Post-Game Talk: Leafs Lose To Florida In OT

[Minar]

Man 91 is slow

 

[ToneDog]

We should LTIR Tavares and forget about him there for the rest of his contract

Move him to the wing next year and find a #2C he can play with. Willie can play RW if he is still here.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

The way they walked into a road game vs their likely first round date and twice defending cup champions was really weird. And the fact that they said Tampa wanted it more. Like was the 6-2 win the Leafs Stanley Cup or something?

kind of gives me the same vibes of Winnipeg celebrating their stanley cup win against the Leafs in December, before their season fell off a cliff. I don't want to write them off or anything, but I don't really get the sense that they learned their lesson and understand their job isn't done until they've won the cup

 

[IrishInOntario]

Am I tripping or is all this garbage being posted about Matthews look dumb?

He legit looked like our first or 2nd best player tonight.

Matthews was fine. Got stronger as the game went on and looked reasonably dangerous. He's chosen a terrible time to go ice cold for 4 games, but it's hard to judge because I don't know what the injury is, or for how long he's had it.

It will be the choke job of the century, however, despite a fantastic season, if he can't join the 60 goal club, or if let's Draisaitl take the Rocket from him.

I'm going to remain positive that he hits 60 and takes the Rocket home though!

 

[Tak7]

He was the Leafs best player tonight.

I fail to see how not scoring in a game(4) after scoring 51 in 50 is some sort of issue. Law of averages is working against him.

He's questionable for tomorrow.

This isn't just "maintanence"

 

[Azail]

To be fair to Dubas and Tavares, they were probably expecting the Cap to be around 90m this off-season. The decline in his play probably isn't a massive shock but that the percentage of on his cap hit still being the same is.

No one could have predicted a flat cap for 3 years

I always viewed that they were hoping to win a cup in the first 4-5 years of this deal, and the back half would just be there. I certainly thought they would have come closer 4 years into his deal. To be honest Matthews, JT, and even Kadri 1-2-3 punch, and we never got out of the 1st round.

He still contributes, but he does look like he's in the back half of his career. Unfortunately the Leafs have nothing to show for it.

 

[tmlms13]

Move him to the wing next year and find a #2C he can play with. Willie can play RW if he is still here.

Ya let's put the #1 face off man in the NHL on the wing

 

[PromisedLand]

Leafs weren’t awful but it’s frustrating that we lost in OT after being up multiple goals again to these tools.

Frustrating part is that we blew a 2 goal lead; crapped on the PP; gave up a goal on PK (i.e. special teams sucked ass) and of course the OT slower than slow tavares on ice

 

[Stephen]

kind of gives me the same vibes of Winnipeg celebrating their stanley cup win against the Leafs in December, before their season fell off a cliff. I don't want to write them off or anything, but I don't really get the sense that they learned their lesson and understand their job isn't done until they've won the cup

I really wanted to see Matthews and Marner break open the game late tonight but when they failed to do so I just got the feeling that in a fast and physically hard matchup their early April offense might dry up.

The other factor I find concerning is the Leafs primary puck possession tendency is to carry the puck and opposed to zipping it around long distances with stretch passing. Just feels like they'll get clogged up in this kind of environment and their whole skill game will get disrupted.

 

[francis246]

But you blamed a guy that fell into the corner as lack of effort?? Same thing. Tavares gets blamed by the people that think he's slow and don't like him. Nylander gets blame by the people that say it was lack of effort because that's their go to for him. And only because they showed Nylander on camera right after the goal.

Nylander is one of my favourite players on the team. He’s lazy at times but he’s not the only one. This whole debacle of OT starts with Matthews and Marner not even getting possession. It was downhill from there.

Either way, 3 on 3 OT doesn’t happen in the playoffs so who cares. We got a point. We move on.

 

[Syed Ammad rizvi]

We should LTIR Tavares and forget about him there for the rest of his contract

That sounds like a plan too..if a player goes to LTIR does he get paid the same?

 

[PromisedLand]

That sounds like a plan too..if a player goes to LTIR does he get paid the same?

Yup

 

[francis246]

I always viewed that they were hoping to win a cup in the first 4-5 years of this deal, and the back half would just be there. I certainly thought they would have come closer 4 years into his deal. To be honest Matthews, JT, and even Kadri 1-2-3 punch, and we never got out of the 1st round.

He still contributes, but he does look like he's in the back half of his career. Unfortunately the Leafs have nothing to show for it.

The trading of Kadri before his deal expired will be the detriment of Dubas’ time in Toronto. That move I think we will look back and see that it had a greater impact on the team than any other move Dubas made.

The craziest part is Kadri would have still fit on this team on his current deal with our cap structure.

 

[Jojalu]

He's questionable for tomorrow.

