Post-Game Talk: Leafs Salvage A Point | Lose 6-5 in Shootout.

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Of course you have to let it play out but you are the only one who is guaranteeing anything. They could find themselves in 3rd place by the end of Sunday if they lose to the Kings with 9 games remaining and 3 head to head vs Flo and Tampa. BTW, Marchand is expected to make his Panthers debut tonight against Utah coming of a loss last night to Tampa. Can't leave easy points on the table. If only points were dollars.
I'm not "guaranteeing" anything. Obviously, no one can. I simply think that is how things will play out. But I get that having even the slightest optimistic opinion on this board engenders societal disdain and ridicule, as if in real life people make these kinds of damning conclusions on an instantaneous basis ("Woll sucks!", a week after posting a goofy brick wall meme when the kid has a good game).

Again, people genuflect at the mention of the Florida Panthers, and meanwhile they lost to Montreal and the Islanders a couple of weeks ago. Tampa overwhelmed Utah last night, but no one remembers that a week ago Utah beat Tampa and two weeks ago Tampa lost to the same Flyers team that the Leafs overwhelmed. I expect we will see something similar over the next few days - Florida plays Montreal twice, and will likely lose one of those games (which would send Leafs fans over the ledge), and Tampa plays the Islanders twice, and will likely lose one of those games. Neither of these two teams is going to run off 7 or 8 wins in a row.
 
Didn’t watch the game due to the start time, but woke up and got a good laugh when I saw the Leafs lost again to SJ… You’d think they would have come out hungry and dominated play after loosing to SJ not too long ago.
 
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Missed this one. Yay!
giphy.gif
 
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Well I stayed up very late to watch that sorry effort .. typical Matty going out west .. he got badly outplayed by an 18 year old Cellebrini .. so his line got outplayed .. but bottom line with Woll's crappy play and Benoit's crappy play we were doomed .. you can survive games when your 1C does not play well but not when your tender craps da bed .. good news is Willy and JT and McMann are playing their best hockey now which is carrying da team .. Woll needs to amp his game up .. we can't have that level of tending sorry .. if that is what we get another 1st round loss incoming
 
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Teams the Sharks have beaten since January 5th (they started off the year with 2 solid wins so I'm cherry-picking a bit):

Detroit
Pittsburgh
Buffalo
Chicago
Boston (post-TDL)
Toronto x 2

That's it. SJ has 7 wins in 29 games over that stretch.

So pretty shameful to lose not once but twice to a team that literally can't beat anyone with anything close to a winning record (loser points put aside).
 
Didn’t watch the game due to the start time, but woke up and got a good laugh when I saw the Leafs lost again to SJ… You’d think they would have come out hungry and dominated play after loosing to SJ not too long ago.
They were an ENG against and a minute away from losing 5-3. It could have been worse.
 
I thankfully didn't stay up for the game but predictably a Woll cry fest in here. Highlights Woll was not good esp that own goal wtf was that but... uh... the defense? Several goals Woll had to choose between a short side shot or a guy left along in the slot and both were goals.

Not to mention how many shots they gave up to the Sharks. Trying to blame it all on Woll is laughable
I think some people have just gotten too used to blaming the goalies, it's become a habit.
 
Teams the Sharks have beaten since January 5th (they started off the year with 2 solid wins so I'm cherry-picking a bit):

Detroit
Pittsburgh
Buffalo
Chicago
Boston (post-TDL)
Toronto x 2

That's it. SJ has 7 wins in 29 games over that stretch.

So pretty shameful to lose not once but twice to a team that literally can't beat anyone with anything close to a winning record (loser points put aside).
Add that SJ subtracted and Leafs added at the TDL and it tells you just how much this team likes easy games.
 
I thankfully didn't stay up for the game but predictably a Woll cry fest in here. Highlights Woll was not good esp that own goal wtf was that but... uh... the defense? Several goals Woll had to choose between a short side shot or a guy left along in the slot and both were goals.

Not to mention how many shots they gave up to the Sharks. Trying to blame it all on Woll is laughable

Woll wasn't great but you're right. The D wasn't very helpful many times. I thought Benoit was especially bad.
 
I still don't think that will be the case. We'll see how things play out, but I don't think you are factoring in that both Florida and Tampa are going to lose games down the stretch, as well.
Of course they will. You keep forgetting to factor in that the Leafs are prone to shooting themselves in the foot.

The schedule was easy until they collected one out of 4 points against Nas and SJ.

I will say the Leafs go 6-4 or 6-3-1 the rest of the way.

TB has the easiest schedule left. Fla and Tor are about even in strength but Fla has some back to backs and are dealing with injuries.

