Pre-Game Talk: Leafs vs Lightning. Game 5

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He's talked shit after every game and it's 2-2.

If I am betting the house, I am taking Cooper and the Lightning at this point. Kutcherov has barely shown up and Point is starting to make a bigger impact. With JT and Willie barely making a dent, no way we have the horses to beat that team IMO. Our 4th line did zero while theirs scored 3 goals last night.

Oh yeah, if Vasi decides to go into "God mode", get out the golf clubs.
 
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Best of 3 with home ice.

Two top 10 point producers.

Let's see what those top players are made of.

The next 2/3 games will define a lot of how we remember this core years from now. Could be a disaster, but also, could be an opportunity to do something legendary.

There is absolutely no one out there that thinks Toronto can win. The heroics would be early 2000's-esque vs Ottawa, core memory type stuff.
 
Blows my mind, no one has pointed out, that our entire gameplan, has been aborted.

They have a big defence, and in game one and two and the first period of game three, we swarmed that D.

It was incredible to see, then suddenly, out of nowthere, suddenly, our new strategy was to dump the puck in and withdraw, retreat and see what might develop.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. But that is what is happening and what happened.

We went from dominating them, to not even playing.

If we come out with this strategy in period one of game five, that is it, the television goes off.

And no one, can justify, wtf, this winning strategy suddenly was abandoned.

Smells really fishy to me. Smells like WWE....type fish.

Someone got a call, and we were told to withdraw, we were embarassing the defending Stanley Cup Champions, but suddenly, Keefe, decides to withdraw a winning engagement.

Me being a trader, I don't buy that it was Keefe. Guy is smart, and Matthews expression, demeanor and body language speaks volumes to me. He smells a whole factory of fish.

I have never seen anything like this, in all my years of watching hockey.

Once the Lightning D gets a chance to roll, their team comes in as a big wave.

But we never let that wave develop initially. We also did this in the regular season regularly.

Suddenly we are playing unrecognizable hockey.

And the players have gone from enthusiastic to "get me the f*** out of here".

Keefe is a tinkerer who just keep tinkering and doesn’t seem to be solving for any actual in game situations.
 
If I am betting the house, I am taking Cooper and the Lightning at this point. Kutcherov has barely shown up and Point is starting to make a bigger impact. With JT and Willie barely making a dent, no way we have the horses to beat that team IMO. Our 4th line did zero while theirs scored 3 goals last night.

Oh yeah, if Vasi decides to go into "God mode", get out the golf clubs.
That's fine, I'm thinking we win tomorrow and then probably lose Game 6. Game 7 I don't want to think about right now.
 
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Leafs can still win this series. They need to have short term memory and put game 4 behind them. They need to come out hard to begin game 5. I’ve been thinking and not sure what line up changed they need to do for forwards. Do you bring Simmonds back into the line up?
 
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That's fine, I'm thinking we win tomorrow and then probably lose Game 6. Game 7 I don't want to think about right now.

Imagine the fans at SBA if they are down 3-0 in the first 10 minutes tomorrow night. I'm betting/hoping both teams come out hard and this is the best game of the series.
 
What is he supposed to say? Even if by some chance he agreed he would never say it in public

The big question is why did he do it? Rewarding the unit that successfully survived the Lightning siege and scored EN twice doesn’t make sense to start the first shift.
 
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If I am betting the house, I am taking Cooper and the Lightning at this point. Kutcherov has barely shown up and Point is starting to make a bigger impact. With JT and Willie barely making a dent, no way we have the horses to beat that team IMO. Our 4th line did zero while theirs scored 3 goals last night.

Oh yeah, if Vasi decides to go into "God mode", get out the golf clubs.

Yes, if you had to bet, you take the winner.
A team that has back to back Cups versus a team that has never won a single deciding game.

Comes down to 4 players:
Kucherov and Vasilevskiy
versus
Matthews and Campbell

And of course:
Morgan Riley versus ConnSythe Hedman
 
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Imagine the fans at SBA if they are down 3-0 in the first 10 minutes tomorrow night. I'm betting/hoping both teams come out hard and this is the best game of the series.
Imagine the fans at SBA if they are UP 3-0 in the first 10 minutes tomorrow night.

I think we need to go into it somewhat optimistically. I get that last night was incredibly demoralizing but we're still just as much in the series as they are and have a path to win the series with home ice. It isn't over.
 
Blows my mind, no one has pointed out, that our entire gameplan, has been aborted.

They have a big defence, and in game one and two and the first period of game three, we swarmed that D.

It was incredible to see, then suddenly, out of nowthere, suddenly, our new strategy was to dump the puck in and withdraw, retreat and see what might develop.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. But that is what is happening and what happened.

We went from dominating them, to not even playing.

If we come out with this strategy in period one of game five, that is it, the television goes off.

And no one, can justify, wtf, this winning strategy suddenly was abandoned.

Smells really fishy to me. Smells like WWE....type fish.

Someone got a call, and we were told to withdraw, we were embarassing the defending Stanley Cup Champions, but suddenly, Keefe, decides to withdraw a winning engagement.

Me being a trader, I don't buy that it was Keefe. Guy is smart, and Matthews expression, demeanor and body language speaks volumes to me. He smells a whole factory of fish.

I have never seen anything like this, in all my years of watching hockey.