This isn't just "maintanence"

I am surr like most players this late in the season that he has some bumps and scrapes.

Still 9 days til the playoffs start so I am not concerned.

I am concerned about Bunting now.

 

[riffle]

Ya'll are losing your marbles over a meaningless 3v3 OT loss in late April. The team looked pretty damn good today, especially in a bounceback game from Thursday. Shame we didn't win but I just want this team to get to the end of the season healthy.

The word "meaningless" needs to be retired from this forum. The Leafs turn meaningless into meaningful all the time in the pejorative sense.

The Tampa game was not meaningless, nor was this one. It all matters.

 

[Racer88]

They’re 11-2-2 in their last 15 games…

Yes but they have lost the last 2

 

[francis246]

That sounds like a plan too..if a player goes to LTIR does he get paid the same?

A player needs to actually be injured to go on LTIR. People already tried to make this dumbass idea in the Tavares thread. You can’t LTIR a non-injured player. Tavares & the NHLPA would file a grievance within 30 seconds.

 

[57 Years No Cup]

Kadri: 8 goals, 7 primary assists, 13 secondary assists.
Tavares: 10 goals, 9 primary assists, 7 secondary assists.

Keep pushing that narrative though.

Nazem Kadri- $4.5 million AAV
John Tavares- $11 million AAV.
THAT JUICE AIN'T WORTH THE SQUEEZE.

 

[IPS]

Got stronger as the game went on and looked reasonably dangerous.

That's exactly what I said in the GDT. This fanbase has a lot of panic merchants.

 

[IrishInOntario]

To be fair to Dubas and Tavares, they were probably expecting the Cap to be around 90m this off-season. The decline in his play probably isn't a massive shock but that the percentage of on his cap hit still being the same is.

No one could have predicted a flat cap for 3 years

This is an important point that I've made numerous times. People can look at the number and plug their noses, but Dubas likely knew he was overpaying for a couple years to bring Tavares to Toronto and could live with an overpaid, PPG 2nd line center, who will probably still be good for 60+ points per season by the end of his contract. What he didn't expect, was how much cap percentage Tavares would be eating up. When the contract was signed he was probably projecting about $90 million in space heading into next season and $93-$95 million by the last year of the contract. He envisioned being able to build a deep core of forwards around that overpay. Clearly Covid-19 screwed his plan!

Imagine what this team looks like with $8 million more dollars of space to fix the goaltending tandem , add the top 6 forward they're missing and the defenseman they are missing?

Nylander-Matthews-Marner
Bunting-Tavares-Addition
Kerfoot-Kampf-Mikheyev
Engvall-Spezza-Blackwell
Simmonds

Reilly-Addition
Girodano-Liljegren
Muzzin-Brodie
Sandin-Lyubushkin

Campbell
Addition

That changes everything.

 

[Hurt]

The word "meaningless" needs to be retired from this forum. The Leafs turn meaningless into meaningful all the time in the pejorative sense.

The Tampa game was not meaningless, nor was this one. It all matters.

But rif, should the performance and effort not be more important while considering what actually goes into the playoff concept?

Tampa game, you're absolutely right. It was terrible and the team was terrible. This game, though? They played very well. Shame they didn't win but from an effort standpoint, it was good.

 

[IPS]

He's questionable for tomorrow.

This isn't just "maintanence"

He is? Did Keefe say this?

 

[The Podium]

The word "meaningless" needs to be retired from this forum. The Leafs turn meaningless into meaningful all the time in the pejorative sense.

The Tampa game was not meaningless, nor was this one. It all matters.

3 vs 3 OT is meaningless all season long. Maybe you can derive some conclusion from the Tampa game, which would be silly. But to be upset that the Leafs outplayed the best team in the league only to lose in a gimmick that doesn’t exist in playoffs is actually an encouraging sign.

JT isn’t detrimentally slow 5 v 5, Matthews is a rare player that performs better with less time and space; he is also a lot worse defensively 3 v 3 because he can’t take away as effectively, the goal that was ultimately scored against and their only other good chance in OT came off of a D skating from the blue line through the slot; a play that doesn’t exist in real hockey.

 

[Leafs1991]

I always viewed that they were hoping to win a cup in the first 4-5 years of this deal, and the back half would just be there. I certainly thought they would have come closer 4 years into his deal. To be honest Matthews, JT, and even Kadri 1-2-3 punch, and we never got out of the 1st round.

He still contributes, but he does look like he's in the back half of his career. Unfortunately the Leafs have nothing to show for it.

Agreed, I've been saying it all year and yet I'm told Tavares has been a good player all season and that he looks "beastly" by some posters. He looked terrible again tonight as usual.

 

[stickty111]

Would have liked the win but nice response after the Tampa game. That was really the biggest thing. Bit sad not winning but happy with the effort. Losing Bunting will hurt