Leafs playing the way they did last two games because of Auston's absence or Kallgren's presence?

[crowsnestmcgee]

They are motivated and playing better as as team. Also hard to play when you know you gotta sieve in the cage

 

[ITM]

Let time tell, but if you remove the names and insert the stats the reality is, it's likely the team stumbled into a hot debut while it was motivated to play good hockey in front of the rook.

Mrazek looks like a real puzzle.

Campbell is either mentally or physically compromised, but when on, looked like he was breathing different oxygen than 99% of the goalies in the league. We would be very foolish not to understand the difference between Mrazek and Campbell's problems.

Then there's our goalie coach. There's definitely some legs to the notion that our goalie coach is at the very least, not pulling out the best of the goalies he's been given.

And as a placeholder, can we, for our collective integrity, not expect our boards (or anyone visiting) into unrecognizable, unrealistic hypotheticals in which Matthews' absence occasions speculation that we're winning because he's not here, while excluding our record (and his Rocket performance) when he's on the roster?

It's as absurd a continuing that logic, saying: Without Matthews we play like <insert superlative>...Could it be if we trade all of our premium talent, we'll play even better? Just how good would we be without Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Tavares and Reilly?

Stop.

 

[Buds17]

The ebbs and flows of a season in which sometimes they'll beat a playoff team like Carolina or Dallas* while also losing to an also-ran in Arizona or Buffalo? I suppose they could always start Kallgren the rest of the way and sit out Matthews in the interest of being absolutely certain!

 

[zeke]

Last 10gms xGF%:

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

If anyone has short memory, we used to do the same when Sundin went down. Always frustrating.

 

[Zybalto]

Last 10gms xGF%:

View attachment 517558

Seems on par for their dominance all year.

Everyone will always overanalyze based on the last game and the Leafs being the center of the hockey world makes everything bigger.

It's like pointing out the Panthers are 2-4 combined against the Kraken/Sens/Devils getting outscored 26-16 and no one bats an eye but the Leafs lose to Vancouver or whoever due to crap goaltending and it must be other things right?

 

[ITM]

If anyone has short memory, we used to do the same when Sundin went down. Always frustrating.

And the would be 500 goal scorer went on a massive slump one season...We're a consistently fickle bunch.

 

[zeke]

Seems on par for their dominance all year.

Everyone will always overanalyze based on the last game and the Leafs being the center of the hockey world makes everything bigger.

It's like pointing out the Panthers are 2-4 combined against the Kraken/Sens/Devils getting outscored 26-16 and no one bats an eye but the Leafs lose to Vancouver or whoever due to crap goaltending and it must be other things right?

yeah even when the eye test sees such a blatant difference in he quality of goaltending, leafs fans will still always revert to insisting that any poor results are becuase the leafs are soft and weak defensively.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

And the would be 500 goal scorer went on a massive slump one season...We're a consistently fickle bunch.

The long and the short of it is (especially playoff time) is everyone needs to be going 110%. Obviously that won't happen over a full 82 but it needs to happen in the playoffs.

Don't care if Mats or Matthews don't score, so long as they bring it in all the other areas they can. Same goes for everyone.

 

[Sypher04]

yeah even when the eye test sees such a blatant difference in he quality of goaltending, leafs fans will still always revert to insisting that any poor results are becuase the leafs are soft and weak defensively.

Why do people have to make this out to be one of two extremes? The goaltending had been utter trash and Kallgren has come in and stabilized it. The defense also was allowing too much to go on in front of the net and too many odd man rushes. These things can both be and were true at the same time.

The Leafs were clearly physically engaged the past 2 games, particularly defensively, in a way we done often see from them.

I’m by no means saying their overall play was night and day different, the goaltending issues were a significant factor in our struggles, the primary even, but there was still clearly some defensive things that were plaguing us as well to an extent.

Put simply, we have protected our net better the last 2 games and we have been getting saves. These things combined have lead to us looking dramatically better and beating an excellent team with our best player out.

