Post-Game Talk: Leafs Lose In Columbus

[killer1980]

Remember its the regular season, means nothing. Wait for the playoffs...

Yep! They'll be even worse.

 

[hotpaws]

Quite frankly, unlike last season or seasons prior; most of the Leafs fans I know they are not expecting to have a stelllar post season given that Leafs will have to face either Florida or Tampa.

Dubas technically has backing of most of the Leafs nation if he doesnt want to spend the future. If he does and Leafs still exit in the first round then dubas should definitely be fired.

If he doesn't mortgage the future I am fine with him sticking around. To me it means he has learned to act in a timely, calculated fashion

you can make all the excuses you like to try to keep him employed but the fact remains it's his job to advance the team and the Leaf fans i know believe he doesn't have a freaking clue how to build a roster

and how does Florida hopping over us as well as T-Bay staying above us give Dubas job security as long as he doesn't i guess in your opinion trade our next three 1st rd picks as well as our top 5 prospects by the t/d

 

[Zybalto]

Ok I read a couple posts and it seems like Campbell was ass yet again. I really don’t want to trade our 1st but if it means getting Fleury I’m all for it. Using that 1st on someone like Chiarot will make no difference if we have a pair of sieves in net.

Yea, goaltending cost us 2 points again but on the bright side, Lyubushkin was pretty good in his debut.

 

[Stephen]

I think other teams love playing against them and this team in general.

"So what if they are talented and creative, we aren't afraid of being hit or having a rough night".

Some level of trepidation for an opponent is beneficial. This is why I enjoyed Bush first game. He wasn't perfect but he was engaged in a new system.

Get at least another D like him and maybe mosve some of the 1 dimensional players up front.

The happy locker room can only go so far, I'm not seeing enough of a mob mentality.

Tonight I saw Engvall with a bit of attitude, that should be his demeanour every night. I saw Brodie just miss a big hit. I nod my head to that.

You can't keep that up all night, but you need to have enough of it to impact other players time, space and thought process. Life is just too easy for the opponent and then it is magnified with poor offensive giveaways and one way play.

You can kind of tell other teams like playing the part of tough guy spoiler against our "outskill them" mentality even when they're not tough guys. A guy like Nick Suzuki has no business running around on anybody and yet has no issue throwing Justin Holl into the end boards on a cheap shot like he's Mr Power Forward all of a sudden. If we still had Roberts and Tucker he wouldn't be going to any corners the rest of the night after pulling that kind of stunt.

 

[PromisedLand]

At this point, I expect they will approve anything to try and make this season be the one. Hopefully at least it's for players who they think can fit in long term, not more garbage rentals.

This is really the last kick of the can with this management group, I think. Hard to fire them all if you don't give them the flexibility to sink their own ship.

It won't be the right time to do it IMO. I dont think Leafs are built to compete in the playoffs until Tavares' contract is off the books. They can try but given the cap situation and competition in the division it will not be a good idea to deal futures this season

 

[LastOne2100]

Ok I read a couple posts and it seems like Campbell was ass yet again. I really don’t want to trade our 1st but if it means getting Fleury I’m all for it. Using that 1st on someone like Chiarot will make no difference if we have a pair of sieves in net.

At this point, we need both a goaltending upgrade and a defensive upgrade I think to make a real go at it.

Will be incredibly hard to do both with our cap space and with what little draft picks Dubas left us with.

 

[BTP]

Luckily Floridas goalie is trash too. would much rather them than tampa. ill repeat though. DO WHAT IT TAKES - get MAF

 

[LastOne2100]

It won't be the right time to do it IMO. I dont think Leafs are built to compete in the playoffs until Tavares' contract is off the books. They can try but given the cap situation and competition in the division it will not be a good idea to deal futures this season

I completely agree with you that that is what's best for the organization, but Dubas and co. don't, and waiting out JT's contract while losing in the first round again will cost them their jobs long before they see the futures develop.

Give them their last crack, then fire them all, including and especially Shanahan and see what you can do with some creativity if they can convince Matthews to stay, otherwise you rebuild.

But we can't go through more years of this managements' refusal to change anything material, and just downgrading the team repeatedly year over year due to cap constraints.

 

[hotpaws]

Yep, I agree with this. I am not trying to defend Campbell - I think the Leafs absolutely blew it on goaltending and Campbell should've been the backup this year at best. That being said, he's getting beaten of the rush a lot lately, not really grindy goals and traffic in front.

But I just don't understand how people that think we're average goaltending away from a cup.

because it makes them feel better about the rest of the team

 

[PromisedLand]

I completely agree with you that that is what's best for the organization, but Dubas and co. don't, and waiting out JT's contract while losing in the first round again will cost them their jobs long before they see the futures develop.

Give them their last crack, then fire them all, including and especially Shanahan and see what you can do with some creativity if they can convince Matthews to stay, otherwise you rebuild.

But we can't go through more years of this refusal to change anything material, and just downgrading the team repeatedly due to cap constraints.

