Post-Game Talk: Leafs lose 5-4 in OT

[Griffin76]

On the diving save

 

[Gary Nylund]

I do understand what you’re saying but last night was away over the top with his praise. We seen more replays of Makar walking the line then Campbell’s crazy save for some reason.

Yeah that's fair. I only remember seeing Makar walking the line once, maybe there was more that I missed not sure but anyway, I'm glad they showed that as it was really cool. But that one save Jack made, that was completely ridiculous and they could have made more of that for sure.

 

[Jojalu]

I do understand what you’re saying but last night was away over the top with his praise. We seen more replays of Makar walking the line then Campbell’s crazy save for some reason.

It's because they highlight Canadian players as opposed to Canadian teams.

Sometimes I wish they would put together a team that was more Leaf-centric I find that for the most part I don't care.

 

[Confucius]

That was exactly what I was saying. The leafs are only Toronto that’s not aloud to have a homer broadcast.

With all the stations that Rogers and TSN own, you would think they could use one of them and show it as a regional broadcast. Hire Bowen, do it. Probably too worried theyd make more on the regional broadcast, which would piss the league off, since that money wouldn't be theirs.

 

[Mad hatter]

It's because they highlight Canadian players as opposed to Canadian teams.

Sometimes I wish they would put together a team that was more Leaf-centric I find that for the most part I don't care.

I wish it didn’t bug me but it does. When I was younger it was nothing but leaf homers, and I loved it. I understand Sportsnet doesn’t want to offend the other fan bases because I’m sure it used too.

 

[crump]

Lost due to altitude not attitude. Looked like we were running out of steam there. We have a good record in Colorado though, so probably more about crappy calls and some letting the foot off the gas. We’re playing a good game for the most part.

 

[Gabriel426]

First 30 mins of the game, Leaf’s played great. Next 30 plus mins, Avs played great.

Avs was just the better team. If anything, Campbell played great and almost stole the game for the Leafs. Afterall, he faced 50 shots.

 

[Enniskillen]

If they had won the game, this thread would have been five pages only. Some posters crawl out to sh.t on the team, nothing else.

 

[ottomaddox]

If they had won the game, this thread would have been five pages only. Some posters crawl out to sh.t on the team, nothing else.

It was a shitty loss. The team didn't do a lot to adjust to the mounting comeback. Keefe didn't make adjustments either. Also a poor defensive effort: 49 shots !!!??? Are you kidding me. You give COL 49 shots they are going to win every time.

 

[RunItBackAgain]

Chintzy penalty calls and we got none of it.

Refs gave them every momentum swing they needed exactly when they needed it.

Keefe did adjust but honestly Tavares and Willy looked off all night.

Game was scripted as f***, thanks Bettman.

edit: Not sure why Keefe played the top 4 D so much. I’d rather Sandin out there a few more shifts than Holl logging over 25 mins. He got more than Rielly (and any other Leaf) btw.

 

[Stephen]

It was a shitty loss. The team didn't do a lot to adjust to the mounting comeback. Keefe didn't make adjustments either. Also a poor defensive effort: 49 shots !!!??? Are you kidding me. You give COL 49 shots they are going to win every time.

Not the result we wanted after a good first half but I don't think the shot count told the whole story. Leafs came out pretty strong but at one point the shot count was 7-0 Avalanche and it didn't tell the story at all.

Will be interesting to see what happens to the Avs the rest of the way. They're a fun team to watch and it's a party when they out score their problems, but their play style is quite susceptible to the heavy forecheck game. It's not often you see Matthews playing the wrecking ball on the forecheck but you could see the kind of approach by another team like Dallas in 2020 or Vegas in 2021: pummel Makar, Girard, Toews and young Byram into the end boards, cripple the transition before it has a chance, exploit turnovers through the neutral zone, throw up the Red Rover wall on Mackinnon, pepper their injury prone goaltending. I like the Avs but I think they're extremely vulnerable to a specific kind of team in the playoffs.

