Post-Game Talk: Leafs Lose In Columbus

[therealkoho]

Sad to say, you're probably right.

yeah I mis-stated take another look, I think the edit is more accurate

 

[Mess]

Losses against Carey Price and Joonas Korpisalo / Elvis Merzlikins when facing Montreal and CBJ can be written off as simply beat by better goaltending, but not better team.

Losses against Samuel Montembeault & Jean-François Bérubé when facing those same previous playoff nemesis as a measuring stick now, isn't so easy to simply write off as better goaltending, because if that is really true then Leafs do have some serious concerns in net that need addressing, because we're suppose to have a more Cup competitive team now then in the past.

Oppositions 3rd and 4th string netminders are not suppose to outperform Leafs starters, without raising valid doubt and concerns IMO

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Well team played much much much better then past 2 games so lets start with that fact .. as Keefer said afterwards we were better team and deserved a better fate in that game .. and as noted above a couple TERRIBLE defensive plays by Mitch and new D guy cost us 2 goals .. but bottom line Soup you are killing us .. no way in world you can allow that house league goal between your body and arm to get in there .. reminded me of game 7 house league goal against Habs .. this is PRO hockey and those goals kill teams .. that game should never have never got to OT Soup .. but folks if you remember when most of you were telling me we gotta sign this guy LT before he gets too expensive and I said look here folks I need to see him play a full season and take us through a round or two before giving him a contract most of you were sh*tting all over me .. now I bet most of you are thankful for Dubie's approach which was da right one .. that call he made was right .. could you imagine if we were sitting on a 5M+ 7 year deal AAV with Soup now .. we would be screwed .. like Ottawa

 

[ToneDog]

Well team played much much much better then past 2 games so lets start with that fact .. as Keefer said afterwards we were better team and deserved a better fate in that game .. and as noted above a couple TERRIBLE defensive plays by Mitch and new D guy cost us 2 goals .. but bottom line Soup you are killing us .. no way in world you can allow that house league goal between your body and arm to get in there .. reminded me of game 7 house league goal against Habs .. this is PRO hockey and those goals kill teams .. that game should never have never got to OT Soup .. but folks if you remember when most of you were telling me we gotta sign this guy LT before he gets too expensive and I said look here folks I need to see him play a full season and take us through a round or two before giving him a contract most of you were sh*tting all over me .. now I bet most of you are thankful for Dubie's approach which was da right one .. that call he made was right .. could you imagine if we were sitting on a 5M+ 7 year deal AAV with Soup now .. we would be screwed .. like Ottawa

More likely Leafs tried to get him at a lower number than what he thought he was worth at the time and he turned it down. We'll see who was right and who was wrong after the playoffs. To me it looks like Soup might have bet on himself and lost but he's still got a couple of more rolls of the dice.

 

[therealkoho]

Losses against Carey Price and Joonas Korpisalo / Elvis Merzlikins when facing Montreal and CBJ can be written off as simply beat by better goaltending, but not better team.

Losses against Samuel Montembeault & Jean-François Bérubé when facing those same previous playoff nemesis as a measuring stick now, isn't so easy to simply write off as better goaltending, because if that is really true then Leafs do have some serious concerns in net that need addressing, because we're suppose to have a more Cup competitive team now then in the past.

Oppositions 3rd and 4th string netminders are not suppose to outperform Leafs starters, without raising valid doubt and concerns IMO

problem is Mess is they're not getting full value from a lot of guys on a consistent enough basis

Kerfoot looks like he's in a fog for the last week or two as far as offense goes, wrong side of pucks and things like that and JT is hurt or something, Willie Styles who's 6' and a solid 205 and can outskate most guys on the team, is playing like his 5'6" 128 lb sister, when was the last time he went to the net or corner and meant it?

Dermott made some rookie errors that Lil and Sandy aren't even making!

Mo is either AS level or erstwhile journeyman, more AS but not consistent.

the 3rd line has really cooled off. They need to contribute on a regular basis, if not scoring then by at least keeping the play in the opponents end.

Matty is great, he is one of the best players in the league, but while a lot of nights he's Selke level, he has some nights when he's got some Donnie Murdoch in his game. Those DM nights always cost the Leafs. MM whom I love is giving away puck's two or three times a game whether it be inattention or just miscalculation that's gotta go, it's uncharacteristic. The Leafs also need a guy who can do his skates correctly, maybe they need to hire the guy who does the Knights skates. Bunting give's er every night, very few errors and constantly sticks his nose in, he also gets back and is either 1st or 2nd and nullifies or zero's his checks out. How many times this year can anybody truly say "that goal is totally on Bunting!" Very few and far between.

They all need to be more like Bunting, if they want to win

PK is top notch, the PP is 1st class, which are two huge benefits that most teams do not have, but they need to tighten up their 5v5

the team as a whole needs to play with more bite, better positionally and with far more discipline.

 

[keonsbitterness]

I don't really get the overreactions.

We knew this team would be good in the regular season (pacing for 111 points... so living up to that). And they're going to live or die based on playoff performance. I don't think a single thing about the regular season means anything whatsoever other than actually making the playoffs. And we'll clearly do that.

I don't care at all who the first round match up is. Our last two years show that being the cinderella-story level underdogs means diddly squat. Montreal looked like shit all regular season then made it to the cup finals.

The playoffs are all that matter this year. And this leafs team will clearly make the playoffs. Lose in the first round? Literally trade everybody, even including Matthews, and start from scratch.

You don't get the overreactions but we should literally trade everyone if we lose in the first round? Irony!