The two remaining against them will be critical. The TB game will mean nothing if the Leafs can't beat Fla.

Marchand coming back will be an emotional boost as he will bring a tonne of energy if nothing else.
 
Of course they will. You keep forgetting to factor in that the Leafs are prone to shooting themselves in the foot.

The schedule was easy until they collected one out of 4 points against Nas and SJ.

I will say the Leafs go 6-4 or 6-3-1 the rest of the way.

TB has the easiest schedule left. Fla and Tor are about even in strength but Fla has some back to backs and are dealing with injuries.

The two remaining against them will be critical. The TB game will mean nothing if the Leafs can't beat Fla.

Marchand coming back will be an emotional boost as he will bring a tonne of energy if nothing else.
I think you just answered your own question in some ways. Even if the Leafs go only 6-3-1 down the stretch (and I suspect they will end up doing better than that), they will likely win the division.
 
I think the injury excuse no longer fly’s. He has been like this the entire season.
If he was in fact injured it must never be going to heal. He is just a loser that cares more about the money and American……..send him packing
He’s been injured the whole year it’s not an excuse the guy flew to Germany in season while we were playing games what more do you need to see?lol that’s gotta be a joke
 
Before the game, I watched a highlight real of goalie gaffs just for fun. So watching the SJ game, I see the puck come to Woll to stick handle, and the puck is in LINE with the net. I'm like "hm, this looks familiar and I don't like it; Woll better be caref–". Sure enough, it's a misplay.

I don't like goalies playing with the stick when the puck is on net; just f-in paddle it aside.

Woll clearly struggled, but the team was wretched.

Wretched example of the short handed goal:
  • Willie tries to pass through THREE sticks, that anyone could see wasn't going happen. Look at the replay. It's 3 sticks in the way
  • Mathews takes a full minute to register that yes, indeed, you need to start getting your legs going to defend. He watches Braf take the puck and only starts skating when he realizes indeed that Braf has the ability to skate up the ice. He couldnt put it together before he actually saw it happin
  • Then, Mathews stops his skating like 3-4 for times to take random swipes at Braf for the puck which have <5% of working. There are 2 men back; all he needs to do is skate hard and wait till Braf gets slowed down a bit and he'll be on him; but no, he's not skating continuosly, and Braf has time to deak, go right, load his shot, and score.
If Mathews had immediately recognized the danger while they were still in the SJ defensive zone, and taken 2-3 strides to close down, that puck STAYS in SJ's zone. SJ doesn't score; Leafs probably score on the PP, and they probably with the game. No need for last minute heroics.

THIS is the problem I have with this team. They don't play optimally; they don't do the little, constant efforts needed to win games. They don't realize small, smart, but necessary plays add up to big consequences.

Sure, they'll look like theyre trying with tons of stick checking and racking up points. But it's alot of noise cause by their own inattention and lack of effort where it matters.
 
I'm not "guaranteeing" anything. Obviously, no one can. I simply think that is how things will play out. But I get that having even the slightest optimistic opinion on this board engenders societal disdain and ridicule, as if in real life people make these kinds of damning conclusions on an instantaneous basis ("Woll sucks!", a week after posting a goofy brick wall meme when the kid has a good game).

Again, people genuflect at the mention of the Florida Panthers, and meanwhile they lost to Montreal and the Islanders a couple of weeks ago. Tampa overwhelmed Utah last night, but no one remembers that a week ago Utah beat Tampa and two weeks ago Tampa lost to the same Flyers team that the Leafs overwhelmed. I expect we will see something similar over the next few days - Florida plays Montreal twice, and will likely lose one of those games (which would send Leafs fans over the ledge), and Tampa plays the Islanders twice, and will likely lose one of those games. Neither of these two teams is going to run off 7 or 8 wins in a row.

All three teams have looked average at different stretches of the year and you're right that they have all lost to bad teams.

As a Leafs fan, the issue for me is that Tampa and Florida have already won it all and have had several deep runs in the playoffs. The Leafs have won a grand total of one series. For many of us, the complaint has been their lack of killer instinct the past several years. They should have been playing lights out since January to secure the division.
 
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I just watched 1st period who was bad one

the bad thing...
a lot of leafs didn't really show up and had a clear lack of intensity.

Goal in SH, just awful... Matthews losing his battle and i don't know what Nylander tried to do but at the end he just created a kind of interference and pushed his coverage on his own teammate ( Marner)

the good thong, 3rd line was looking great and by far leafs best line after 1 period, not even close. Laughton/Domi was great in that game together
 
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I think you just answered your own question in some ways. Even if the Leafs go only 6-3-1 down the stretch (and I suspect they will end up doing better than that), they will likely win the division.
If TB gets 4 points over the next 3 games I think they win the division.

