Post-Game Talk: Leafs Lose 5-2

[danny90]

Chychrun would be a good add on D in the off-season. Provides the offense we thought Rielly was to provide. I'd even move on from OEL to make it happen

I feel like every year there’s talk about getting Chychrun and it just never happens, seems like the perfect fit

 

[Antropovsky]

Why Minten isn’t getting a trial in that spot with Matthews out I’ll never understand.

Would give the wingers on that line someone with some offensive ability to play with too

Because of waivers no? They dont want to lose any of their players on waivers. Pretty typical way of managing a roster.

 

[34]

Put him in the press box until he recovers from the concussion. If it takes a few months, who cares. It is not like he is contributing anything to the lineup anyway.

 

[Mr_Fun]

Because of waivers no? They dont want to lose any of their players on waivers. Pretty typical way of managing a roster.

Who would they have to put on waivers? If it means putting Holmberg, Dewar, or Kampf on waivers, we'd actually benefit by dropping/losing one of those redundancies.

 

[Leafs87]

Leafs play with no energy at all. All skill. When that’s not there we always lose games like this. It’s very rare the Leafs find a way to win when the offence isn’t elite for the Leafs. They’re also so up and down. Can’t be consistent good

 

[torontoblood]

Pretty even game, I'd say we were even a bit better 5 on 5.

Real shitty goaltending from Murray.

Shitty special teams as well.

Season observation, this team is not a winning team unless they get way above average goaltending. Which based on previous playoffs should not surprise anyone.

They kinda suck really... But have enough skill to be a playoff team.

Unfortunately special teams and goaltending make or break teams in the playoffs. We really need to excel in both areas of the game if we want to win. Cliche I know.

And this season is the opposite of previous seasons. Before this year the Leafs won in spite of their goaltending. This year we win a lot of games because of our superior goaltending and in spite of our offense/goalscoring2024-25 Toronto Maple Leafs Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

Our defensive numbers this season would be even better if stolarz wasnt injured.

When Keefe was head coach here, he stressed defensive commitment and implemented a solid enough defensive structure around the team. In two of his four full seasons as a coach here, the Maple Leafs were actually a top 10 defensive team in the league. They had the 7th best defense in both 2020-21 and 2022-23.

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And in the other two seasons, 2021-22 and 2023-24-Auston Matthews went off and scored 60 goals and 69
Goals respectively. And the rest of the leafs star forwards were also great and produced plenty of offense in order to make up for their average to mediocre goaltending. In both of these seasons, the leafs were the second highest goalscoring team.

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And In the matthews/Babcock era (I don’t count 2015-16, his first season as head coach) the Leafs simply outscored their problems with great offensive production. They had a Top 5 offense in all three seasons , they were bottom third in the league on defense in all three seasons , and had average to decent goaltending. To his credit, Frederik Andersen was a decent #1 starter for his era, he was a workhorse in net and posted respectable statistics in the regular season, but he always faltered in the playoffs by allowing bad goals at critical moments. He was a hope killer in the postseason.

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[MilkofthePoppy]

Carberry strikes me as a good coach. Good for him. I am rooting for the Caps this year (besides the Leafs of course). Kinda disappointing that they seem to have our number this season.

 

[sunstersun]

Man, I was so excited for Knies at the start of the season.

 

[torontoblood]

Leafs play with no energy at all. All skill. When that’s not there we always lose games like this. It’s very rare the Leafs find a way to win when the offence isn’t elite for the Leafs. They’re also so up and down. Can’t be consistent good

The Leafs aren’t the kind of team that can beat opposing teams in any way yet. Elite teams can beat you in every way ( slow-paced grinding game, high-paced aggressive/high-octane game, attrition game, Goaltending duel game, wild physical game, high energy/gritty game, pure defensive game, etc) We can run and gun and counterattack with the best of them though. We’re fast but there are teams out there who are even more faster than us (the oilers, lightning, stars, panthers, avalanche and devils come to mind)

I wish we played more aggressively like the Avs or panthers. They physically dictate the play and use a high energy/high paced style of offense. They come at opposing teams in waves. They’re relentless in their pursuit and possession of the puck. Last time The leafs used to play like this was back in the early 2000s when they used a gritty, energetic, intense,and physical brand of offense. They could afford to play reckless and take many wild risks on offense because they had the offense, power-play and elite goaltending to do so (Cujo and Belfour)Mixing dead puck era physicality and a high-paced productive offense was entertaining to watch.

Right now, the Maple Leafs are much more offensively skilled than most teams but not much more aggressive/faster/defensive/physical/gritty/intense/energetic/grinding/hard-working than most teams. But this season, Toronto is a much better defensive team than usual and has much better goaltending than before - mainly because of the performances of OEL/Tanev/Stolarz, the free agents the Leafs signed to longterm contracts last summer. All three players make our defense solid and reliable this season.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

No no The Leafs didn't lose 5-2, Matt Murray lost 5-2, the Leafs had nothing to do with it, this loss was ALL Matt Murraythat's the first time I've said that about goaltending this year but It's true.

Matt Murray and Matt Murray ALONE lost this game.

An NHL caliber goaltender stops both 1st period goals, ESPECIALLY the first goal.

