Post-Game Talk: Leafs Lose 5-2

[horner]

Playing like that? Of course not.

We've seen the Leafs play much better through the season. On the right side of the puck, quick puck movements and no turnovers. That is what is needed to beat a team like that.

That game was there for the taking in the third. But the Leafs didn't do anything to take it, so they got what they deserved.

That was hardly their best effort tonight. And I don't know if this team can do what is necessary in a seven game series (history says no), but they can beat any team in a one off, with or without Matthews. Tonight was not that night.

Not against the Bruins.
The Bruins have another gear in the 3rd period , we don't.

 

[Koolboss]

Tavares is a decent 2C now, as long as he has at least one very good winger, but 1C is beyond him.

Without Matthews I would have liked to have seen Willy and Mitch and either Bunting or Jarnkrok on the top line.

Marner is not a good winger?

 

[Racer88]

Bunting

Bunting needs to tone down his insane yelling and screaming at the refs. This is only going to come back to bite us

 

[therealkoho]

Marchand's super pest chirping was right on point unfortunately and a lot of truth within his words.

There are many Leaf fans that agree with his sentiment that Leafs players went for the money and not the success, and a team like Boston who have top players taking less have more playoff success as a result.

It's not really rocket science, and something ive been banging on about since Sidney first uttered his famous proclamation "of leaving money on the table to help the team out!"

What a crock

JT UFA and a highly desirable player but not the end all and be all. The media in conjunction with the PA, made this 8m dollar player worth 10m+, why? Because they could, why, because maybe they had an idea Toronto would get involved and prices would be driven up. The PA doing its job, and doing it well.

Tavares who had no scoring titles no team championships, no Hart's and who was suddenly worth 14m to the Sharks or so they said, but JT wanted to come home.

And the Leafs in true Leafs fashion bid against the rumour and innuendo in the press and settled at 11m x 7yrs.

This made the other players who are highly competitive had better numbers think they were worth almost as much and in some cases even more.

Just think John, Mitch, Auston let's say took 2m each less money, which may have convinced Will to take 6m. That leaves 7m on the table, which in today's climate means that the Leafs possibly get the player that puts them over the top.

I don't tend to make every game life and death, but it doesn't mean I don't have an idea of what this team is. I have a clear idea of what it needs, and what they need in my view is a total restructure. It doesnt mean they do it at the deadline, it means that they start doing it as soon as their season ends.

 

[ACC1224]

It's not really rocket science, and something ive been banging on about since Sidney first uttered his famous proclamation "of leaving money on the table to help the team out!"

What a crock

JT UFA and a highly desirable player but not the end all and be all. The media in conjunction with the PA, made this 8m dollar player worth 10m+, why? Because they could, why, because maybe they had an idea Toronto would get involved and prices would be driven up. The PA doing its job, and doing it well.

Tavares who had no scoring titles no team championships, no Hart's and who was suddenly worth 14m to the Sharks so they said. JT wanted to come home and the Leafs bid against the rumour and innuendo in the press and settled at 11m x 7yrs.

This made the other players who are highly competitive had better numbers think they were worth almost as much and in some cases even more.

Just think John, Mitch, Auston let's say took 2m each less money, which may have convinced Will to take 6m. That leaves 7m on the table, which in today's climate means possibly the player that puts them over the top.

I don't tend to make every game life and death, but it doesn't mean I don't have an idea of what this team is. I have a clear idea of what it needs, and what they need in my view is a total restructure. It doesnt mean they do it at the deadline, it means that they start doing it as soon as their season ends.

Didn't Nylander sign before Matthews and Marner?
Big mistake signing Matthews before Marner though.

 

[rocketman588]

Didn't Nylander sign before Matthews and Marner?
Big mistake signing Matthews before Marner though.

Yeah Willy was first. Although there was a rumor that the canes offered Pesce or Hamilton for him at that time

 

[Racer88]

Yesterday was a good lesson on where our team needs to be come May. Of course it would have been nice to beat the Bruins, but there is a lot of good things that can come from yesterdays loss IMO. Boston played about as perfect a road game as you could ask for IMO.