 

[therealkoho]

You don't get the overreactions but we should literally trade everyone if we lose in the first round? Irony!

no one hears you when you're in the Cone of Silence

 

[ACC1224]

I didn't like how the defenseman(not sure who it was) played the first Laine goal. (Matthews needed to be better there as well)
I know 2 on 1, take the pass away and let the goalie have the shooter but I think exceptions to that need to be made when the shooter is a Laine/Matthews/Ovechkin etc.

 

[therealkoho]

I didn't like how the defenseman(not sure who it was) played the first Laine goal. (Matthews needed to be better there as well)
I know 2 on 1, take the pass away and let the goalie have the shooter but I think exceptions to that need to be made when the shooter is a Laine/Matthews/Ovechkin etc.

also if they get into position to block the shot or are in position to block, then block the gosh darn shot 2 goals last night because of this

The BlueJackets got in front of everything last night and took the pain

 

[Shooter2x]

That was actually really nice D by Bear on the 2 on 1 if you take into account his initial position when Marner gives it away. If he rushed to take Laine he'd have looked silly. Turned it into a 1 versus 1 for Campbell and Campbell got rocked.

 

[GrizzGreen]

Chicken little sky is falling roleplaying fans

The Leafs are fine, calm down.

 

[ACC1224]

That was actually really nice D by Bear on the 2 on 1 if you take into account his initial position when Marner gives it away. If he rushed to take shot he'd have looked silly. Turned it into a 1 versus 1 for Campbell and Campbell got rocked.

I'd agree if the shooter wasn't top 5 league wide.
Matthews was the real problem there but it happens.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Chicken little sky is falling roleplaying fans

The Leafs are fine, calm down.

So we haven't seen this movie before?

 

[AustonMarner]

Way too optimistic IMHO. I'd say 3-5 percent is more realistic considering we'll be underdogs already in round 1, possibly in every round after that as well plus at the moment, we're trending downward big time.

You could very well be correct lol
Either way I won't be disappointed when they almost inevitably come up short once again...

 

[Shooter2x]

I'd agree if the shooter wasn't top 5 league wide.
Matthews was the real problem there but it happens.

Oh looks like I hopped on the wrong 2 on 1. I thought you guys meant the goal that made it 1-1

 

[GrizzGreen]

So we haven't seen this movie before?

For a long time, my man, but this team doesn't choke against Boston like in 2013 IMO. So... progress

 

[ShaneFalco]

For a long time, my man, but this team doesn't choke against Boston like in 2013 IMO. So... progress

Hope you're right, but I've seen nothing to indicate this team can handle the heavy games and will go to war in the playoffs

 

[ACC1224]

Oh looks like I hopped on the wrong 2 on 1. I thought you guys meant the goal that made it 1-1

I think you have it right, Laine's first goal.
Marner turns it over and Matthews didn't support.

I don't think the D made a bad play necessarily, I just think that you can't let a shooter like Laine have a free look. Let someone else beat you.

 

[Dreakmur]

For a long time, my man, but this team doesn't choke against Boston like in 2013 IMO. So... progress

This is the guy that gets killed during the cold open of a CSI show… everything is fine….

 

[Gary Nylund]

Chicken little sky is falling roleplaying fans

The Leafs are fine, calm down.

You could very well be correct lol
Either way I won't be disappointed when they almost inevitably come up short once again...

Yeah I hate to say it but there's definitely something to be said for having low expectations in this case. We'll see how things look 2 months from now, I'm always optimistic when the playoffs start but they need to turn things around big time for that to be the case this year. I mean I'm sure they'll look better then than they do now but they need to be light years better for there to be any reason for optimism.

 

[ToneDog]

For a long time, my man, but this team doesn't choke against Boston like in 2013 IMO. So... progress

I don't think this team gets to a game #7 vs the 2013 Bruins. That Bruin team hit everything that moved. That 2013 Leafs team battled tooth and nail until Lucic and Bergeron put them in a strangle hold.

 

[Duffman955]

The 2nd goal was absolute garbage.

You can't have a soft writer, from 50 ft, aimed at your chest, go straight in.

 

[killer1980]

St. Louis created the template in how to beat the Leafs in their dominating 6-3 win. The other teams have just copied that. Nullify Matthews (as best you can) by keeping him outside. Let Marner toss out some beach balls from the outside. As a matter of fact, keep the entire team on the outside. Pressure the terrible D along the boards in the offensive zone.. Finally, shoot the puck whenever you can at two goalies that have lost their confidence. That is a winning formula against the boys that want to keep their good looks for the commercials.

 

[zeke]

Jack gets most of the blame for this one, with the 2nd goal being a howler and the other three being tough but not impossible saves.

But as good as we played in the 2nd and 3rd i'm still annoyed by how poor they were in the 1st period.

The fact is the leafs just haven' been very good since coming back from the all-star break. They were red hot going in, then came back and pulled out a gutsy but underserved win against the Canes, and now have lost 5 of 7 since. They're just not playing very well - an extremely mediocre 50.6xgf% at even strength since the all-star break. Just not good enough, especially when the goaltending is struggling.

Boys have to wake up, shed the winter blues, and get their game back to a dominant level again.

 

[Throw More Waffles]

You don't get the overreactions but we should literally trade everyone if we lose in the first round? Irony!

The point couldn't be any clearer. Save the overreactions for games that actually matter.

If the leafs lose in the first round again, and all they do is fire all management and trade every player, then I'd consider that an UNDER-reaction. That's a 1 out of 10 of what I think the overall reaction should be to another first round loss.