Hell I'd rather fire them now before they mortgage the futures

 

[Stephen]

For all the time that Campbell saved this team's bacon when they were playing like shit; may be the team can pot a few goals for when the goalie is having tough nights instad of expecting perfection from your goalie every game

Spezza did tie the game late to give Campbell a chance to salvage the W.

 

[PromisedLand]

Correct.

"Advanced" stats don't concern themselves them with the eyeball-captured events that frequently cost the Leafs goals against and games. Offensive cheating / blown coverages / errant passing plays resulting in heavy volumes of odd-man rushes, breakaways, down-low puck chasing...

People think because something isn't measured on a blog, it doesn't matter.

The only thing I know in existence that has "advanced" in it's name but there is nothing "advanced" about it

a.k.a hockey "advanced" stats

 

[BrannigansLaw]

Goaltending can take a trash team on long playoff runs just as much as bad goaltending can sink elite teams. There is no position more important in the playoffs than the goalie due to the short duration.

Case in point of trash teams that went on extended playoff runs due to a hot goalie:

Montréal 2021
Montréal 2010 (Halak)
Anaheim 2003 (Giguere)
Ottawa 2017 (Anderson)
Vegas 2018 (Fleury)
Washington 1998 (Kolzig)

Fact is, if you don’t have a reliable goalie, you ain’t shit in the post season. Doesn’t matter who we add on D, we will bounced in round one trotting out garbage like Campbell or Mrazek.

 

[LastOne2100]

Hell I'd rather fire them now before they mortgage the futures

The right time to fire them was last offseason with an understanding that this team needed more than some league minimum tweaks and downgrades. They didn't.

If our management is going to fire them, seems they need Dubas and Shanahan to hang themselves. Let them.

 

[Stephen]

Yep, I agree with this. I am not trying to defend Campbell - I think the Leafs absolutely blew it on goaltending and Campbell should've been the backup this year at best. That being said, he's getting beaten of the rush a lot lately, not really grindy goals and traffic in front.

But I just don't understand how people that think we're average goaltending away from a cup.

I think that’s the Chris Osgood hypothesis.

 

[BrannigansLaw]

I think that’s the Chris Osgood hypothesis.

What those people don’t understand is that the Osgood strategy involved having a legendary defenseman anchoring your blue line coupled with multiple proven HoF players up front. We have none of those.

 

[Atomos2]

Seems like with every Campbell outing, the cap space we'll have for next year increases.

 

[ULF_55]

Spezza for Captain

 

[CabanaBoy5]

For all the time that Campbell saved this team's bacon when they were playing like shit; may be the team can pot a few goals for when the goalie is having tough nights instad of expecting perfection from your goalie every game

He saved our bacon in late Oct and Nov but he’s been shit in Dec Jan and Feb. So, I’m afraid the norm for him is the last 3 months. He owes the team big time, not the other way around. Imagine where we’d be without the No. 1 powerplay in the league with that kind of inconsistent goaltending.

 

[Tak7]

Glass half full - right time to go through these sorts of struggles and some adversity.

Glass half empty - holy crap smash that panic button

 

[Zybalto]

He looked just flat-out angry with himself....probably because he was coming off a couple of quality starts and he was looking to have turned the corner.

 

[Seath The Scaleless]

You're not stopping the two Laine goals. The other two? Woof

2022 has been a disaster for our goalies.

 

[TeddyBare]

1st goal: Marner thinks this is the Harlem globetrotters and werenski embarrassed him

2nd goal: just has to be stopped, unless it was tipped off shin pads or stick

3rd goal: so Lyibushkin is slow, becuase Gaunce isn’t fast.

 

[Zybalto]

You can kind of tell other teams like playing the part of tough guy spoiler against our "outskill them" mentality even when they're not tough guys. A guy like Nick Suzuki has no business running around on anybody and yet has no issue throwing Justin Holl into the end boards on a cheap shot like he's Mr Power Forward all of a sudden. If we still had Roberts and Tucker he wouldn't be going to any corners the rest of the night after pulling that kind of stunt.

One has the feeling those days are over.

When Kadri got suspended the second time going after the rat, the rat just needed to fake dead, then fake hurt until a suspension and then come back to play like nothing happened.

It's a new league where the actual cheapshot artists are protected since the days when those guys played IMO.

 

[TakeTheBody]

Concern. There are positives for sure. To make a deep run some things need to be addressed.

1. Muzzin, even when healthy he's not himself. He carried Holl for two years that leaves Holl exposed also.

2. Campbell. Lost his ju ju and Mrazek is not the answer.

3. Kampf as a 3C concerns me. He's been a good player for us, I just prefer a better 3C.

4. I like Dubas my concern with him is I think he thinks the playoff games are played and officiated like regular season games. They aren't. In the playoffs the Leafs need to initiate not always retaliate. I would love a Tkachuk on the Leafs.

I'm not sure Dubas can tackle all this at the deadline. Campbell must find his mojo.