Post-Game Talk: Leafs Lose in Game 7. Again.

[PromisedLand]

Let them have it. Avalanches are going to sweep them anyway.

Oilers are not moving past either Flames or Dallas whoever they see.

 

[MSZ]

Oilers are not moving past either Flames or Dallas whoever they see.

Not that I really care. I'm pretty much done watching hockey until October.

 

[Stephen]

Oilers are not moving past either Flames or Dallas whoever they see.

Yeah, who cares at this point... the National Hockey League can suck on a lemon for all I care. I'm cheering for chaos.

 

[PromisedLand]

Yeah, who cares at this point... the National Hockey League can suck on a lemon for all I care. I'm cheering for chaos.

I am cheering for a new GM and a new coach because if Dubas+Keefe are back. I am taking a break from Leafs.

 

[Lightsol]

Yeah, who cares at this point... the National Hockey League can suck on a lemon for all I care. I'm cheering for chaos.

Yep, Game 7 was the fifth or so game I watched this season, and it will be the last. I don't give a rat's ass who else plays.

 

[saffronleaf]

I don’t think anyone is proud or okay with losing…. It just some aren’t throwing their tvs at the wall and or suggesting a team that won 55 games and pushed the twice defending cup champs as far as they’ve been pushed in three springs needs to “blow it up” there’s obviously going to be turnover both on the ice and in guys/gals who wear suit and ties/team apparel. There always is, even in championship years you never completely run it back, but to watch this season and this 7 game series and suggest that 16 34 88 91 44 are the problems then I’m not sure what games they watched compared to me on my 75” 4K tv. It was pretty clear where they failed. And it’s not cause dubas wears non prescription glasses or because Willy was thinking about what trim he’s going to smash that night, it’s because they got SFA from the bottom of the line up and their goalie was again the second best (third actually as kallgren was solid in clean up time) in the series.
Probably looking at the coaching staff, goaltending coaching and development and pro scouting as far as management changes go, and you hope they look to change out guys like mikheyev Kase kerfoot with more Coleman’s Paul’s & Hagels.
One goal from the third line or one big stop in game 6, they win.. or a big game from soup in game 2 or 4, and they win this series in 5 not lose in 7. Heck if soup makes the stops he’s supposed to last night leafs win 1-0.

how many more first round exits would convince you that running it back isn't the way to go? We've got 6 so far, how many more?

 

[Lightsol]

You do realize that every single fan for any team, whether football, basketball, hockey, whine and complain about refs?

You do understand that using the "everyone complains about the refs" excuse fails when you can post MULTIPLE SPECIFIC instances of the refs using a clear double standard, right?

 

[Stephen]

You do realize that every single fan for any team, whether football, basketball, hockey, whine and complain about refs? A single play can be analyzed many different ways. Listen to two different calls on the play, and you will get two different takes. To blame the refs for a team's loss is emotional, but not valid. It's the same everywhere, with all fans, including the Lightning fans. I grew up at my hockey coach father's knee, and that was one thing he instilled in his players. Play hard, play smart, follow the plan.......and.......do not get flustered by penalty calls. Get on with it. I wish fans could do the same. The Leafs did not lose because of the refs, just as Tampa did not win because of the refs. They were great games - Tampa did a bit more grinding it out and know how to close down games. Experience. The Leafs are a great team - they will bounce back and be contenders again - need a few changes here and there, but they are solid.

Sorry Joanna, I don't think you're going to find a lot Leafs fans who want to re-litigate the series officiating and get a pat on the head from Tampa fans here. Enjoy the win and good luck next series.

 

[LeafAttack]

Bring some guys back from that 48 game season that had some grit.Get a coach,G.M.,players who have won it all.Matthews has Marner on the same line,when he should have an edgy S.O.B. as well.
Draft some goalies from Quebec,and get some D who hit,and punish.
There is no killer instinct on this team.

 

[Nylanderthal]

how many more first round exits would convince you that running it back isn't the way to go? We've got 6 so far, how many more?

I don’t think I’m suggesting to “run it back” I’ve listed 21m of cap (35 36 3 8 15 25 47 65) in multiple threads that I think should be moved to realign this group. It’s just a matter of what pieces you consider moving. I don’t think the players listed above (16 34 88 91 44) were why they lost and all of them contributed to the team being right there with the cup champs.
Of course any player is available for the right cost, but I’ve yet to hear a reasonable proposal where moving JT or Willy makes the team stronger for next season

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Scanning today's sports obituaries for the Leafs, the team is almost universally being praised for losing. That's what happens when the team's owners also own the press - literally. It's exactly the same as daily legacy news where the owner dictates the consistently fictional narrative.

I used to love listening to talk radio immediately after Leaf games because in Ontario there were at least two phone-in shows for the fans to commiserate/share/praise/vent. Now there are none, none allowed to exist.

I used to listen to Leafs Talk with Andy Frost religiously on AM 640. Mike from Buffalo told it like it is.

 

[Apotheosis]

If Matthews walks, blow it up

 

[justashadowof]

Something that I think virtually no one acknowledges about Tampa: they conserved themselves during significant stretches of this round. They played just as well as they needed to play to win the round. The Leafs didn't get manhandled by an aggressive desperate opponent, they got beat by a measured effort by an experienced team that didn't go all for the opening round of the playoffs. Tampa lost zero players to attrition in the 1st round (it appears). Several games were regular season level of intensity. I'm convinced Tampa had way more in the (intensity/competitve) tank that the Leafs didn't force them to use. IMO, this wasn't the close miss it appears it was.