Carolina spent a ton of time on the perimeter

 

[zeke]

Why do people have to make this out to be one of two extremes? The goaltending had been utter trash and Kallgren has come in and stabilized it. The defense also was allowing too much to go on in front of the net and too many odd man rushes. These things can both be and were true at the same time.

The Leafs were clearly physically engaged the past 2 games, particularly defensively, in a way we done often see from them.

I’m by no means saying their overall play was night and day different, the goaltending issues were a significant factor in our struggles, the primary even, but there was still clearly some defensive things that were plaguing us as well to an extent.

Put simply, we have protected our net better the last 2 games and we have been getting saves. These things combined have lead to us looking dramatically better and beating an excellent team with our best player out.

Carolina spent a ton of time on the perimeter

ok so they spent a ton of time on the perimeter, agreed. but is that actually different than other games?

look at that game against buffalo.

goal against #1 - came on a 2 on 1 after the guy jumped right off the bench and stole the puck.

goal against #2 - off brodie's skate with no sabre anywhere near the slot

goal against #3 - shot from the corner with no sabre in front

goal against #4 - broken play odd man rush off a poor attempt by Nylander to maintain the offensive zone as they were pushing for a tying goal


are any of these goals a failure to keep the sabres on the perimeter?

 

[Sypher04]

ok so they spent a ton of time on the perimeter, agreed. but is that actually different than other games?

look at that game against buffalo.

goal against #1 - came on a 2 on 1 after the guy jumped right off the bench and stole the puck.

goal against #2 - off brodie's skate with no sabre anywhere near the slot

goal against #3 - shot from the corner with no sabre in front

goal against #4 - broken play odd man rush off a poor attempt by Nylander to maintain the offensive zone as they were pushing for a tying goal


are any of these goals a failure to keep the sabres on the perimeter?

Won’t get much argument from me on the heritage classic. I thought we played a good game that day and were left down by our goaltending in the latter half of the game especially. And a little bit of good old fashioned bad luck on the goal off Brodie

All I’m saying is our defense is using the body to punish/separate guys from pucks at a much higher rate than they were previously. I don’t know specifically when the switch was flipped there but it has been very noticeable the past 2 games.

Our season average through 59 games is only like 18 per game and the last 2 we’ve average 33 (that’s an admittedly small sample, but it’s fine, because we are talking about how we played in those 2 specifically)

I dont by any means think hits are the be all end all, and I’ve been very vocal about that on this board when people try to act like physical play is all that matters, but I certainly think it can help and certainly when we are talking increased physical engagement of the same identical group of skill players.

 

[Deebo]

Won’t get much argument from me on the heritage classic. I thought we played a good game that day and were left down by our goaltending in the latter half of the game especially

The Coyotes game was pretty bad too.

 

[zeke]

Won’t get much argument from me on the heritage classic. I thought we played a good game that day and were left down by our goaltending in the latter half of the game especially. And a little bit of good old fashioned bad luck on the goal off Brodie

All I’m saying is our defense is using the body to punish/separate guys from pucks at a much higher rate than they were previously. I don’t know specifically when the switch was flipped there but it has been very noticeable the past 2 games.

Our season average through 59 games is only like 18 per game and the last 2 we’ve average 33 (that’s an admittedly small sample, but it’s fine, because we are talking about how we played in those 2 specifically)

I dont by any means think hits are the be all end all, and I’ve been very vocal about that on this board when people try to act like physical play is all that matters, but I certainly think it can help and certainly when we are talking increased physical engagement of the same identical group of skill player.

See I think Kallgren could have easily let in goals on many of the half-screened wristers into traffic or on some of the 2 on 1s against and this narrative wouldn't even exist.

 

[Sypher04]

The Coyotes game was pretty bad too.

For sure, the goaltending has been awful. We still though have been allowing too many easy deflections, and odd man rushes.