I think we showed some really good play at times, but Boston's attention to detail was ultimately the difference maker. I hate to say it, because I hate the Bruins, their fanbase, and the entire Boston sports community for that matter, but that team is scary good. Not because they have the most talent. I honestly don't even think they have top-5 overall team talent in the NHL. But what they have better then any other team by a mile is swagger, buy-in, and most importantly attention to detail. They play as close to mistake free hockey as any team I can ever remember watching. They've given us next to no free ice in the 3 games we've played them this season.

That said, lets talk some positives. I was happy to see how willingly we were to put pucks on the net despite them being from non threatening areas. Sometimes in games like these, we have a tendency to want to make a low percentage pass or get cute with the puck instead of just outworking our man in in the corners or in front of the blue paint. I thought we showed a real strong presence in the offensive zone, established a good cycle for most of the night and put pucks in behind their D. We worked the low to high and put pucks towards net pretty well all night. It was clearly the message to the D to do so. Which is encouraging.

That said, our forwards lost a ton of battles in front of the night, and we struggled to get pucks through the traffic from the back end. A lot of that credit has to go to the Bruins commitment to defensive zone structure, and their D in specific at boxing our forwards out so well.

Sure we need Sammy to make a couple of those saves, but lets not forget some of those early saves off of clear cut breaks from Clifton and Pasta. At the end of the day, we lost focus way too much. A team like Boston will take advantage, and for the most part, they did just that. The shorty against is a prime example of this lack of focus. It's a 5-10 second lack of focus that ends up in the back of our net. Mitch does everything right, and the 4 other guys just straight leg their way into the defensive zone and get caught puck watching. Not even 1 Leaf looked at anyone other then puck carrier. Sure it's a nice effort from the Bruins PK there, but that is horrendous structure/effort that we gifted them.

All n all, it was not nearly as disastrous of a game as everyone wants to make out. The overwhelming narrative has been that we physically can't keep up with the Bruins. I think last night shows that we absolutely can. I think we just need to remain hyper patient with respect to structure and continue to work pucks down low. We cannot trade chances with this team. We need to play low scoring and low event hockey every time to beat this team. I think the same can be said about TB, but to a slightly lesser degree. Both teams don't give up freebies, we need to find a way to do the exact same. The cup is usually awarded to the team that makes the least mistakes. Hardly never can you outscore your mistakes and win it all. We've come a long way in that regard over the past 6 years, but we still need reminders like yesterday to show us just how much more we have to go.

Enjoy the break fellas, rest up for hopefully a long playoff run!

We have 50% of our cap tied up in 4 point getting forwards and we can’t trade chances with Boston, we need to play low scoring, sounds like a recipe for disaster. Our goalies are reclamation projects from the crap heap, our D are either young and inexperienced or old and tired. I would argue our only chance with this make up is trading chances.

 

[therealkoho]

Didn't Nylander sign before Matthews and Marner?
Big mistake signing Matthews before Marner though.

Yes you're correct, but also had the Leafs not chased JT they would have gotten Will for Pastas number.

They made a huge mistake in laying down for Matthews, both in term and in dollars and signing him when they did. He, his agent and his father put Dubas together hard and unlike MM he didn't have any emotional attachment to the team.

They should've signed Marner first to something a lot more team friendly and used that deal as a framework for Matthews. Instead of saying sorry Mitch We gave it all to the other guy, you'll just have to take 8m.

And people wonder why it got contentious.

 

[Antropovsky]

Tavares is a decent 2C now, as long as he has at least one very good winger, but 1C is beyond him.

Without Matthews I would have liked to have seen Willy and Mitch and either Bunting or Jarnkrok on the top line.

I think Tavares and Matthews would be excellent together. Just a thought but Tavares seems to do his best work in front of the net. Marner gets 0-3 shots on goal a game and I wonder how many are pp shots. This doesn't leave a lot of opportunities for Tavares to score rebounds or tip shots. Matthews gets lots of shots off... Which would be great for Tavares to tip, or sniff out rebounds.