Once the Lightning D gets a chance to roll, their team comes in as a big wave.

But we never let that wave develop initially. We also did this in the regular season regularly.

Suddenly we are playing unrecognizable hockey.

And the players have gone from enthusiastic to "get me the f*** out of here".

It is a best of 7. Things change as you get deeper into it. Each hit is an investment (see Willie not going into the corner). Do you have the will to win ??? That is why the Leafs are regular season warriors and playoff p***ycats.

The core told management they will show up when it counts. Well boys, it counts starting tomorrow night.
 
Can't see the Leafs winning the series. Just cannot picture them actually surviving a deciding game. So it's Tampa in 6 or 7. I honestly don't know what is better for the team moving forward. Do we avoid the game 7? Or just live through it?
My first thought the moment Spezza tucked in that late goal at Wash to secure 2nd was that they’d be tight and would get blown out at home in round one game 7.
 
Imagine the fans at SBA if they are UP 3-0 in the first 10 minutes tomorrow night.

I think we need to go into it somewhat optimistically. I get that last night was incredibly demoralizing but we're still just as much in the series as they are and have a path to win the series with home ice. It isn't over.

Exactly, the team has to be fearful of laying another egg in front of our crowd and hence why I lean to them showing up and playing a good game.
 
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The next 2/3 games will define a lot of how we remember this core years from now. Could be a disaster, but also, could be an opportunity to do something legendary.

There is absolutely no one out there that thinks Toronto can win. The heroics would be early 2000's-esque vs Ottawa, core memory type stuff.

Yeah I think we have the Alfredsson Senators with this mix. The series dynamics are a carbon copy of most series they’ve ever played and the issues are a composite of everything we’ve seen before.

The fact that they could have put their best foot forward in Game 4, gone way up in the series but had the psychological comfort to produce a Game 2 tells me they don’t have killer instinct and likely won’t be able to when the chips are really down late in the series.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d be pretty happy if they proved me wrong and simply closed it out over the next 2 or 3. But reading the momentum and atmosphere of the series, I don’t think so.
 
My first thought the moment Spezza tucked in that late goal at Wash to secure 2nd was that they’d be tight and would get blown out at home in round one game 7.

Psychologically they seem to have 3 modes. Godlike championship contender mode. Complete casual no show mode. And mentally tight, can’t push through mode.
 
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What is he supposed to say? Even if by some chance he agreed he would never say it in public
Unprofessional of Simmons. He just wanted inject himself into the show. Had Keefe thought about it he could have said if you want rank people then we will wait after all the journalist are finished and we talk to you.
 
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This seems to be the way we end every series.

Stars underperform (Marner has been good).
Keefe panics.
Loads up the top line.
They continue to not perform as the opposition focuses on one line.
Rest of the time goes into hiding.
We're eliminated.
Keefe doesn't load up the top line until 5 minutes left in the 3rd period of game 7 when it's already too late.
 
Not that they care, but this is a big series for me personally. My loves been wavering with each first round exit, and in all honesty if we lose again and make it 6 that'll be the straw that broke the camels back.

I'll be investing my free time and money elsewhere, you can only handle so much failure, I've been a leaf fan for a long time and i won't hate them, I'll just be very indifferent and not be spending as much time following them.

Anyways, lets hope for a good game Tuesday, and just finish it Thursday, don't go game 7.

Holl needs to be replaced, Nylander and Tavares need to show up, Matthews needs to get angry and everyone needs to add a bit of sandpaper to their game and for the love of god...START ON FU*KING TIME.
 
Not that they care, but this is a big series for me personally. My loves been wavering with each first round exit, and in all honesty if we lose again and make it 6 that'll be the straw that broke the camels back.

I'll be investing my free time and money elsewhere, you can only handle so much failure, I've been a leaf fan for a long time and i won't hate them, I'll just be very indifferent and not be spending as much time following them.

Anyways, lets hope for a good game Tuesday, and just finish it Thursday, don't go game 7.

Holl needs to be replaced, Nylander and Tavares need to show up, Matthews needs to get angry and everyone needs to add a bit of sandpaper to their game and for the love of god...START ON FU*KING TIME.

Seriously how long does one have to wait until they figure out that it is not happening. Time to flip Marner and Nylander.
 
Get Sandin and Liljgren in there.
Who cares

Rielly - Muzzin
Sandin - Brodie
Giordano - Liljgren

No idea where to put Muzzin in this scenario...but want that bottom4.

Put Clifford back in - why not.
Release the 3rd line onto the lacking lines (whhhaa there too good together whaaaa)

Mikhayev - Matthews - Marner
Engvall - Tavares - Nylander
Bunting - Kampf - Kase
Kerfoot - Blackwell - Clifford
 
We always seem to bounce back pretty well after a bad game. No reason to think we can't bounce back at all.

Matthews and Marner have been crap though yet again. They need to play so much better 5 on 5 for the Leafs to really have a shot.
 
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Just once I'd like to see him maybe try the the following:

Bunting - Matthews - Nylander
Engvall - Tavares - Marner
Kerfoot - Kampf - Mikhyev
Blackwell - Spezza - Clifford/Abrusszze

Kase has been straight up bad - I think he's playing concussed and needs to be sat.

D pairs:

Rielly - Brodie
Gio - Liljegren
Muzzin - Holl (Limited icetime for Holl)
 
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