 

[leafsfan5]

Not the result we wanted after a good first half but I don't think the shot count told the whole story. Leafs came out pretty strong but at one point the shot count was 7-0 Avalanche and it didn't tell the story at all.

Will be interesting to see what happens to the Avs the rest of the way. They're a fun team to watch and it's a party when they out score their problems, but their play style is quite susceptible to the heavy forecheck game. It's not often you see Matthews playing the wrecking ball on the forecheck but you could see the kind of approach by another team like Dallas in 2020 or Vegas in 2021: pummel Makar, Girard, Toews and young Byram into the end boards, cripple the transition before it has a chance, exploit turnovers through the neutral zone, throw up the Red Rover wall on Mackinnon, pepper their injury prone goaltending. I like the Avs but I think they're extremely vulnerable to a specific kind of team in the playoffs.

I think if they deal one of those 4 for a player similar to Muzzin's style they're a better fit for the playoffs. It's nice having a defensive core that can mobilize and create offense like the Avs can but you need other elements too. VGK will break these guys down again if they meet imo

For me, Girard is the obvious one to deal out of the 4. He gets destroyed by heavy forecheck and they already have his puck moving skills in Makar/Toews.

 

[DL44]

That was probably the greatest 5 GAA goaltending performance I've probably seen in 20+ years.

 

[-DeMo-]

I think Every team in the course of the year will blow a 3 goal lead at some point and lose, just so happened last night was our turn. calm down were still a great team.

 

[Stephen]

I think if they deal one of those 4 for a player similar to Muzzin's style they're a better fit for the playoffs. It's nice having a defensive core that can mobilize and create offense like the Avs can but you need other elements too. VGK will break these guys down again if they meet imo

For me, Girard is the obvious one to deal out of the 4. He gets destroyed by heavy forecheck and they already have his puck moving skills in Makar/Toews.

I like Girard. He makes $5 million and I was thinking he could be a Rielly replacement (if he was headed to UFA). He's a solid PP QB as well but he's definitely somewhat of a redundant talent. They also lost Ryan Graves and Patrik Nemeth in the offseason so they're clearly missing that physical dimension.

 

[Lightsol]

Let me guess..."Marner was invisible tonight"...??

"The team's MUCH better without him... Wait, they blew it? He should have played no matter what! Covid? EXCUSE!"

 

[ottomaddox]

Not the result we wanted after a good first half but I don't think the shot count told the whole story. Leafs came out pretty strong but at one point the shot count was 7-0 Avalanche and it didn't tell the story at all.

Will be interesting to see what happens to the Avs the rest of the way. They're a fun team to watch and it's a party when they out score their problems, but their play style is quite susceptible to the heavy forecheck game. It's not often you see Matthews playing the wrecking ball on the forecheck but you could see the kind of approach by another team like Dallas in 2020 or Vegas in 2021: pummel Makar, Girard, Toews and young Byram into the end boards, cripple the transition before it has a chance, exploit turnovers through the neutral zone, throw up the Red Rover wall on Mackinnon, pepper their injury prone goaltending. I like the Avs but I think they're extremely vulnerable to a specific kind of team in the playoffs.

I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but here we are: Toronto ends up on the losing end of a 49 shot/5 goal against effort. It looked pretty bad on COL to get scored on with TOR's first shot. When it turned 4-2 you could feel the tide change quite a bit. Toronto seemed to have COL figured out in their first meeting and cooled off their speed game. This time they didn't.

It's too bad, but you have to wonder if Keefe regreted it the most. Where was he in that game?

 

[GardinerTheForward]

Not the result we wanted after a good first half but I don't think the shot count told the whole story. Leafs came out pretty strong but at one point the shot count was 7-0 Avalanche and it didn't tell the story at all.

Will be interesting to see what happens to the Avs the rest of the way. They're a fun team to watch and it's a party when they out score their problems, but their play style is quite susceptible to the heavy forecheck game. It's not often you see Matthews playing the wrecking ball on the forecheck but you could see the kind of approach by another team like Dallas in 2020 or Vegas in 2021: pummel Makar, Girard, Toews and young Byram into the end boards, cripple the transition before it has a chance, exploit turnovers through the neutral zone, throw up the Red Rover wall on Mackinnon, pepper their injury prone goaltending. I like the Avs but I think they're extremely vulnerable to a specific kind of team in the playoffs.

