Post-Game Talk: Leafs win 2-1 against the Islanders

[Torontonian]

Strong 1st period followed by a not so good 2nd period and 3rd period. Probably deserved to lose, but Woll stood tall for us. Toronto was very careless with the puck and allowed too many high danger chances.

Feels like Toronto is losing its focus/going into a lull, which seems about right for midway through the season, especially against the weaker teams. They normally get up and play pretty well against the top teams in the league.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

It is more than one game.

Vs 500 teams in Dec

L Washington 5-2
L Winnipeg 5-2
W Dallas 5-3 (thoroughly outplayed)
L Dubas 5-2
L Washington 3-1

Vs 500+ teams in Nov

W Tampa 5-3
L Florida 5-1
W Utah 3-1
W Vegas 3-0
W Washington 4-3 OT (thoroughly outplayed)
W McDavid 4-3 OT
L Ottawa 3-0
W Montreal 4-1 (how did the Habs get to 500 LOL)
W Boston 3-0
L Minnesota 2-1 OT
L St. Louis 4-2

That 5-1 loss to Florida was with 7 Guys out of the lineup.

That's probably true for a few of those losses.

 

[francis246]

Never, never, never put Murray in the Leaf net again...
Let Woll play 6 in a row, then Hildey, then 6 more.
Let him become the man.
His impact reminds me of Dryden. Big, calm, agile, confident great positioning and mates who want to play for him.( with a few exceptions)

Woll cannot play 6 in a row. Unless you want to punt this entire season.

 

[ToneDog]

50 Cents Bobby DaMann is one goal ahead of 34 and one goal behind 16.

Second to Willie for Even Strength goals. 12 goals and counting for $1.5m.

 

[Al14]

In mathematics, 74 > 34 and you can't argue it tonight on the Island.

When you have a 74, there is NO NEED to keep the invisible 34.

Will 34 ever play 2 games in a row ever again?

Trade 34 for a bag of brand spanking new pucks.

Disband Hockey Canada NOW. That organization is a total EMBARRASSMENT to Canada, and the sport of hockey !!!

 

[MSZ]

When you have a 74, there is NO NEED to keep the invisible 34.

Will 34 ever play 2 games in a row ever again?

Trade 34 for a bag of brand spanking new pucks.

Disband Hockey Canada NOW. That organization is a total EMBARRASSMENT to Canada, and the sport of hockey !!!

34 just doesn't look like himself. Even if he plays 2, 3 in a row it's unlikely to see him contributing anything offensively.

 

[Skullz]

you clearly don't watch the games because saying we haven't looked good in 2 months jus simply isn't true, they are 1st in the Atlantic and 6th in the entire league that doesn't happen if you have been horrible for 2 months.

Last night? Yeah you could say that about certain guys, I did, I said I felt like Tavares, Marner and Nylander were awful last night.

But that's ONE night that's not 2 months, if they had been awful for 2 months they wouldn't be 1st in the Atlantic and 3 points out of 1st in the east.

Actually I have watched at least 90% of our games. We had a great November wherein which we dominated play, shut down the front of the net, and looked great. Since then, we have survived largely on better goaltending. Which is great, I love having good goalies, but it isn’t sustainable. We’re getting out chanced most nights now, often by poor teams. Yesterday, Islanders were better. I’m glad we won, but play that game ten times, I’m guessing we win it maybe 3 times.

I’d like to see us controlling play more. We have also started giving up more chances than we were earlier in the year. Lots of prime net front stuff that wasn’t happening.

 

[Niagara Bill]

Woll cannot play 6 in a row. Unless you want to punt this entire season.

If we use Murray we are punting. Since when does a young man not want to play every game. We may have a stud goalie, we may have an injury prone wimp. Let him become a man, let's find out what we have.
Playing it safe is for second place. All in now.

 

[wingman75]

Finding ways to win shit games. This is good. We are not looking for anything other than wins... and health lol.

Good to see Woll looks healthy after what looked like a tweak in the last game. Maybe he is learning to play through minor things.

50 Cents Bobby DaMann is one goal ahead of 34 and one goal behind 16.

View attachment 955440

Second to Willie for Even Strength goals. 12 goals and counting for $1.5m.

The most concerning thing in this list for me is that McMann has more goals than Knies in less games. It's kind of a good & bad thing?

Anyway, great to see last season was not a fluke for him.

 

[TopCheeseShotta]

The most concerning thing in this list for me is that McMann has more goals than Knies in less games.

Why stop at Knies?? Hahaaaa.. As Tone said above, McMann has more 5v5 goals than anyone not named Willy Stylez!!

That said, youre still bang on about Knies being hella pedestrian this year. Glad Berube recently gave him a talking to - as he's looked more "up" in the last few now.

 

[MSZ]

Why stop at Knies?? Hahaaaa.. As Tone said above, McMann has more 5v5 goals than anyone not named Willy Stylez!!

That said, youre still bang on about Knies being hella pedestrian this year. Glad Berube recently gave him a talking to - as he's looked more "up" in the last few now.

The concussion has slowed him down considerably. He has yet to find his rhythm back.

 

[Leafs98]

Just so want this team to be healthy. It'll just take one dominant game with a full line up and all this win by fluke stuff gets meaning.

 

[Dekes For Days]

We're 2nd because we play good, structured team defense.