If Matt Murray was an NHL caliber goaltender it would have been 1-0 Leafs after 1, Bobby Mcmann goal would have made it 2-0 instead of 2- 2and the game probably turns out different.

But Matt Murray choked.

Team was good enough to win, Matt Murray wasn't.

 

[TMLBlueandWhite]

I feel bad for Murray.

It's not his fault they lost. This is a goalie who hadn't played an NHL game in over eighteen months. The same goalie who was garbage for years before he had the surgery that sidelined him for so long.

I blame the person who thought it was a good idea starting him.

There's two promising young goaltenders in the AHL they could've used. Both those guys would've benefited from the experience. Maybe they wouldn't have done any better than the broken and battered body of Murray.

But they probably wouldn't have done any worse either.

Murray is well past the point in his career you can expect him to steal a game. He's more than capable of losing one though. Whoever it was that thought it was a good idea to play him tonight should've known better.

It's their fault they lost.

 

[Antropovsky]

I done blame Murray, sure he didnt make any sensational saves, but none were stinkers and two were near impossible.

We nees Matthews back thats obvious.

 

[ANDI P IS CUTE]

willy smiling after another loss/every loss. typical of him. knies is still concussed; glad he wasnt signed yet.

 

[hoglund]

I done blame Murray, sure he didnt make any sensational saves, but none were stinkers and two were near impossible.

We nees Matthews back thats obvious.

Murray allowed two goals that I could've stopped and I suck and their goalie stopped two unbelievable chances off of Nylander, that was the difference. We need Stolarz back as soon as possible.

 

[weems]

Dewar needs to start doing more.
He is bringing zero offense, and even struggled bigtime on faceoffs while at C (40% overall and 36.8% on dzone faceoffs).
That was such a awful giveaway he had on the first goal, just a very risky attempt.
We actually started the game off very well, were outshooting them 5 to 1 and were up 1-0 and then boom, giveaway....goal against.

 

[Niagara Bill]

Leafs play with no energy at all. All skill. When that’s not there we always lose games like this. It’s very rare the Leafs find a way to win when the offence isn’t elite for the Leafs. They’re also so up and down. Can’t be consistent good

Reaves was signed to help with that, he does not, he maybe cannot, and now he does not play. A waste of cap room.

 

[The Shadow]

Man, I was so excited for Knies at the start of the season.

Me too. He’s a shell of his former self

The last two games his inability to clear the puck out directly led to 2 goals within a few seconds of his failure

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

Just a reminder that next weekend will be the 3rd straight weekend of back-to-back games for the Leafs and yet again against a well rested team. It's ridiculous.

 

[Funk21]

The caps are a good team. Stopped playing in the third and the Caps stepped on our throats which is what SC contenders do. No Stolarz and AM doesn’t help.

I’ve been a very vocal critic of the way Dubas MTG our future for 1 and done type players. Usually old and looking for a massive payday. That being said this team needs to address two areas, our C depth and D-a proper RHD on the first pairing.

If the rumours are true that Buffalo wants to move Cozens and our Management groups believes he can be a solid 2C behind AM I think our brass needs to pick him up. As long as Minten, Cowan are not added to the deal. I’d rather move picks at this point as our window is now.

Extend JT for a team friendly deal and he takes Cozens under his wing and plays two C until next year when he moves to the LW. Hopefully with some proper tutelage and a great offseason Cozens can be our 2C with Minten slotting into our 3C.

This year

AM
JT
Couzens

Next year
AM
Couzens
Minten

 

[Nineteen67]

Just a reminder that next weekend will be the 3rd straight weekend of back-to-back games for the Leafs and yet again against a well rested team. It's ridiculous.

It’ll be the 5th weekend in a row they’ve played B2B….not certain about how rested of the other teams is in each of those. ….but I do know they’re schedule approver is a wacko.

 

[Da Mash]

When you get concussed you worry about the next one.
If you never had one you will never understand.

Concerning the game. It’s hard to win playing this scheme when your goalie is average and you don’t have the horses on to consistently play this style.

We just have to wait till playoffs to see if this was all worth while. If we fail again then what? 34 and 88 have NMC …and Marner is proving his value again and how can we complain on how Mr T is playing.

So once again it comes to the other players. Will Rielly get another pass? is our bottom 6 any good?

Wash seems to have our number but recently we haven’t played our best hockey.

Long season and we are still a top 10 team.

 

[ToneDog]

Tampa now leads the division by point%. They have 4 games in hand and are 4 back of the Leafs and Panthers. Not bad for a team that did an offseason retool.

 

[Racer88]

The Leafs are not serious and certainly not big moment players and team.
Unfortunately we will be waiting for the next rebuild. Hopefully they make better player selections from a character standpoint

 

[Nineteen67]

Tampa now leads the division by point%. They have 4 games in hand and are 4 back of the Leafs and Panthers. Not bad for a team that did an offseason retool.

It’s ruthless, but they reacted to what they could see and didn’t feel they’d be competitive if they kept the status quo.

 

[1specter]

Tampa now leads the division by point%. They have 4 games in hand and are 4 back of the Leafs and Panthers. Not bad for a team that did an offseason retool.

Also have a +40 goal differential, good for second in the league