Post-Game Talk: Leafs lose 5-2

[LeafEgo]

Speed, or lack thereof from the backend if / when Holl McCabe Schenn are in the lineup at the same time will be a huge concern. Saw McCabe's lack of speed with my own eyes tonight. A pattern is emerging where we make the team much worse in our attempts to inject more physicality. I stand by my opinion we should have just went all in skill and chased guys like Kane after O'Reilly. We will actually be relatively the best in that department so we can get away with being softer than opponents. Now we're just tied skill wise and weaker in other areas compared to our first round (edit - playoff) opponents.

I mean, I really like McCabe from an isolated point of view, he's a dress-and-forget reliable bottom pairing D...was he the best move based on our team makeup and 1st round opponents?.....highly doubt that. This game sort of showed that. We didn't capitalize on the finishing touch after adding O'Reilly and the cash flow for trades evaporated into thin air on things we shouldn't have chased (Sandin counts as cash flow for trades).

(Let me be clear I want more physicality, I just don't agree with how we do it and the final outcome of the roster based on everything)

I think the thinking was we tried that but it didn't work. So we gave up a bit on skill points against the competition for more parity in other parts of the game. Being tied in the skill wise department with just a few of the other top teams isn't a bad thing.

I feel more comfortable trying to grind out a playoff series win like everyone else then trying to win on skill alone with the possibility of getting neutralized by basics of the game like forechecking, collapsing, etc. because we didn't meet the minimum threshold in other areas.

We probably should have kept more speed though.

 

[mikeyz]

Tampa's last 2 games were a 4-1 loss to Florida and a 7-2 loss to Pitt.

Except that Tampa has won twice as many cups as the Leafs have won playoff rounds in the last 3 years. So they get a pass.

 

[blue stick]

Except that Tampa has won twice as many cups as the Leafs have won playoff rounds in the last 3 years. So they get a pass.

Tampa Bay did all that this season?

 

[mikeyz]

Keefe in a nutshell: says the right things but never does the right things.

"No intelligence"

Says the guy who played the Reilly and Holl pairing more then any other pairing tonight.

Tampa Bay did all that this season?

Lol. Your whataboutism game is really stretching.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

It’s not Rocket Appliances

The constellation prize is that Marner scored a goal tonight.

 

[Osmows OReilly]

The constellation prize is that Marner scored a goal tonight.

He'll be passing Rick Vaive for top ten all-time for points in Leafs history shortly.

 

[Aashir]

Holy f*** Kerberos get a life

You just spent 20 minutes going through an opponent teams forum liking every post

Definition of no life

 

[fahad203]

Take a deep breath.
Leafs got beat by one guy. That one guy would burn Nick Lidstorm if he was playing
He's just on a roll

But Sammy needs to be better. He's giving up a soft goal per game

 

[Schennanigans]

Brutal defence tonight. The top line was useless, goaltending wasn’t great, one of the worst games of the season.

 

[Superstar]

Holy f*** Kerberos get a life

You just spent 20 minutes going through an opponent teams forum liking every post

Definition of no life

Well, according to him, the Oilers did win the Cup tonight...

 

[MilkofthePoppy]

Timbits hockey out there. Absolutely careless with the puck. Zero intensity besides Holl. He got lit up by RNH, but I respect the guy for backing himself up.

This team looks slow, old, and broken.

A desperate GM that abandoned his vision by caving to the busybody talking heads.

This organization never learns. As long as we keep giving away our future we will never improve.

Holy f*** Kerberos get a life

You just spent 20 minutes going through an opponent teams forum liking every post

Definition of no life

Bro, who cares. Let the Oilers fans have their fun. They deserve this.

 

[Kurtz]

Except that Tampa has won twice as many cups as the Leafs have won playoff rounds in the last 3 years. So they get a pass.

Yeah, well the Leafs won 4 times as many cups as Tampa Bay!

Come on dude, I think you get the point. If you didn't dismiss Tampa as a contender after they got blown out twice to mediocre teams this week, maybe it's not a good idea to dismiss the Leafs after one bad loss either.

Timbits hockey out there. Absolutely careless with the puck. Zero intensity besides Holl. He got lit up by RNH, but I respect the guy for backing himself up.

This team looks slow, old, and broken.

A desperate GM that abandoned his vision by caving to the busybody talking heads.

This organization never learns. As long as we keep giving away our future we will never improve.



Bro, who cares. Let the Oilers fans have their fun. They deserve this.

Lol, what? Every player that we picked up is an asset in the intensity category. Mccabe is no slower than Sandin. Laff is not slower than Engvall.

It was an off-night, let's calm down.

 

[Aashir]

Bro, who cares. Let the Oilers fans have their fun. They deserve this.

Meticulously going through and liking other comments boards are fun?

I guess weirdos have weird hobbies

 

[6ix]

Holy f*** Kerberos get a life

You just spent 20 minutes going through an opponent teams forum liking every post

Definition of no life

I put that weirdo on ignore months ago lol. A low life that you almost feel sorry for.