And a new avatar just dropped:

 

[Metroid]

Nope! But it will hopefully lead to change that leads to progress. GMs get fired for less; Dubas has been given enough free reign. Need new vision! Need new voice!

Well change will come one way or another, venting orbeing positive on a msg board dosnt really do much to tip the scales one way or another.

 

[KMNRB]

Losing game 7 sucks. But when I try to step back and objectively analyze this series, here’s what I see:

- Our star players (matthews, marner, tavares, nylander, rielly) matched/outplayed their star players (kucherov, point, stamkos, hedman).
- Our depth players matched their depth players in general
- The reasons for our loss:

1) Vas came up big in the most important moment. Campbell was good but just couldn't match the best goalie in the world in clutch time, which we knew from the very beginning but forgot when he looked human for the majority of the first 6 games. But if there is an area I’d like to see more money spent, it is this goalie position​

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2) Vas would not have had the chance to show his clutch quality, had game 6 gone on without the phantom high sticking penalty. Perhaps we can’t blame the ref for missing the call, but it was a miscall that turns out to be the critical turning point of the series. (Of course, Kerfoot's overzealousness played a big part too).​

​

Combining this with the interference call in game 7, which, while turning out to be less critical in the end after the Rielly’s goal, is so rarely called in game 7 (esp with the way this very game was called) that it is difficult not to feel frustrated as Leafs fans. Maybe the refs and the league aren’t naturally biased, but that doesn’t change the fact that if the way the refs call the game is swapped, we would have a much better chance to win the series.​

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3) With so much talk about all the positive experience of the lightning's past stanley cup runs, it was an unsung hero, a rental who never played and scored in the playoffs, who came up with the only 2 goals for Tampa. It wasn’t another clutch performance from Point or Kucherov or Stamkos, but a former senator who never played in the playoffs before. Maybe the past means less than we imagined.​

And maybe we should grow as a fan base and not let those superstitious talk about curse in the past get to us, as if the toronto fan base has a loser mentality that cursed the team. We are only diehard fans of a team that has actually started turning things around since 2015, and there are plenty of malicious Leafs haters who try to make us feel bad, and that pressure in turns is translated to added pressure on team’s players, many who weren’t even here for more than one year. At the end of the day, such superstitious talks and blame games and trolling are only obstacles and negative energy directed toward making our team and our fanbase look bad, and we should just ignore them, accept the defeat, and pick ourselves up again to continue discussing what the team needs to do to improve.

btw, Mrazek, if not traded, can be bought out. So not a big concern.

 

[PromisedLand]

Well change will come one way or another, venting orbeing positive on a msg board dosnt really do much to tip the scales one way or another.

the whole premise of this board is for the fans to talk abotu what they think. if they want to vent then i don't see the issue with that.

not venting IMO is just supporting the incompetence of the management group even more

 

[saffronleaf]

I don’t think I’m suggesting to “run it back” I’ve listed 21m of cap in multiple threads that I think should be moved to realign this group. It’s just a matter of what pieces you consider moving. I don’t think the players listed above were why they lost and all contributed to them being right there with the cup champs.
Of course any player is available for the right cost, but I’ve yet to hear a reasonable proposal where moving JT or Willy makes the team stronger for next season

I agree with the last part. I'm open to any change but I don't see many compelling proposals.

 

[Metroid]

the whole premise of this board is for the fans to talk abotu what they think. if they want to vent then i don't see the issue with that.

not venting IMO is just supporting the incompetence of the management group even more

Well ya ppl can vent but that user I was quoting was calling posters who are "positive" losers... Point is people can be both positive and negative here.. it's what the board is for.

 

[PromisedLand]

Here is hoping most of Leafs nation show their displeasure like this dude here. Need a new GM and need a new Coach.

 

[Byron Bitz]

One thing no ones mentioned yet is f*** you Bogosian. That guy didn’t leave us because we couldn’t afford to keep him. He chose Tampa over sticking with us and signed with them for less than a million. He ended up being a big part of why so many of our shots were getting blocked in game 7.

 

[MSZ]

Here is hoping most of Leafs nation show their displeasure like this dude here. Need a new GM and need a new Coach.

The replies are funny as hell. lol

 

[ULF_55]

2 more years of matthews and nylander before them hitting UFA with a declining Tavares.

Can't make this shit up.

Dubas will go down as the worst GM ever to hold that position not just in hockey but in any major north american sport. It is baffling how much he has screwed the pooch.

He has done so little with so much.

- plenty of cap space
- plenty of assets
- team coming off one of the best seasons in franchise history with rookies on the team to boot just couple years out of rebuild

he has ruined all of that so fast it is baffling when you sit back and look at what dubas was given and what he has done.


more than dubas it is shanahan who should be criticized. Shanahan is the one that green lit this trash.

Let's be honest he thought matthews, tavares, marner and gang were better than they are.

33 million is just too much for what they provide.

Additionally, I kept saying don't count your cap chickens before they're born but many here kept talking about a cap over $100mm.

Probably kids who didn't have enough experience to remember 20% mortgages.

Poop happens.

 

[Legion34]

Florida will probably make quick work of Tampa. How much you wanna bet?

It’s possible. But why do you think that? Did you watch the Washington series?

They didn’t look good at all. They were a missed empty net from going down 3-1.

Caps played them very well

 

[missionAvs]

Oooof Trouba that's not good.

 

[Bigmarycombo]

Toronto scored more than Tampa, so that theory is wrong.

So your theory is if we score more goals then our goaltending isn’t suspect.you really have no idea how goals against and save percentage works do you. And the sad part of your post is a poster with almost 25000 posts likes your reply.
The op is stating facts. Please give an example wher over 3.5 gaa and below .900 save percentage has won a series.