We're 2nd in the conference because the conference is weak this year. Our record would place us 5th last year, 5th in 2022-2023, 6th in 2021-2022, etc. And actually, even the record itself is quite lucky relative to our goal differential (on pace for just +27, the worst of the last 5 years, and 3rd worst of the Matthews era) and our underlying play (worst since 2016-2017). As for our supposed great defense... We're currently tied for the 17th best defensive team.

There are nights when the goalies save us like every other team. But most nights, the goalies just have to focus on the initial save. We'll clean up the rest.

We're in the bottom half of the league at preventing both rebound shots and goals.

Oh and we'll block a shit ton of them before they even get on net.

We are blocking more shots, but we don't actually come out ahead because we're allowing more shot attempts that need blocking. Even with all the blocks, we've still allowed the 9th most unblocked shot attempts, and 7th most shots.

 

[wingman75]

Why stop at Knies?? Hahaaaa.. As Tone said above, McMann has more 5v5 goals than anyone not named Willy Stylez!!

That said, youre still bang on about Knies being hella pedestrian this year. Glad Berube recently gave him a talking to - as he's looked more "up" in the last few now.

Right, good point.

Not ragginig on Knies. Just an observation really. He's still young, unlike most everyone else on the roster, so not sweating it. He will figure it out, but with Matthews a passenger this season (it seesms), we're going to need a bit more from him.

 

[Cap'n Flavour]

I'll take one McMann over ten Robertson's any day.

What exactly would we do with ten Robertsons? Stack the Marlies?

 

[Budz]

What exactly would we do with ten Robertsons? Stack the Marlies?

10 Robertson’s would be one excellent Zamboni for ice cleaning. Never saw a guy off his skates more then Nicky.

 

[barilko05]

If we use Murray we are punting. Since when does a young man not want to play every game. We may have a stud goalie, we may have an injury prone wimp. Let him become a man, let's find out what we have.
Playing it safe is for second place. All in now.

WOW! This may literally be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. While our other 1A goalie is out, play the healthy one until he drops. And if that happens BEFORE the other guy is ready to return, then what? This fanbase sometimes...SMH!

 

[ULF_55]

Thought Marner, Nylander and Tavares were awful tonight, which is almost certainly the first time that could be all year but tonight I thought they were.

But Bobby Mcmann and the PK came through.

Maybe they're suffering the "illness" in the room?

 

[Roo]

Glad we won, take the 2 points. Not much to say about this one. Would like to see us have success against more quality teams.

 

[Niagara Bill]

WOW! This may literally be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. While our other 1A goalie is out, play the healthy one until he drops. And if that happens BEFORE the other guy is ready to return, then what? This fanbase sometimes...SMH!

No, the dumbest thing ever stated on this site is to not ride your stud when it is time.
When the playoffs come, should your #1 goalie not play every game. Should the new Dryden sit on the bench.
When AM is out should Mitchy and Willie not play more minutes.
We went into the pre season thinking he was number 1, now let him take the reigns, let him be The Man.
It looks like your mommy left your training wheels on way to long.

 

[francis246]

Just so want this team to be healthy. It'll just take one dominant game with a full line up and all this win by fluke stuff gets meaning.

Fluke win? What are you talking about. This is how they need to play to win in the playoffs. We don’t need an explosive offense. People need to accept this is how Berube wants the leafs to play. Low event hockey because he knows it’s their best chance to win. We don’t need to losen up defensively to push for a bunch of goals. Our team is good enough to score timely goals and we can keep our defensive structure. These wins aren’t a fluke, they are by design.

Where the extra goals need to come from is the Power Play. If our power play was effective that’s easily a 4-1 win last night.

 

[All Mod Cons]

Fluke win? What are you talking about. This is how they need to play to win in the playoffs. We don’t need an explosive offense. People need to accept this is how Berube wants the leafs to play. Low event hockey because he knows it’s their best chance to win. We don’t need to losen up defensively to push for a bunch of goals. Our team is good enough to score timely goals and we can keep our defensive structure. These wins aren’t a fluke, they are by design.

Where the extra goals need to come from is the Power Play. If our power play was effective that’s easily a 4-1 win last night.

So much this.

Play exactly the way we are, but ask incredibly nicely if the 11mil+ players wouldn't mind actually executing on the PP, and we have a serious chance this year.

 

[Dekes For Days]

This is how they need to play to win in the playoffs. We don’t need an explosive offense. People need to accept this is how Berube wants the leafs to play. Low event hockey because he knows it’s their best chance to win.

We don't need to play badly or low event to win in the playoffs. We haven't even really been playing low event hockey. We allowed a ton of shots and chances last night, and have been a below average defensive team overall this year.

 

[TopCheeseShotta]

We don't need to play badly or low event to win in the playoffs. We haven't even really been playing low event hockey. We allowed a ton of shots and chances last night, and have been a below average defensive team overall this year.

Yup. After a strong coach bump on the D side of the puck to start the year, the defensive regression has been noticeable, unfortunately.

 

[Martin Skoula]

Fluke win? What are you talking about. This is how they need to play to win in the playoffs. We don’t need an explosive offense. People need to accept this is how Berube wants the leafs to play. Low event hockey because he knows it’s their best chance to win. We don’t need to losen up defensively to push for a bunch of goals. Our team is good enough to score timely goals and we can keep our defensive structure. These wins aren’t a fluke, they are by design.

Where the extra goals need to come from is the Power Play. If our power play was effective that’s easily a 4-1 win last night.

Your goalie isn’t supposed to bail you out with half a dozen highlight reel saves in low event hockey.