's basically what they did during the Columbus series. Obviously, them and their coach have learned absolutely nothing since then.

Everybody excluding Auston Matthews.

You can’t educate pork.

 

[Stephen]

Meh, the Oilers did a good job clogging up the lanes/middle of the ice but the Leafs were really off on their passes and bobbling pucks. We know they're better than that. If they were able to thread a few more needles, it would have opened some things up. Particularly Marner/Matthews. They were really off a lot of the night which is super uncharacteristic.

My guess is that the Leafs weren't mentally prepped for the Oilers to focus so much on defensive play, and the Leafs struggled to adjusted.

It was evident that the Oilers sacrificed their offense more than the Leafs' did to play stronger defense.

I think Friday will be return to the norm. But the Leafs do need to find a way to get more 5 on 5 goals.

If you cut out the EN goal and that own goal in the first period, it was basically a horrible 1-1 draw with Edmonton scoring on a bad penalty call against Muzzin and Toronto scoring on a fluke.

The Oilers take that to the bank every day of the week but if there’s any moral victories to be taken from this game, we have a good template of how to shut down McDavid.

If there’s any criticism to be taken from this game, it’s that we shouldn’t be looking for moral victories against Edmonton.

The neutral zone trapping can be remedied if the Leafs would utilize a dump/chip and chase and heavy forecheck to break things open.

 

[Brobust]

If you cut out the EN goal and that own goal in the first period, it was basically a horrible 1-1 draw with Edmonton scoring on a bad penalty call against Muzzin and Toronto scoring on a fluke.

The Oilers take that to the bank every day of the week but if there’s any moral victories to be taken from this game, we have a good template of how to shut down McDavid.

If there’s any criticism to be taken from this game, it’s that we shouldn’t be looking for moral victories against Edmonton.

The neutral zone trapping can be remedied if the Leafs would utilize a dump/chip and chase and heavy forecheck to break things open.

Matthews has scored from that angle before. He saw a hole and put the puck in. That's not a fluke.

 

[zeke]

No, they weren't concentrating on team defence.

they obviously were. it was blatant from the very start of the game what they were doing tactically different than usual.

 

[PromisedLand]

What about Nylander as 3C and slide Kerfoot up?

wouldn't mind it. its a 56 game season with not a lot of breaks in between games. managing ice time will be important too. Also, on a given night the line that is going give them more ice time

I think we gotta do something like the following: no dedicated 1st, 2nd or 3rd line; three lines going which ever plays the best on a given night gets more mins - this way we can also manage fatigue factor

Jumbo - Matthews - Hyman
Mikheyev - Tavares - Marner
Kerfoot - Nylander - Anderson
Engvall - Spezza - Simmonds

replace Jumbo with engvall/barabanov and get Boyd in until Jumbo is good to go. Hopefully this creates match up problems for oppositions so at least one of the top 9 gets to do some offensive damage

When robertson is back he moves on to LW with Willy; Kerfoot move to the RW with one of Engval/Anderson out

we've already played 5 games that means only 51 more games left to go. We don't have the luxury of 82 games to figure things out; gotta experiment early if things aren't working instead of leaving it too late

 

[Brobust]

they obviously were. it was blatant from the very start of the game what they were doing tactically different than usual.

Last season, the Oilers were bottom 10 in corsi/60, xGF/60 and SCF/60. They basically played zero event hockey and relied on PP to win games.

They reverted to that last night and the leafs were happy to sit back. It's exactly what happened during the Columbus series, and people back then were also saying 'at least they played defence'.

 

[Throw More Waffles]

Matthews has scored from that angle before. He saw a hole and put the puck in. That's not a fluke.

If Andersen let that shot in he'd be lynched.

Of course, if a leaf player gets that goal, it's "a perfect shot" and "he knew what he was doing".

 

[zeke]

Last season, the Oilers were bottom 10 in corsi/60, xGF/60 and SCF/60. They basically played zero event hockey and relied on PP to win games.

They reverted to that last night and the leafs were happy to sit back. It's exactly what happened during the Columbus series, and people back then were also saying 'at least they played defence'.

there was a blatant tactical difference.

I didn't even like the decision, but it was very obvious what they were doing differently in the offensive zone.

 

[Throw More Waffles]

Last season, the Oilers were bottom 10 in corsi/60, xGF/60 and SCF/60. They basically played zero event hockey and relied on PP to win games.

They reverted to that last night and the leafs were happy to sit back. It's exactly what happened during the Columbus series, and people back then were also saying 'at least they played defence'.

Yeah, the current narrative is "they're focusing on defense".

Well... if our numerous 11 million dollar forwards can't score if they have to be "defensively responsible", we're in real real trouble.

 

[Brobust]

If Andersen let that shot in he'd be lynched.

Of course, if a leaf player gets that goal, it's "a perfect shot" and "he knew what he was doing".

What everyone else says about Andersen has nothing to do with me, so get lost.

 

[zeke]

If Andersen let that shot in he'd be lynched.

Of course, if a leaf player gets that goal, it's "a perfect shot" and "he knew what he was doing".

not any leaf player.

Just Auston Matthews, the best goalscorer in hockey.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

No, they weren't concentrating on team defence.

They simply allowed Dave Tippett to dictate play and sat back and looked as nothing at happened. Which is basically Dave Tippett hockey. It's basically what they did during the Columbus series. Obviously, them and their coach have learned absolutely nothing since then.

Everybody excluding Auston Matthews.

Here here ... some people never played and they don't get it ... and honestly who would have figured da high flying Oilers were gonna deploy a centre ice trap game on us with McJesus playing da lead ... i was shocked too ... but once I saw Tipper I immediately got it ... but it is a terrible look for our game in states where 99% of eyeballs watching have no idea what da f*ck is going on

 

[Brobust]

Wheeler is correct here. Until Marner becomes more impactful and stops making rookie junior plays, Nylander should be out on the ice instead of Marner whenever Keefe loads up.

I cannot believe I'm reading this after what I watched last night.

Nylander did **** all except do a couple of twirls in the neutral zone. And he spent most of his sheltered minutes against guys like Turris and Archibald.