 

[MilkofthePoppy]

Meticulously going through and liking other comments boards are fun?

I guess weirdos have weird hobbies

Yeah not my cup of tea either, but maybe it brings him joy lol.

 

[MilkofthePoppy]

Yeah, well the Leafs won 4 times as many cups as Tampa Bay!

Come on dude, I think you get the point. If you didn't dismiss Tampa as a contender after they got blown out twice to mediocre teams this week, maybe it's not a good idea to dismiss the Leafs after one bad loss either.



Lol, what? Every player that we picked up is an asset in the intensity category. Mccabe is no slower than Sandin. Laff is not slower than Engvall.

It was an off-night, let's calm down.

Sandin has excellent hockey IQ and can move the puck with his effective passing ability. You don't need footspeed to be quick when you can read the game. Our best defensive stretch came this season when Reilly was out, and Sandin's positional play was big part of that. Sandin was also in his early 20s.

Engvall is a fast and effective third liner that can chip in 15 - 20 goals a season. He does his job effectively for 2.5 million dollars and he is in his mid 20s.

You need cheap and effective role players to be successful in this league. This organization likes to give away young assets for magic beans.

Do you really believe that throwing a nuke into the dressing room with 25 percent of the season left was a good idea?

 

[Phion Keneuf]

Yeah not my cup of tea either, but maybe it brings him joy lol.

that’s sad

 

[Kurtz]

Sandin has excellent hockey IQ and can move the puck with his effective passing ability. You don't need footspeed to be quick when you can read the game. Our best defensive stretch came this season when Reilly was out, and Sandin's positional play was big part of that. Sandin was also in his early 20s.

Engvall is a fast and effective third liner that can chip in 15 - 20 goals a season. He does his job effectively for 2.5 million dollars and he is in his mid 20s.

You need cheap and effective role players to be successful in this league. This organization likes to give away young assets for magic beans.

Do you really believe that throwing a nuke into the dressing room with 25 percent of the season left was a good idea?

Ok, and Mccabe does those things too. And Lafferty is also fast and effective and is cheaper and signed for longer than Engvall.

Yes, I do believe the moves were excellent, and so did everyone else until we had one bad game and suddenly everything is in ruins apparently.

 

[Phion Keneuf]

Holl needs to go after getting dummied by Nuge. I’m sorry, that’s absolutely embarrassing.

 

[Antropovsky]

Marner with no giveaways according to the stat sheet.. Yet the first goal against he literally tries to stickhandle through oilers defense into the offensive zone ON the PK and has the puck stripped. As Trotz said...leafs forcing plays instead of making the easy play. It's pretty much the same play Marner made vs Montreal in game 7 that lead to the first goal against.

Edit: Just noticed Keefe alluded to Marners giveaway in his postgame:

“The way we started the penalty kill against the No. 1 power-play in the history of the NHL — we get our first exit, give it right back to ’em. Like, we’re not serious about winning when that’s the case,” Keefe said.

“Those are our regular penalty-killers, our top people. That’s how we started the game, and didn’t get much better from there.”
/edit

The fourth goal against Marner is first on a puck near the outer hash marks, Nurse pinches and Marner softly reverses the puck in the defensive zone, right into the Oilers hands and it ended up in the back of the net. This is the same play he made in game 5 vs Tampa that led to the game trying goal against. Is there a better player to be made? Should he have tried to hack it past the pinching dman instead of back into his zone? Or should he put more muster on the reverse and try to cause a little chaos instead of putting it right into the oppositions hands?

 

[meefer]

Re: Holl and Rielly, and Keefe’s usage of them. Perhaps it was simply a chance to give McCabe the game with TJ? Things got scrambled a bit when Liljegren was removed. I’ve not seen Brodie this active in a long time, he was really pushing up ice, in part because McCabe is expected to hold the fort?

 

[ThrowDemTongs]

"How much can you bench, Julian"
"A lot, Jacob"

 

[Phion Keneuf]

Re: Holl and Rielly, and Keefe’s usage of them. Perhaps it was simply a chance to give McCabe the game with TJ? Things got scrambled a bit when Liljegren was removed. I’ve not seen Brodie this active in a long time, he was really pushing up ice, in part because McCabe is expected to hold the fort?

All I know is that I never want to see Brodie below the opponents hashmarks again.

 

[Kurtz]

Re: Holl and Rielly, and Keefe’s usage of them. Perhaps it was simply a chance to give McCabe the game with TJ? Things got scrambled a bit when Liljegren was removed. I’ve not seen Brodie this active in a long time, he was really pushing up ice, in part because McCabe is expected to hold the fort?

Last year we used Muzzin-Brodie as our shutdown pairing in the playoffs - I'm guessing he wants to recreate that with Mccabe-Brodie. And he had Lybushkin next to Rielly, I wonder if he's thinking Morgan-Schenn.

 

[TonsofPuppies]

These two images in succession tell you all you need to know about where this core and team are at. Status quo as usual. As long as Dubas keeps this core together, all these trades amount to shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. Matthews is a joke.