 

[Twine Tickler]

We have 50% of our cap tied up in 4 point getting forwards and we can’t trade chances with Boston, we need to play low scoring, sounds like a recipe for disaster. Our goalies are reclamation projects from the crap heap, our D are either young and inexperienced or old and tired. I would argue our only chance with this make up is trading chances.

Did the less skilled/talented team in CBJ and MTL beat us in 7 by trading chances with us? No, they played sound defensive hockey, limited transition chances, and played to make less mistakes then us. It worked just fine

It's not always the better team that makes it through. More often then not it's the team that gives up less chances that does.

We just have to stay patient and within our structure. Losing to Boston yesterday was not the end of the world. Neither was the loss to them a couple weeks back either. It's very unlikely that we reach them in the standings, so that game is almost as meaningless as a game against Montreal at this point. Of course you always want to beat the best, and Boston is the best. I am not trying to insinuate the Leafs took the night off. They tried, and failed. But at the end of the day, they are going to take more out of that type of loss then they would have if Sammy showed up and gutted them out a win or loser point. This is an eye opening loss. One that they shouldn't be ashamed by, but more so "ok, that's not the formula, lets try something else"

It's a mid season loss to an exceptional team. Nothing more to it.

on to the next one.

 

[Antropovsky]

Yes you're correct, but also had the Leafs not chased JT they would have gotten Will for Pastas number.

They made a huge mistake in laying down for Matthews, both in term and in dollars and signing him when they did. He, his agent and his father put Dubas together hard and unlike MM he didn't have any emotional attachment to the team.

They should've signed Marner first to something a lot more team friendly and used that deal as a framework for Matthews. Instead of saying sorry Mitch We gave it all to the other guy, you'll just have to take 8m.

And people wonder why it got contentious.

No mistake with Matthews. A unanimous number #1 big center with an elite shot. After the contract he went on to win the ted Lindsay, hart trophy and two rockets. No mistake whatsoever. If Matthews was Marner...he would've became a free agent and demanded McDavid money. And unlike Marner, Matthews would have actually had max contracts offersheeted by opposing teams. Marner tries to get Matthews money, but panicked once he found out the offersheets were for less than Toronto.

 

[ACC1224]

Yes you're correct, but also had the Leafs not chased JT they would have gotten Will for Pastas number.

They made a huge mistake in laying down for Matthews, both in term and in dollars and signing him when they did. He, his agent and his father put Dubas together hard and unlike MM he didn't have any emotional attachment to the team.

They should've signed Marner first to something a lot more team friendly and used that deal as a framework for Matthews. Instead of saying sorry Mitch We gave it all to the other guy, you'll just have to take 8m.

And people wonder why it got contentious.

I'm sure everyone agrees, Dubas really couldn't have messed up the three negotiations any more had he tried.
I'm sure he's learned from his mistakes.

 

[Hellcat]

Pie in the sky PS5 type fan trade but there is a way to fit both Meier (50% retained) and Kane (50% retained) on our roster if you bury Murray in LTIR for the rest of the season.

You could even make 3 really scary scoring lines, it would be a match up nightmare for the opposing teams.

Dubie , Kucherov that goalie!!!!!

 

[JT AM da real deal]

We have 50% of our cap tied up in 4 point getting forwards and we can’t trade chances with Boston, we need to play low scoring, sounds like a recipe for disaster. Our goalies are reclamation projects from the crap heap, our D are either young and inexperienced or old and tired. I would argue our only chance with this make up is trading chances.

There is ZERO chance we can trade chances with Boston .. their structure of play forces us into perimeter hockey as our core guys don't have required skills to break into da kill zone for past 6 playoff exits .. all that will happen is what all of us at Scotia saw last night which was a Bruins team which is both bigger and faster forechecking us and taking pucks at will from us .. we can't get it back until next face off or a shot which misses da net .. our only chance is Murray steals a couple games and Matty may steal one too with his shot .. it is a pipe dream of highest order to assume anything else will occur with this personnel group

 

[CabanaBoy5]

Did the less skilled/talented team in CBJ and MTL beat us in 7 by trading chances with us? No, they played sound defensive hockey, limited transition chances, and played to make less mistakes then us. It worked just fine

It's not always the better team that makes it through. More often then not it's the team that gives up less chances that does.

