Post-Game Talk: Leafs lose, season over

[ToneDog]

Taking out Robertson for Johnsson was a real head scratcher. Unlikely to have changed the game much but that made absolutely zero sense to put a guy who hasn’t played a game in months over a hungry kid who is trying to prove himself and played well for 4 games.

completely overthought the situation

Torts schooled Keefe last night. We had the momentum and there was no reason to make drastic changes to the lineup.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

Hey, let's look on the bright side -- before this year, none of us have ever seen the Leafs play a playoff game past May. So there's that.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

Torts schooled Keefe last night. We had the momentum and there was no reason to make drastic changes to the lineup.

Just as I feared, Keefe was underwhelming. These playoffs, and even before the stoppage. The same old bad habits were creeping in again.

 

[ACC1224]

I have a lot of trouble balancing their play to be honest. Nylander scored some key goals for this team and didn't look good late in the series.

Marners effort was far higher, but he was also struggling more with questionable decisions.

Basically marner seemed to force himself in to issues whole Nylander simply went in to an ineffective shell.

Good way to put it.
Seems both players major flaws came out.
Marner trying to do too much, Nylander disengaged. Marner I would hope could be reined in a bit with experience. Nylander I see him always being a little scared.

 

[DueDiligence]

When you make the saves is just as important if not more so than how many saves you make.
His softees sunk the team once again.

Well in keeping with that train of thought maybe the big 4 should have saved some regular season goals for this series then!

 

[Stephen]

Another mind boggling thought. Kessel, Kadri, Bozak, Gardiner, JVR and Reimer are still alive in the playoffs. That kind of makes me think again when considering panic moves. Leafs need to make big moves but also do so very, very carefully.

 

[rumman]

can't wait to hear Dubas's/Shanahan's takes on the season's shortcomings. Probably get the PM routine of once again saying sorry and getting a hall pass for a unacceptable behavior............

 

[Bomber0104]

can't wait to hear Dubas's/Shanahan's takes on the season's shortcomings. Probably get the PM routine of once again saying sorry and getting a hall pass for a unacceptable behavior............

They'll blame it on luck.

Simple as that.

 

[BrannigansLaw]

can't wait to hear Dubas's/Shanahan's takes on the season's shortcomings. Probably get the PM routine of once again saying sorry and getting a hall pass for a unacceptable behavior............

Unless those idiots are coming out to say “Yeah, we just got fired”, they can shove their excuses up their ass and stay home

 

[ToneDog]

he signed an extension, so he'll be back lol..

You can put him on waivers and nobody will bite. Maybe we can package a 1st to move him (tongue in cheek) ?? Only hope is he never leaves the Coca-Cola centre bubble. If he plays another game for the Leafs, it will be on Dubas for failing to make sure we have enough depth on D so that Marincin never wears a Leaf jersey again.

 

[rumman]

Torts schooled Keefe last night. We had the momentum and there was no reason to make drastic changes to the lineup.

did Keefe made wholesale changes to appease those who said Babcock couldn't/wouldn't make adjustments?

 

[ACC1224]

Well in keeping with that train of thought maybe the big 4 should have saved some regular season goals for this series then!

Columbus Defense > Leafs Offense
Torts > Keefe
BJ Goalies > Andersen

These are all things many saw going in. I assumed the Leafs Offense would overcome their Defense though, never happened obviously.
Keefe should be taking some large heat as well. His effort seems to be largely ignored

 

[ToneDog]

Hey, let's look on the bright side -- before this year, none of us have ever seen the Leafs play a playoff game past May. So there's that.

And we still have not. The playoffs start now.

 

[Merrrlin]

Just as I feared, Keefe was underwhelming. These playoffs, and even before the stoppage. The same old bad habits were creeping in again.

What am I missing here?

Toronto played very good defensively considering they were missing a 23 minute a night defensive defender.

He also was willing to make changes to try to pump up our offence by moving Tavares to Matthews wing.

I thought he did fine. I was unhappy with the Robertson decision, but what can you do.

 

[rumman]

Just as I feared, Keefe was underwhelming. These playoffs, and even before the stoppage. The same old bad habits were creeping in again.

coaching isn't/wasn't the real problem, rookie coach Keefe never stood a chance.................

 

[ToneDog]

did Keefe made wholesale changes to appease those who said Babcock couldn't/wouldn't make adjustments?

If he did, he should be fired. Gallant and Boudreau are available.

 

[Amadeus]

The anger has substantially subsided now. Need to improve our D substantially and acquire players up front who go in front of the net than stay in the perimeter. Miss JVR in that regard.

 

[BrannigansLaw]

Can we finally put an end to the Martin Maricin era in Toronto ? This guys can't make a 3 foot pass 99/100 times. Enough is enough.

you kidding me? According to Dubas’ spreadsheet, this guy is a future Norris candidate

 

[rumman]

If he did, he should be fired. Gallant and Boudreau are available.

Dubas has allot to explain:
overpaying RFA's
making bad trades
throwing away another 1st rounder (possibly)
hiring a ineffective coach
swiss cheese defense composition

 

[Trapper]

Another mind boggling thought. Kessel, Kadri, Bozak, Gardiner, JVR and Reimer are still alive in the playoffs. That kind of makes me think again when considering panic moves. Leafs need to make big moves but also do so very, very carefully.

They are all split up and on different teams.
Teams that are balanced better.
The top 9 defensive teams are still playing. The bottom 10 aren’t. Where do we fall?
52 mil on forwards, 15 mil on D.

 

[Merrrlin]

Columbus Defense > Leafs Offense

This is the key.

You can't build a team around offence and then only score 3 5v5 goals in 5 games.

Complete dissapearing act from a number of players.

 

[ShaneFalco]

For the first time in his tenure, Kyle Dubas gets to go into the offseason not having to figure out how to navigate around a Lamoriello blunder and can just focus on the team he wants to build. Trying to be positive

 

[Byron Bitz]

If I owned the Leafs; and you were my GM I would ask you:

- how come we have to pay our players so much money including bonuses on july 1st while CBJ doesn't if it is all about just the goaltending?

First of all if I was the GM Marner wouldn’t have got a dime over 9.5 million. Second of all I didn’t say it’s always all about goaltending but in this game Korpisalo played way better than Andy and it made the difference.

 

[namttebih]

Let's talk about Nylander leading a line that manages 1 shot on net the whole game....for the whole line for f*** sakes. All the shots were being generated by a line drawing their toughest d. Marner was running circles around them. Stop doubling down on dumb. You are making a fool out of yourself.

Meh. I think this one is on Keefe. That was a huge roll of the dice playing Willy at C and playing Mango at all.

What hurt us the most was the lack of secondary scoring. Torts played the matchup game and smothered the big guys. Our middle/bottom 6 not stepping up really hurt.

0 goals for Soup, Kerfoot and Kappy throughout the series

 

[kevsh]

Andersen let in 10 goals in 5 games, was completely perfect on the power play. Over the first two games he let in 1 goal, yet the Leafs were 1-1. His one rough outing was game 3 when he faced 43 shots. He had a .941 save percentage overall.

But it wasn't his fault this "elite" group of forwards scored less than one of the worst offensive teams in the league. That the Leafs scored exactly zero even-strength goals in the last 8 periods of the series.

That second goal in game 5 was weak and perhaps broke the team's back psychologically, but if the Leafs needed Andersen to post a shutout just to win - And, in this case yes, they did - or cannot get past one soft goal, then he is not the problem.

I am not saying Andersen is the goalie to lead the Leafs to the Cup, but ranking the factors that cost this team the series, poor goaltending cannot seriously be considered among the most important.