I thought, even despite some of the rebounds Kallgren gave up, we did a much better job there, but the primary story is still the calmness and stability that has come to the net - I don’t think anyone argues that

 

[Havoc]

yeah even when the eye test sees such a blatant difference in he quality of goaltending, leafs fans will still always revert to insisting that any poor results are becuase the leafs are soft and weak defensively.

Everyone giving the grade of A+ to last two games will also reference the goalie as a major reason. No need for drama today when everyone is high on the team. We're really going to fight about differences in why we're so positive today?

 

[zeke]

Everyone giving the grade of A+ to last two games will also reference the goalie as a major reason. No need for drama today when everyone is high on the team. We're really going to fight about differences in why we're so positive today?

I mean....that's the question of this thread, no?

for the record, I think the leafs did look worse when the horrendous goals againsg kept piling up.

 

[Sypher04]

See I think Kallgren could have easily let in goals on many of the half-screened wristers into traffic or on some of the 2 on 1s against and this narrative wouldn't even exist.

Don’t know what to tell you then tbh. Kallgren played great and was a primary reason we won and looked better, but it seemed pretty apparent watching to me to that we have played a little tidier game the last couple. Agree to disagree I suppose

 

[Havoc]

I mean....that's the question of this thread, no?

for the record, I think the leafs did look worse when the horrendous goals againsg kept piling up.

Fair, I forgot what the title of the thread was while reading posts. Seemed like a general "this and this is happening and I love it" thread.

 

[kevsh]

Putting Sandin-Lil third pairing back changed the D over night

That may have been a bigger factor than Matthews out and a rookie goalie in net.
Liljegren paired with Reilly was a terrible idea on every level, though I admit it wasn't as bad as the total disaster I assumed it would be. Also Brodie is their best defender so it made (only a) little sense to move him to the left side. In any case, Sandin/Liljegren are both 3rd pairing-level for now so unless Dubas brings in a veteran D to play with Sandin, that's the ideal bottom pair for this team right now.

 

[barilko05]

I'm as ready to shit on the goaltenders in the past 2 months as anyone. BROOO-TAL! But I've also noticed an inordinate amount of own goals, deflections, bad bounces that contributed to it as well. I think that came from the D trying to get in the way of too many shots because they began to not trust the guys in the net to stop anything. For whatever reason, Kallgren seems to be seeing the puck much better than the other two. His reactions are better, too. Maybe the D are clearing out the net front better, maybe they realized the kid needs to see the shot so they're getting out of the way faster. Who knows? Whatever they're doing...keep it up. It's working.

 

[Seath The Scaleless]

Splitting up JT and Nylander has also contributed to the recent success. JT was a force in the offensive zone as that line was able to create chances off the cycle. Nylander wasn't that great but I'm not worried if he is allowed to carry his own line going forward (or maybe play with Matthews?). I just hope Keefe doesn't force the JT-Nylander pair if nothing is there.

And goaltending is obvious. No soft goals allowed and NHL caliber goaltending. I hate to break it to some people, but elite teams still give up quality chances. Your goalie can't be a complete sieve like ours have been for over 2 months.

 

[ITM]

The long and the short of it is (especially playoff time) is everyone needs to be going 110%. Obviously that won't happen over a full 82 but it needs to happen in the playoffs.

Don't care if Mats or Matthews don't score, so long as they bring it in all the other areas they can. Same goes for everyone.

Of course. But we tend (Leafs fans) to overlook an absence of results despite effort, isn't that fair? I think that's the larger point. Our perspective is easily skewed, for better or worse. And it helps nobody.

 

[Go4soda]

i think it’s kallgren’s presence.
leafs showing more pride in playing proper D in front of the kid, as well as kallgren making the saves he needs to make all game. It keeps the team ahead of the game as opposed to playing from behind all game.

 

[Mr_Fun]

A little bit of better goaltending, a little bit of better luck, and quite a bit of small sample size.