We just have to stay patient and within our structure. Losing to Boston yesterday was not the end of the world. Neither was the loss to them a couple weeks back either. It's very unlikely that we reach them in the standings, so that game is almost as meaningless as a game against Montreal at this point. Of course you always want to beat the best, and Boston is the best. I am not trying to insinuate the Leafs took the night off. They tried, and failed. But at the end of the day, they are going to take more out of that type of loss then they would have if Sammy showed up and gutted them out a win or loser point. This is an eye opening loss. One that they shouldn't be ashamed by, but more so "ok, that's not the formula, lets try something else"

It's a mid season loss to an exceptional team. Nothing more to it.

on to the next one.

You’re right to a certain extent. No Matthews and a Samsonov that said he was under the weather and just wasn’t very good. But we were in that game till the 4-2 goal.

Having said that, we have to learn from this game. We need a top 4 defenceman so we’re not relying on an inexperienced Sandin in the playoffs. We need some top 6 scoring but more importantly some bottom 6 scoring. We need an upgrade at 3C so Kampf could move to the 4th. We need some more size and grit in the bottom 6, preferably someone who can chip in with scoring. This is a critical playoff, we can’t go into it with Holmberg, Anderson, Kerfoot et al in our bottom 6 and expect to succeed.

To give ourselves the best chance, we need these two players plus more size on the fourth line. I like McMann, size and speed, with some skill. We’re close guys, but Dubas has to do his part now.

 

[saltming]

Damn the brings are good. It would have been a different game with Matthews in the line up. Not saying it would have been a win but the matchups would have been more even.
Oh well. On to the next

 

[ToneDog]

Did the less skilled/talented team in CBJ and MTL beat us in 7 by trading chances with us? No, they played sound defensive hockey, limited transition chances, and played to make less mistakes then us. It worked just fine

It's not always the better team that makes it through. More often then not it's the team that gives up less chances that does.

We just have to stay patient and within our structure. Losing to Boston yesterday was not the end of the world. Neither was the loss to them a couple weeks back either. It's very unlikely that we reach them in the standings, so that game is almost as meaningless as a game against Montreal at this point. Of course you always want to beat the best, and Boston is the best. I am not trying to insinuate the Leafs took the night off. They tried, and failed. But at the end of the day, they are going to take more out of that type of loss then they would have if Sammy showed up and gutted them out a win or loser point. This is an eye opening loss. One that they shouldn't be ashamed by, but more so "ok, that's not the formula, lets try something else"

It's a mid season loss to an exceptional team. Nothing more to it.

on to the next one.

No games are meaningless now that Tampa is 5 points behind with 4 games in hand. They now have a better winning percentage than the Leafs.

 

[Racer88]

There is ZERO chance we can trade chances with Boston .. their structure of play forces us into perimeter hockey as our core guys don't have required skills to break into da kill zone for past 6 playoff exits .. all that will happen is what all of us at Scotia saw last night which was a Bruins team which is both bigger and faster forechecking us and taking pucks at will from us .. we can't get it back until next face off or a shot which misses da net .. our only chance is Murray steals a couple games and Matty may steal one too with his shot .. it is a pipe dream of highest order to assume anything else will occur with this personnel group

I agree. My point was that the way Dubas tied up 50% of the cap on 4 offensive forwards we are built to trade chances but when the other team doesn’t allow them to do that it all falls apart

 

[Primary Assist]

Sucks we lost but at least Simmonds legit schoolyard beat up Greer

 

[Menzinger]

The biggest lesson is that the team plays better with Matthews in the lineup

 

[BTP]

Can’t say I’m shocked at the overreactions. Lmao

 

[danny90]

It would have been 3- 0 Boston in the first without Sammy.
We were letting Bostons players in untouched.

We were trading chances. Ullmark was the difference not the forwards or defense.

 

[Leaf Fans]

100% a very poor choice

It was Hall's choice. He had the NMC.

 

[Leaf Fans]

How many 11 million dollar players does Boston have……none

Why ask the question when you know the answer?

 

[Racer88]

Why ask the question when you know the answer?

It’s more of a statement than a question. That’s why I didn’t include a question mark