Islanders and Habs are fighting for that last spot and will come ready to go.
 
You know eho looks tired? OEL, man his game has fallen off of late, he’ll be soap come the playoffs…….
I think his fallen off has come at the price of trying to get Beniot to be a better player and get him ready for the playoffs.

The sample size is big enough with OEL playing his off side, that he's a not good on it. But with Beniot in the lineup instead of Myers, he's forced to be on his offside and his play suffers because of it.
 
Hate is a very strong word to use, so, I will simply say that I really dislike this current roster of Leafs. And, I don't think Berube is getting anything more out of this roster of overpaid and lazy players than did rookie head coach Sheldon Keefe.

I'm also fed up with the our Leafs team management and especially MLSE as the owner. MLSE's greed is just as prevalent as our core players, as they continually raise ticket prices despite their team not winning shit !!!

Shanahan is a fraud that has only made our Leafs more competitive while keeping them as pretenders to win a Stanley Cup championship. Hiring Dubas was an example of his incompetence to build a championship team. The hiring of Treliving was also just a 'yes' man hire.

Treliving has made some nice acquisitions, but this season's trade deadline was a flop considering what should have been done to improve this roster. A top pairing D and a 2nd line centre are what was truly needed to take our Leafs to real contender status.

If I had any authority within MLSE, I'd have John Tortorella behind the bench on Saturday night. His only mission would be to harass and prod our American core player to play harder every f***ing shift. Berube could really use some help with motivating our lazy core player !!!

With Tortorella on board as an assitant/associate coach, he could run practices making them as grueling as possible. Berube could observe from the stands to critique the work ethic of the players post prcatices.

If I had any say, that Woll own goal clearing attempt would have him BENCHED indefinately. Woll's performance during this game was atrocious IMHO.

This Leafs team is NOT a serious championship team when they lose to bottom feeding teams all too often. And yes, I recognize that ALL NHL teams play harder against our Leafs. And despite knowing this, our Leaf players continue to take too many games off !!!

JMHO.
 
If TB gets 4 points over the next 3 games I think they win the division.

Islanders and Habs are fighting for that last spot and will come ready to go.
The problem with Tampa is that they have some road games left. That is not their specialty.
 
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Willie tries to pass through THREE sticks, that anyone could see wasn't going happen. Look at the replay. It's 3 sticks in the way

I was watching that thinking the same thing.

I get the strategy behind moving the puck east-west gets the goalie moving which makes it easier to score, but when Willie is ~20 feet from the net and instead of shooting (he's got a pretty good shot as we all know) he elects for a 50 foot pass to a teammate that's ~18 feet from the net?

That's the type of play this team does over and over. They're still stuck way too deep into the east-west (and overly "cute") playstyle which leads to lots of missed scoring chances and costly turnovers.

I would have thought this late into their careers they'd have matured enough to get past it but nope, perhaps due to a combination of knowing that they run they show and their own lack of focus/discipline it's still there, and why they still just are not a serious team.
 
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I think his fallen off has come at the price of trying to get Beniot to be a better player and get him ready for the playoffs.

The sample size is big enough with OEL playing his off side, that he's a not good on it. But with Beniot in the lineup instead of Myers, he's forced to be on his offside and his play suffers because of it.
Thank you!

I’ve been asking since the TDL if Benoit was that much better than Myers that we have to force a LHD who is better than both of them to play on his offside, which he clearly doesn’t play as well.

I don’t think Benoit is that much better than Myers (not a Benoit hater), and I don’t understand why Myers has not gotten into a single game since the TDL.

We know what we have in Benoit. I think there is undeveloped potential still in Myers.

They chose Myers over Timmins, so why are they not giving him an opportunity, while reducing OEL’s effectiveness?
 
Thank you!

I’ve been asking since the TDL if Benoit was that much better than Myers that we have to force a LHD who is better than both of them to play on his offside, which he clearly doesn’t play as well.

I don’t think Benoit is that much better than Myers (not a Benoit hater), and I don’t understand why Myers has not gotten into a single game since the TDL.

We know what we have in Benoit. I think there is undeveloped potential still in Myers.

They chose Myers over Timmins, so why are they not giving him an opportunity, while reducing OEL’s effectiveness?
They should definitely try OEL/Myers on the 3rd pair before the playoffs to see if they have anything. Although I am confident Benoit will raise his game in the playoffs.
 

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