We had 3 shots when it said 7-0 but they didn’t add them. Go to the GDT, I even commented on how they weren’t adding our shots.

 

[Stephen]

I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but here we are: Toronto ends up on the losing end of a 49 shot/5 goal against effort. It looked pretty bad on COL to get scored on with TOR's first shot. When it turned 4-2 you could feel the tide change quite a bit. Toronto seemed to have COL figured out in their first meeting and cooled off their speed game. This time they didn't.

It's too bad, but you have to wonder if Keefe regreted it the most. Where was he in that game?

Look, the Leafs were in a position to close it out and they didn't. They took the foot off the gas and were ready to climb into a defensive shell and let it slip away. There were also some nonsense officiating like the repeated no calls on Matthews, the non call on Nylander getting sent airborne in the neutral zone and that strange offsetting call while we were on the PK. Even then they had the opportunity to win it in OT on a point blank Matthews shot attempt. Factor in they're still getting back to playing games after being shut down, missing key personnel and even the thin air in Denver if you want.

Nobody would argue it's a happy result but I don't see the outrage in the 49 shots against or a 5-4 OT loss knowing how we ended up in that spot. Time to move on and win some road games.

 

[Balthazar]

We had 3 shots when it said 7-0 but they didn’t add them. Go to the GDT, I even commented on how they weren’t adding our shots.

They were added a few minutes later.

 

[Stephen]

We had 3 shots when it said 7-0 but they didn’t add them. Go to the GDT, I even commented on how they weren’t adding our shots.

There were such long stretches in that game when Toronto had Colorado's defense hemmed in their own end but probably didn't result in a ton of shots on net.

 

[All Mod Cons]

I'm not at all worried about losing, in OT, to a top 6-7 team in the league, at their place.

My lone concern remains watching the Leafs playing with the lead, and how that translates to the playoffs. I understand that they held on to almost all of these types of games this year and that they were going to lose one, eventually, but the number of times teams come from 3 down to make it a nail biter, screams of concern in the playoffs, IMO.

Oh for sure. I have zero confidence that this team can perform in the playoffs. I do not fancy them to beat Tampa, Florida or Boston in a 7 game series.

I'm one of the biggest critics of the team, but last night I think it was understandable how things played out. The Avs are a good team. Leafs played well and then ran out of steam. Missed 3 regulars that would've helped.

If I were a gambling man, I'd wager that was Brodie's first embellishment penalty of his NHL career.

 

[Stephen]

Oh for sure. I have zero confidence that this team can perform in the playoffs. I do not fancy them to beat Tampa, Florida or Boston in a 7 game series.

I'm one of the biggest critics of the team, but last night I think it was understandable how things played out. The Avs are a good team. Leafs played well and then ran out of steam. Missed 3 regulars that would've helped.

If I were a gambling man, I'd wager that was Brodie's first embellishment penalty of his NHL career.

Tampa is lining up as our most imminent threat if we end up finishing 2nd or 3rd and they finish with the other position. They obviously have all the cup experience and would represent the biggest challenge Toronto has faced to date. Their play style does happen to be a little less of the grit and grind variety we've faced against Montreal and Columbus in the past so we'll see if that changes the dynamics. The fact that they have some heavy mileage and constant injury issues makes me wonder if we want to play them more than a super hungry Florida team, but Florida has their big game issues as well.

At the end of the day, there's only two requirements for me. Finish as high as you can in the standings, and let's just go through a team one of these years.

 

[darrylsittler27]

It allowed us to see that getting a top 3 defensive dman for the playoffs is a good idea. Tampa Bay is in our way.

 

[GardinerTheForward]

They were added a few minutes later.

No. I specifically watched the counter. We weren’t afforded a shot until kerfoot scored. It didn’t go up by multiple, only one.